Resurrection isnt always the three-day kind

I’ve been reflecting on the resurrection this week.

I like the idea of resurrection! Something dies, and then is miraculously raised to life in less than three days! There are times when I’ve lost someone or lost something (a dream, a ministry, a job) and have prayed fervently for this supernatural miracle to happen! You may be hoping for this kind of three-day resurrection in a situation right now.

But there is another kind of resurrection. It’s what happens after we have been praying for a miracle, and the three days has come and gone, and the grave is still full of something dead. It’s what happens after the hope of immediate resurrection has reached its limit. This is when a different kind of hope engages.

There is a time to pray for a resurrection miracle like we are getting ready to celebrate this week, but there is also a time to let something die…

Because there is a promise…

We are told in 1 Corinthians 15 that when a believer dies, a perishable seed is planted into the ground, and will be raised someday with an imperishable body. Jesus similarly tells us in John 12:24 that unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it can’t reproduce a great harvest.

The trick is determining whether we are in a season of pruning or a season of transition into a new kind of life. There is no dishonor in recognizing when something has died. In fact, properly mourning and burying a dead loved one, a dead dream, a dead assignment, or a dead congregation is much more preferable than pretending it is still alive.

Dead things stink. And they decompose. Dead things are not conducive to moving ahead with life. That’s why we mourn the dead, and it’s why we bury them. We who are alive are called to keep moving on into life.

As we linger this week on the resurrection story, we need to remember that the three-day resurrection of Jesus and Lazarus isn’t the only kind we will see. The ultimate and eternal resurrection of dead things, properly buried, is scriptural as well.

If you have been faithful with your dream or your assignment, even if it is now over, the very act of mourning it and burying it may be the final piece to its ultimate and eternal impact. Jesus may just be waiting to use the imperishable and multiplied life that will come after recognizing the death of something you may be hanging onto very tightly right now.

So I want to encourage you to look at whatever is dead in your life, admit it, and then pray for a resurrection; if it doesn’t happen in “3 days” (whatever that may mean to you) then believe for an eternal impact and kingdom multiplication that can come through a righteous death and burial.

And then move on into the full life that Jesus has for you now!