“With Easter the Ultimate Dream Comes True”
Actress Candice Bergen was asked by a reporter to name her three greatest wishes. She replied:
“Aside from eternal life?”
Eternal Life is the ultimate quest. It is the Holy Grail, the fountain of youth, the wish upon a star. Living forever is the dream come true. In fact, every other wish pales in comparison to defeating death and defeating all the evil and ugliness we live with and receiving life forever and ever in a place of unimaginable glory. But could eternal life possibly be true?
Not many of us wake up in the morning and think to ourselves, “This could be it … this day could be the last day of my life.” We are generally an optimistic people. We take life by the tail and hang on for the ride of our lives. We don’t retire, we re-fire. We don’t look old, we look distinguished. We’re not going bald, we’re making do with less. Our bodies are not filling out, they’re just adjusting. Yet, we can’t deny that one day this life will be over. There are too many reminders that tomorrow may never come. You’re driving along and there it is …. a funeral home or the cemetery that catches the corner of your eye. You visit your uncle in the hospital, your friend in the nursing home, or you slowly drive past the car wreck that is now a twisted pile of metal and in these moments are reminded that life doesn’t last forever.
A Biblical character by the name of Job asked a classic question: “If a man dies, will he live again?” (Job 14:14) We don’t like to think about it … but if a man dies …. when I die … is there a chance that I will live again? That’s a question that needs to be answered. How about it, “If a man dies, will he live again?”
In the Bible, there is a verse that mocks the fact of death. The verse goes like this, “Where, O death is your Victory? Where, O death is your sting.” (1 Corinthians 15:55) Paul wrote this verse referring to Jesus and His resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday. Once Paul came to grips with Jesus’ resurrection, he looked at death not as a unconquerable monster but as a 98 pound weakling. To Paul, death was something to mock and ridicule.
The bible speaks of Jesus walking around (post Easter) not with a revived life in an old body but with a resurrected life in a brand new eternal and glorified body. This was a body that could walk through doors, appear and disappear. This was a body that could not grow old or know tears or pain or have any limitations. For days and weeks Jesus walked among the lands of Israel. He talked, and ate, and hugged his friends as well as his enemies. Over 500 eyewitness attest to the resurrection of Jesus.
Remember Job’s great question: “If a man dies, will he live again?”
We can now answer that question. Jesus had delivered the ultimate and the seeming impossible … life after death. Jesus offered immortality. But listen to this, if we give our lives to Jesus – this same immortality can be ours. Jesus put it this way, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me will live even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.” (John 11:25)
Do you want to live forever? Do you want to live in a place that outshines the sun? Do you want to live in a body that will never grow old? Do you want everlasting life? Jesus said, “whoever believes in Me will not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).
With Easter our ultimate dream comes true!
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