YOU GAVE US VICTORY OVER DEATH
In the
imagery of Revelation, the two witnesses representing all Christian martyrs are
likened to messianic figures: Joshua and Zerubbabel, "the two olive trees
and the two lampstands," the prophet Elijah, who had the "power to
close up the sky," and Moses, who had the "power to turn water into
blood." Having given their testimony, they are martyred. But three and a
half days later, they are raised to new life and taken up to heaven in a cloud.
Take time
to reflect upon this question: Do we try to make heaven into an earthly image?
The Sadducees came to Jesus with a question to make the resurrection look
ridiculous. The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, did not believe in
immortality, or in angels or evil spirits. Their religion was literally
grounded in an earthly image of heaven. Jesus responds by dealing with the fact
of the resurrection and eternal life. The Scriptures give proof of it. When God
manifested His presence to Moses in the burning bush, He tells him that He is
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He shows that the patriarchs who died
hundreds of years previously were still alive in God. Christ defeats their
arguments by showing that God is a living God, of a living people. God was the
friend of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when they lived on this earth.
Proof that
there is a resurrection can be seen in Jesus' victory over death when He rose
from the pit. Before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He exclaimed, "I
am the Resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he die, yet he
shall live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die" (Jn
11:25 - 26). May we believe in the resurrection and in all the promises of
eternal life that can only come from our heavenly Father.
Jesus asks
us the same question today: Do you believe in the resurrection?