Tag: Resurrection

Christ Living in Us

Posted on by M. Derek Jacks in Reflections from Pastor Derek
Elisha Raises the Son of the Woman of Shunam by Benjamin West, 1765

2 Kings 4:32-37 (NRSV)

32 When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. 33 So he went in and closed the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord. 34 Then he got up on the bed and lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and while he lay bent over him, the flesh of the child became warm. 35 He got down, walked once to and fro in the room, then got up again and bent over him; the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So, he called her. When she came to him, he said, “Take your son.” 37 She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground; then she took her son and left.

This is a bizarre moment in the story of Elisha. However, that is a loaded statement for a prophet. Bizarre moments are more rule than exception for the life for the prophets of God. Elisha’s actions here in 2 Kings are very similar to his predecessor Elijah in 1 Kings 17:17-24. Both prophets are presented with grieving mothers who have suffered the death of their beloved sons; both prophets lay upon the deceased sons; both prophets respond to their deaths by physically giving life to the lifeless bodies. These intimate actions of Elijah and Elisha cause us some discomfort because of how intentional they are—putting mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand. It is the reality that the purpose of the prophets is to certainly speak for God, but that is not the end of their purpose. They are an embodiment of the promise of God. God speaks through them and God acts through them. The things they do are the power of God to bring life to those who suffer and freedom to those who are captive. 

In other words, the prophets are the power of God sent to declare the majesty and victory of God over the powers of evil, sin, and death. 

The prophetic CPR touches every aspect of the life of the son in 2 Kings. Not only does this child have new life, he has new reason to live. His words will be different. He will see things differently. He will encounter the everyday things with new energy and purpose. 

Perhaps the most bizarre inclusion in this passage is the seven sneezes. We may be tempted to skip over this detail, but we would be foolish if we did. Fun fact: Charles Spurgeon preached an entire sermon on this part of the story. Seriously. (Read it here.) Why does the author include this detail of seven sneezes? Spurgeon reminds us that sneezing is an involuntary reaction. We cannot sneeze because we want to sneeze. They happen whenever and wherever they happen. Sometimes we can fight a sneeze. Sometimes we can feel like we will sneeze, but we cannot force ourselves to do it and we lose it. So, it is with life in the Holy Spirit. We live it. Its an involuntary reaction to what God has done for us. Life is a crazy thing. None of us decided to be born. We are dragged dirty, kicking, and screaming into this world and we must settle into this little thing called life. It’s a bizarre thing indeed.

So, it is with the life of Christ. We were all the deceased child in our sins. Jesus gave his life for ours. Just as the prophets, Jesus intimately gives us his life. It is the life of Christ that becomes ours. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) Praise be to God for this life that we have in Him. May we know and understand that Christ has raised us from the dead and given us his words, eyes, and hands to live and serve him. Amen.

Prayer: Merciful God, grant us the strength to live our lives trusting you. May we understand that we are to speak your Gospel to others, see people as you see them, and serve others in your name. May we do these things with the humble mind that we were lost and far from you, but you brought us into your family though your most precious blood. In Jesus name, Amen.

As the LORD Lives

Posted on by M. Derek Jacks in Reflections from Pastor Derek
Elisha Raises the Son of the Woman of Shunem by Benjamin West, 1765

2 Kings 4:18-31 (NRSV)

 18 When the child was older, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. 19 He complained to his father, “Oh, my head, my head!” The father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 He carried him and brought him to his mother; the child sat on her lap until noon, and he died. 21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, closed the door on him, and left. 22 Then she called to her husband, and said, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again.” 23 He said, “Why go to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath.” She said, “It will be all right.” 24 Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Urge the animal on; do not hold back for me unless I tell you.” 25 So she set out, and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, there is the Shunammite woman; 26 run at once to meet her, and say to her, Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is the child all right?” She answered, “It is all right.” 27 When she came to the man of God at the mountain, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress; the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.” 28 Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, Do not mislead me?” 29 He said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, give no greeting, and if anyone greets you, do not answer; and lay my staff on the face of the child.” 30 Then the mother of the child said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave without you.” So he rose up and followed her. 31 Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. He came back to meet him and told him, “The child has not awakened.”

