Child: Get Up

"He turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up...."

 - Acts 9

Why did Jesus raise Lazarus, and the child of the Centurion, up from the dead?

Why did people jump out of their graves when Jesus died on the Cross?

Why did Jesus Himself come back to life?

Why did Peter raise up the woman, Dorcas, also called "Tabitha" which means, "Child"?

And having raised them up, why did they all (except Jesus) have to die again?

And why hasn't He continued to raise people from the dead? What makes earlier generations better than ours?

Doesn't it all seem a little cruel? This is what we all long for: to live again, or to live forever.

How could God just give us the greatest gift, and then snatch it away?

Well, maybe there's a little pop psychology going on here. If you take it away, they'll want it even more. 

But I think that in the end, in every case, it's because we have hard hearts. And even though we crave a sign of God's power, when He finally gives us one, we still doubt. We say "Oh the person wasn't really dead - they faked it." We say "There must be a rational, scientific explanation for it" (there probably is; what difference does that make?)

The early Church needed such a sign of God's power. Even an Apostle, a human, full of faith, can raise the dead. God's plan basically needs an occasional demonstration, that He is God, and that He is in charge.

It's easy to see why, ever since the Nicene Council and all of the cynical evil that followed it, in the name of Jesus, there simply is not enough faith on earth to merit something as earth-shattering as a resurrection. All it takes is faith the size of a mustard seed. But we don't even have that. Our minds are warped by generations of science, schooling, philosophy, stoics, mammon, greed, materialism, sensuality, and self-love. 

But God predicted that. There won't be much faith left by the time Christ returns. We can't even tilt the scales of public debates, on morality, a few critical percentage points. What makes us think we can manage even the simplest card trick in the name of Christ?

Peter's faith was pure and strong, and the time was right. Tabitha got up.