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Death is Required

              Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; (John 11:25)

          The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the public square!” (Proverbs 22:13)

          “I am the bread of life… I am the light of the world… I am the gate… I am the good shepherd…” We can spiritualize these say that each of these can refer to Jesus as a teacher. His words will fill our spiritual bellies, teach us to see more clearly, protect and guide us. Today’s claim is a little harder to spiritualize. We can do it, but it’s harder because all the others involve adding Christ to our lives. Today’s demands something of us. Our death. Resurrection can’t happen to what is alive. The one who believes in him will die, and yet live.

          This is hard. In the past fifty years, we’ve been taught to be afraid. In the 1980s, Adam Walsh was kidnapped from a Sears in Florida, and subsequently killed. His father started a campaign to protect kids, and the rest of us started guarding kids a little more. In the late 90s, Y2K traumatized us. In 2001, the Muslims attacked. Only one year between 2001 and 2007 failed to produce microbes that were going to kill us all (anthrax, West Nile, SARS, Bird flu, and ECOLI.) In 2006, we took a break from those because the economy was so bad. In 2009, we returned with Swine flu. In 2010 and 2012, BP Oil and the Mayan calendar were the crises. In 2013, it was North Korea. In 2014, Ebola terrorized us. In 2015, it was the measles and Isis for a double whammy. In 2016 the Zika virus threatened us, and in 2020, COVID hit. In the meanwhile, illegal aliens, political leaders, changes in the climate, various bits of space debris, solar activity, and our food have us running for cover.

          Historically, Christians have moved toward the victims of crises because they believed that they would live, even if they died. I’m not sure that they were all that convinced that it didn’t matter if they died. This morning, an old line about there being no atheists in foxholes came to mind, but the word atheist was replaced with the word Christians. The reasoning isn’t the same Atheists supposedly ceased to be atheists, while Christians became heroic or martyrs. And there should be Christians in foxholes, encouraging and bandaging the wounded. But the more I thought about it, the more I am convinced that God puts us in internal foxholes to show us where  we reach the point that the person in that internal foxhole isn’t Christian anymore. I don’t mean that we lose salvation, but that we lose love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In a sense, the part of us that is Christian dies.

          And Jesus, who is the Resurrection, must bring His life back to us. This gives me hope as I find myself in a foxhole I dug.

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