Raising the Dead Raises Eyebrows
This Sunday, we kicked off our new series that will lead us through Easter called “Because I Live”. It’s a series that is exploring the resurrection of Jesus and what it means for us. As it turns out, it means everything for us. As Jesus himself puts it,
“Because I live, you also will live.”
See what I mean? It means everything.
This week, we’re also wrapping up the book of Acts in our 2025 bible reading plan (I hope you are reading along with us!). Over the last year or so, the importance of the resurrection in the book of Acts has come to fascinate me. Throughout Acts, it’s the resurrection that really matters. As I said on Sunday, failed – and killed – so-called messiahs were all too familiar for the first century Jewish world. They came and went. They were a dime a dozen.
It was the resurrected one that stood out.
Take the readings in Acts from yesterday and today. In yesterday’s reading (Acts 25), Paul is imprisoned and the king wanted to hear about who this Paul was who was in prison, and what he was in for. Festus, the governor, gave the king the rundown of the charges, but what it came down to was that Paul had a disagreement with the Jerusalem authorities,
“about a certain Jesus, who had died but whom Paul asserted to be alive.” (Acts 25:19)
The death part was undeniable; it as the ‘alive’ part that had everyone up in arms. And that’s all Festus could actually understand. He even goes on to say that he “was at a loss how to investigate these questions” (Acts 25:20).
And that’s just it.
Some dead guy, who was alive again?
To an unbelieving mind, the raising of a dead man to life is, well, unbelievable. Un-understandable. It puts him ‘at a loss’.
But it is THE cornerstone of our faith.
In today’s reading in Acts 26, we see more of the same. Paul defends his views by basically saying that he’s just reiterating what the Hebrew scriptures already said,
“that the Messiah must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the gentiles.” (Acts 26:23)
Again, the suffering messiah was old hat. It was the “being the first to rise from the dead” that gave an eyebrow raise, and that once risen from the dead, this same ex-dead person was going to bring light to the entire world.
That’ll raise an eyebrow.
It’s a wild idea. Inconceivable. Insane. That’s what Festus thinks when he interrupts Paul to exclaim,
“You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you insane!” (Acts 26:24)
Raising the dead raises eyebrows. It is insane. It’s foolish nonsense. It’s unbelievable and unreal.
Unless it’s real.
Because if it’s true that Jesus was raised from the dead, and “because I live, you also will live”, then it means that death no longer has power over us. It means that death is no longer the threat that governors and kings and empires and prisons and violence hold over us, and that the old governors and kings and powers and ways have nothing to hold over us.
It means that the world is now governed and ruled by a new power, in a new way, by a new king.
And that’s exactly what the resurrected Jesus does and who the resurrected Jesus is.
It’s why the resurrection means everything.
We invite you to come this Sunday to hear more about what the resurrection means for us – and then see new creation (resurrection) life in action as we celebrate some baptisms!