DRAMA IN THE GRAVEYARD

I opened my Bible and read a story in the Gospel of John 11:1-43, about Lazarus from Bethany, a friend of Jesus.

Jesus received the news of Lazarus’ illness but did not immediately hurry to go and see him. It was only two days after he died, that Jesus and his disciples were on their way to Bethany. Jesus met his sister Martha in mourning. She expressed her faith in the resurrection of the dead and in Jesus’ power to resurrect. She knew she would have to wait until the last day to see her brother Lazarus again.

Mum wanted me to reread the words that Jesus spoke to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. ‘Do you believe that?” Quietly and solemnly mum responded, “I believe, Lord Jesus.”

Every detail of the story was important for mum. She tried to place herself in the situation. Martha called her sister Mary, who also believed in the divine power Jesus had. But it was too late; death had put the full stop on Lazarus’ life. When Jesus saw Mary weeping, He wept too. Mum commented, “He truly suffers with us.”

They made their way to the graveyard and Jesus ordered for the gravestone to be moved. Martha warned Jesus of the bad smell from the dead body that had been in the tomb for four days already. Jesus addressed His Heavenly Father and then in a loud voice called Lazarus. Lazarus walked out. Jesus ordered to free him from the burial cloths he was wrapped in. His friend Lazarus had been dead and now was alive. What a drama at the graveyard in Bethany.

Jesus’ godly power had control over death. What would a man do to be able to conquer death, obtain the key to eternal life or at least prolong it? The story was so impressive that it raised further questions. However, mum was getting tired so we had to leave it for the next day.

IMPERISHABLE

When all the necessities of the new day were met, mum was eager to continue with our study. Together we opened 1 Corinthians 15.

Mum was a keen gardener and was proud of her produce always ripening first in the neighbourhood. Mum understood the process of seeds being sown and dying in order to bring new produce very well. Reading it as an illustration of human bodies dying and being resurrected into new, young and beautiful ones put a smile on mum’s face. “From the seed of this worn out, pain-polluted body, can something beautiful come of it in the new and glorious existence? Hm.”

When I was a little girl my mum taught me the Lord’s Prayer. From time to time she used to invite me to say the prayer aloud with her. And there in the prayer she repeated so many times ‘thy kingdom come.’ I reminded her of the coming of the kingdom of God being the moment of resurrection.

“50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

51 Listen I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed –

52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

55 ‘Where, o death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?’” (NIV)

We read the verses twice and they brought tears to mum’s eyes. “It will be some mighty sound of the trumpet.”

Suddenly, I realised that although I’d heard those words read at funerals so many times they became so meaningful to me now. Looking at mum’s weak and tired body and thinking about the imperishable was like dancing between two worlds.

We noticed that mum’s hair started to shred more and more. We agreed to deal with it the next day.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 799