“As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” 

This phrase echoes across the first few chapters of 2 Kings. In chapter 2, Elisha is told three times by Elijah to stay behind as Elijah journeys toward his chariot ride to heaven and three times, Elisha responds with those words. Between the taking up of Elijah into heaven (2:1-14) and this moment with the Shunammite woman and her child, quite a bit happens. 

Elisha is commissioned to follow Elijah (2:15-25); Israel defeats the rebellious Moab (3:1-27); the LORD provides oil for a widow through Elisha (4:1-7); and a childless Shunammite woman graciously provides for Elisha and then the LORD gives her a precious son in response to her prayer (4:8-17). 

“As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”

Elisha’s life has certainly provided moments of triumph and fullness as well as rebellion and loss. During these extremes, Elisha is the embodiment of the presence of the LORD. When the Shunammite woman has her prayer answered for a child, the child becomes to her a great blessing. When that blessing is threatened by illness, her world falls apart. Amid her trial, when her son has seemingly died, she responds, “All is well.” However, the story doesn’t seem to be well. With her son amidst illness and death, she travels to Elisha because he represents the very presence and blessing she has received from the LORD. Though her circumstances weren’t well, her reality was well—not because of she felt well—but because of the presence of the LORD.

“As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” 

These are the words of faith. The words that we have as our confession. These are not empty words of weak soothing. These are the realities we have in Christ. Just as Elisha and this Shunammite woman have uttered these words, Christ has guaranteed them in his word: “I will not leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

May you be filled this day with this faith as you serve Jesus. May you be filled with the reality that regardless of your circumstances, all is well—because Christ is alive and present in your life.

Prayer: Father God, thank you for this day. Give me strength and vision to see your presence in my life as I live to serve you. Help me to see that though things around me appear to be falling apart, that all is well. Thank you for your word and never forsaking me. In Jesus name, Amen.

Advent with Barth: The Virgin Womb and The Empty Tomb

Posted on by M. Derek Jacks in Advent with Barth

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

The mutual relationship between these two limits may perhaps be defined thus.

The Virgin birth denotes particularly the mystery of revelation.

It denotes the fact that God stands at the start where real revelation takes place — God and not the arbitrary cleverness, capability, or piety of man.

In Jesus Christ, God comes forth out of profound hiddenness of His divinity in order to act as God among us and upon us.

That is revealed and made visible to us in the sign of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, but it is grounded upon the fact signified by the Virgin birth, that here in this Jesus God Himself has really come down and concealed Himself in humanity.

It is because He was veiled here that He could and had to unveil Himself as He did at Easter.

The empty tomb, on the other hand, denotes particularly the revelation of the mystery. 

It denotes that it is not for nothing that God stands at the beginning, but that it is as such that He becomes active and knowable.

He has no need of human power and is free from all human caprice.

Therefore even the ultimate extremities of human existence, as He submits to them and abandons Himself to death, offer no hindrance to His being and work.

That God Himself in His complete majesty was one with us, as the Virgin birth indicates, is verified in what the empty tomb indicates, that here in this Jesus the living Go has spoken to us men in accents we cannot fail to hear.

Because He has unveiled Himself here as the One He is, we may and must say what the Christmas message says, that unto you is born this day the Savior.

The mystery at the beginning is the basis of the mystery at the end; and by the mystery of the end the mystery of the beginning becomes active and knowable.

And since this is so, the same objective content is signified in the one case by the miracle of the Virgin birth, in the other by the miracle of the empty tomb.

