Power to Raise the Dead.
Jesus, His disciples, and a great crowd
went to the town of Naim. As they got there, they saw several men carrying a
bier with a dead man on it, heading for burial. The man was the only son of a
widow. Jesus had great compassion on her. “Do not weep,” He said. He approached
the bier and said to the corpse, “Young man, I say to you arise.” The man sat
up and began speaking. (Lk 7:11-17.)
Scripture tells us Jesus raised three
people from the dead. In addition to this widow’s son, he raised Jarius’s
daughter (Lk 8:41-42,49-56) and Lazarus of Bethany (John 11:1-45). In Israel’s
history, by God’s power, the Prophet Elijah had raised the son of the widow of
Zarephath after he had died (1 Kings 17:17-24), and Elijah’s successor, Elisha,
likewise raised from the dead the only son of a couple from Shunem (2 Kings
4:32-35). All these “raisings” in Scripture were only the returning of natural
human life after having died. At some point in the future they would die again
– die in the Lord to await a future resurrection.
Jesus told his disciples that those who
believed in Him will do the same works He did, and even greater ones (Jn
14:12). Well, where’s the proof?
For a start, Jesus’ disciples did raise
people from the dead. In fact, Jesus told them to go and do just that! (Mt
10:8.) So they did.
When St. Peter was evangelizing along the
Eastern Mediterranean coast, the believers brought him to the town of Joppa
where recently deceased Dorcas (Tabitha) was laid out for burial. Peter said,
“Tabitha, arise,” and she did so. (Ac 9:40.)
St. John the Evangelist is reported to
have raised a dead man to life in Ephesus. This comes from an early Father of
the Church, Appolonius of Ephesus (writing about 180-210 AD).
St. Papias (writing between 115-140 AD),
had heard the preaching of St. John the Evangelist, as well as of St. Philip
the Apostle. As Papias was a contemporary St. Philip’s daughters, and they all
lived in Hierapolis (where St. Philip had been Bishop, and St. Papias was later
bishop), Papias writes of Philips’ daughters telling him the wonderful account
of the raising of a dead man in Hierapolis in Philip’s day.
St. Irenaeus (writing about 180 AD) wrote:
“Some persons that were dead have been raised again and have continued among us
many years.” Elsewhere he referred to “Our Lord raising [the dead], and as the
Apostles did [raise from the dead] by prayer, and as in the brotherhood
oftentimes is done, when the whole church of the place has begged it with much
fasting and prayer, and the spirit of the dead man has returned and the man has
been given back to the prayers of the saints.” Did you catch it? St. Irenaeus,
writing about 180 AD, says the raising from the dead is “oftentimes” done in
his day.
Both the Hebrew and Judean people, and the Christian people, have always recognized that God gives signs by the miraculous, that is, out of the ordinary course of nature. God does so for many purposes, not the least of which is to wake people up to God’s reality and the fundamental realities of our existence.
Dibby Allan Green