Pastoral Devotion for April – Because He Lives

Read John 11:30-44 Once, a Sunday school teacher showed her class a picture of famous people gathered around God’s table in heaven. The teacher then asked, “Where are you in this picture?” The children were puzzled. Finally, a boy spoke up saying, “We can’t be in the picture, we’re not dead yet.” Such an understanding presents the resurrection as a distant and future reality.

Jesus’s announcement, “I am the resurrection and the life,” teaches us that the resurrection is closer than we may realize. Because of sin, every moment of human life occurs in the face of death. Yet, by grace through faith in Christ Jesus our sins are forgiven and death has lost its sting. Therefore, the resurrection is not some far off point in time that we await; it is a future and present reality for those who know Christ as Lord and Savior. Because he lives, we too shall live.

In their grief, Mary and Martha see only the earthly picture, the one in which their brother Lazarus is missing. Jesus invites us to gaze upon the heavenly picture and to take our place at God’s table gathered with the saints of every time and space. This we do each time we come forward to receive the Sacrament of the Altar. As we profess our faith and belief in the communion of saints, we declare the reality of God’s table extending from the one heavenly dimension into the earthly dimension of Christ’s church on earth. See yourself in the picture. You are certainly there among those gathered at God’s table.

Prayer: Eternal God, we give you thanks for raising your people from death to life, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.