A Better Resurrection

A Better Resurrection

Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. –Hebrews 11:35 (NIV)

At a recent Just Give Me Jesus revival in Seattle, a woman was found on the floor of a bathroom, an apparent victim of a heart attack. She was not breathing. When the paramedic arrived, he was hesitant to begin working to revive the woman because he was confident she was past the point of resuscitation. But my friend Leigh O’Dell said, “You can’t do nothing; you’ve got to try!” To the utter amazement of the medic, the resuscitation worked. In fact, before he left, he told Leigh that in his twenty years as a paramedic, he had never seen someone so far gone come back to life.

What could be better than having someone you love who has died raised back to life again? Hebrews 11 tells us in the middle of a long list of people who had amazing faith experiences: “They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. Women received their loved ones back again from death” (verses 33-35). But then the list changes dramatically, and when I read it, the awful reality takes my breath away. “But others trusted God and were tortured, preferring to die rather than turn from God and be free. They placed their hope in the resurrection to a better life. Some were mocked, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in dungeons. Some died by stoning, and some were sawed in half; others were killed with the sword. Some went about in skins of sheep and goats, hungry and oppressed and mistreated” (11:35-37).

What could be better than being raised back to life again or escaping being tortured for your faith? I’ll tell you—a resurrection that is more than merely resuscitation. Those who were raised back to life again still died eventually. But these faith-filled people had their hearts set on a better resurrection, a resurrection that would be forever; not just a temporary fix to the problem of death, but an eternal one. What could be better than seeing the one you love walk again or work again or wake up again? Resurrection. A better resurrection. It’s the miracle we truly long for.

Lord of life, give me the faith of these followers who were willing to trust you in spite of persecution and torture and death. With them, I want to place my hope in a better resurrection rather than settle for temporary resuscitation.

DIGGING DEEPER