The End of the Story

Recently, I graduated from college.  In many ways, it was an ending.  It was the end of a four year long learning and social engagement.  It was the end of my day to day relationships with many people.  It was the end of my life in a place.  From Shippensburg and its University, I have been dynamically severed and cut off.

That sounds terribly sad, doesn't it?  There are ways I have previously connected with Shippensburg and its people which I will never again be able to do.  That part of my life has come to an end.  That story seems to be over.

In a different time and a different place, a man named Lazarus is dead.  Jesus stands just outside the tomb where Lazarus was lain, weeping.  This is the same Jesus who, three days ago, said that the sickness in Lazarus' body would not end in death.  But life in the body of Lazarus is nil.  That story seems to be over.

Those who are around have varying reactions to the tension created by the presence of death and Jesus in the same location.  Many in the crowd stand confused, thinking that if this is the same Jesus who opened the eyes of the blind then surely He could have healed the sickness of a man whom He called friend.

But another bystander in the crowd, Martha, holds in her heart a strange sensation of hope.  For just a bit ago, Jesus had approached her and had Himself claimed to be "the Resurrection and the Life."  She believed this but did not fully understand it, as she couldn't quite wrap her mind around how this man could be the incarnate version of restoration.  But if there was one thing she did know and believe, it was that restoration was coming.  Because her God had promised this, and the promises of her God were true.

Despite the mysterious claims of Jesus, things were dark.  Martha may have even thought to herself, "Lazarus is dead and Jesus is weeping.  What more is there?"

But there is more.  Because the end of the story is that the story does not end.

Jesus tells the people to roll away the tombstone.  There is protest, but eventual agreement.  Out steps Lazarus, dressed in endings but certainly alive.  And Martha stands amazed.  Maybe amazed that Jesus could raise the dead, but certainly amazed that the resurrection that He was talking about permeated deeper than she had ever imagined.

And that's just it.  God says in Scripture that He is not the God of the dead.  Because death is an ending and God does not end.  And so, while we brought death into the world, threatening to end the story God had begun, God would not have it.  Period.

When we look our world, we see all sorts of death; all sorts of endings.  Endings and death cut us off from things; they sever us from experiencing fullness.  But Yahweh God has a plan to bring all things back to Himself.  And Yahweh is a God who is alive and unending.  So, naturally, God specializes in continuing.

As His followers then, we enter into God's plan to restore everything.  In the name of Jesus Christ we have the power to do all things.  This has all sorts of implications, many of which are explored in Scripture.  The whole Bible is about this mission that God is on to bring everything out of death and back into life.

But the point of all of this is that the end of the story is never the end.  Just when you think the story seems to be over, there's more to it.  Because graduating doesn't mean everything ends.  In fact, everything is just beginning.  That's what they say at every cheesy graduation speech, right?  They're right on many levels.  To illustrate exactly what they are talking about in all of those speeches, Jesus raised a man who was wrapped head to toe in death.

Of course, that was only the beginning.