These scripture have three main topics that I could take a post writing about for each. One for our rising up and doing God's work, the next about the resurrection and the dead rising up, and the last is about the miracles of Christ in healing the sick and raising the dead.
What I found interesting reading these topics is what I had always hoped I would notice when I started this scripture reading project. As I was reading through the scripture list, I was reading about the resurrection and contemplating it's significance, when I continued down the list and read about the man with palsy. I stopped in my tracks as I realized something I hadn't before. Here is a scripture about the resurrection from Isaiah 26:19:
19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
And here is the scripture about the man with palsy in Matthew 9:6:
6 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.
What if the stories of Christ healing the sick is not just stories portraying his power and compassion, what if they were meant as types of Christ bringing about our resurrection? That we were dead, but then Christ will call us to life?
When I was very sick a couple of years ago and couldn't leave my bed very often, I use to look at the picture of "Jesus Raising Jairus's Daughter" by Greg K. Olsen. I'm a little fuzzy about the copyright laws, so just go to the link to see it. I remember looking at it and seeing the trust and the knowledge in the girl's eyes, that she had heard Christ call her back and that she knew who he was. And then the look in Christ's eyes, that he knew her and loved her - and that he had the power to call her back from the dead. Look at these two scriptures first from Ephesians 5:14, and then from Mark 5:41:
14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
41 And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.
I use to look at that picture and imagine Christ raising me up off my bed like her, knowing that it probably would not happen in that way, but also knowing that the truth's reflected in the eyes of the painting where truths that did apply to my life.
Is this how it is going to be at the resurrection? Will I be there, looking steadfastly towards Christ to call me? I don't know the details of how exactly the resurrection is going to happen, but from these stories of healing I can begin to understand what I might be feeling when it does happen.
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