Once we have looked into this self-enclosed circle, we shall have to meet the attack upon the natus ex virgine (born of a virgin) with the further reflection that by it an indispensable connection is destroyed which is actually found in the creed, to that the tertia die resurrexit a mortuis (rose again from the dead), too, is actually called in question.


from Karl Barth, “The Miracle of Christmas”, Church Dogmatics I.2, page 182-183

Advent with Barth: Of Wombs and Tombs (A Brief Reflection on the Virgin Birth and Resurrection of Jesus Christ)

Posted on by M. Derek Jacks in Advent with Barth

Second Sunday of Advent, December 9, 2018

Sally Lloyd-Jones wrote The Jesus Story Book Bible several years ago. This is a great volume for all parents who desire to teach their children about how the Bible points us to Jesus and his salvation. But when one begins to read the Bible, we immediately see that the world is different than we expect it to be. Karl Barth has said that the world we see in the Bible is “a strange, new world.” It is a world filled with God breaking into our reality doing things that are beyond the grasp and understanding of human reason. Jesus is God in the flesh, and this means that God has acted miraculously within this person.

As we look at the Christmas story, we cannot escape the miracle that is the Virgin birth. But we cannot act as if this story of a Virgin bearing a son is foreign to the Bible. The Bible is filled with stories of women, who were unable to conceive children, miraculously becoming pregnant and bearing a child of promise. In Genesis, we see Sarah giving birth in her old age to Isaac. We see Jacob’s wife, Rachel, giving birth to Joseph, who became a child of promise. So, when Mary conceives by the Holy Spirit, we should not be overcome with doubt. Instead, we should see that this is business as usual for our God.

But the Virgin womb isn’t just a miracle of biology. This is a foreshadowing of what God is truly up to. Karl Barth says that the Virgin womb of Christmas and the empty tomb of Easter are no accidents. The miracles of the Virgin Mary bearing the Christ child and the tomb from which Christ is resurrected belong to one another. These two miracles, according to Barth, show us that the existence of Christ is purposeful and not accidental. Instead, the existence of Christ begins and ends with what we experience as life and as death. We cannot understand the Virgin birth nor the resurrection fully within our reason, but we know that both point to something outside of ourselves – something greater and something more majestic than we can understand. Both point us to the reality that Christ breaks into our reality and overcomes all the limitations that sin and death impose upon us. It points us to the reality of salvation and the power of God. And as we live our lives from the womb to the tomb, we see that God can do things that we cannot ever imagine or think.

This Advent season is filled with opportunities for us to understand and realize that the “strange, new world of the Bible” does “whisper” the name of Jesus in every one of its pages as well as our lives. May we realize that from birth to death, our lives bear witness to the great miracle of life that we have in Jesus Christ. And may we live filled with the assurance that this Christ that was born from both a Virgin womb and empty tomb is all we need to encounter the world around us. Amen.

Advent with Barth: Of Wombs and Tombs

Posted on by M. Derek Jacks in Advent with Barth

Monday, December 10, 2018

Now it is no accident that for us the Virgin birth is paralleled by the miracle of which the Easter witness speaks, the miracle of the empty tomb.

The two miracles belong together.

They constitute, as it were, a single sign, the special function of which, compared with other signs and wonders of the New Testament witness, is to describe and mark out the existence of Jesus Christ, amid the many other existences in human history, as the human historical existence in which God is Himself, God is alone, God is directly the Subject, the temporal reality of which is not only called forth, created, conditioned and supported by the eternal reality of God, but is identical with it.

The Virgin birth at the opening and the empty tomb at the close of Jesus’ life bear witness that this life is a fact marked off from all the rest of human life, and marked off in the first instance, not by our understanding or our interpretation, but by itself.

Marked off in regard to its origin: it is free of the arbitrariness which underlies all our existences. 

And marked off in regard to its goal: it is victorious over the death to which we are all liable. 

Only within these limits is it what it is and is it correctly understood, as the mystery of the revelation of God. 

It is to that mystery that these limits point — he who ignores them or wishes them away must see to it that he is not thinking of something quite different from this.


from Karl Barth, “The Miracle of Christmas”, Church Dogmatics I.2, page 182