Newsletter Article

November 6, 2016

​

 

THE GIFT OF RESURECTION

By: Dcn. Garry Salguero

​

Luke 19:28 records Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Since that time opposition had been intensifying against Him. The only reasons the chief priests, scribes, and leaders of the people had not yet seized Him was because of His popularity with the people, and on deeper level, because it was not yet His time. Next they sent spies who pretended to be sincere, but whose goal was to trap Jesus. Death and taxes were the two topics the Sadducees broached with Him. First they tried to trap Him with a question about taxes and now, in today’s Gospel, some Sadducees tried to trap Him with this question about the Resurrection.

​

Jesus' answer was that the resurrection life is not this life all over again.  It is not a repeat or reincarnation. It is a new existence in which we participate in God's eternity. The good news for us is that our Resurrection life is a new life, a life of power and love and mercy. It is a victorious life because of God’s ability and grace living in us.

​

In our Old Testament Reading we find Job’s confession of faith. He had often professed His trust in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of Heaven and earth and source of all virtues. We hear him proclaiming the revelation of a promised Seed and the promised inheritance, a living Redeemer, the reason we look to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. It is very plain that he had no expectation at all that his prosperous condition in this world would return. He said his way was fenced up (Job 19: 8) and his hope removed like a tree (Job 19: 10). He was not expecting a deliverance from his trouble or a revival of his happiness in this world; he knew these things represented a temporal deliverance only; but Job was comforted by seeing the Redeemer standing at the latter day upon the earth. Even though Job was accused, reproached as a hypocrite and condemned as a wicked man, he remained steadfast in his faith and hope which raised him above himself, gave him light and gave him peace that stilled the storm.

​

In Psalm 17: 15 King David understood that all the troubles, predicaments and worries of life will not last long - we shall not sleep in perpetual sleep, but we shall awake and be delivered and then we shall be satisfied with Your likeness. God’s glory will be manifested in we who have endured for God’s Name. Even if we encounter problems and situations in our lives more hurtful than what Job or King David experienced, do not lose hope. We have the gift of Resurrection. We are not separated or cut off from Christ! “He is still our Redeemer!”