Then he turned to her body and said, “Tabitha, rise up.”
She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up.
He gave her his hand and raised her up,
and when he had called the holy ones and the widows,
he presented her alive.
This became known all over Joppa,
and many came to believe in the Lord. (Acts 9:40b-42)
You want people to take notice? Nothing can do it better than bringing someone back from the dead!
The first reading today recounts both a healing of someone who had been paralyzed for eight years as well as the raising of someone from the dead. These are most assuredly awesome signs of God’s power at work in the apostles. Make no mistake about it, either. These were great signs and not just great stories. These events actually happened and they shook the people to the very core.
Because of these great actions, many people came to believe in the Word of God being proclaimed by Peter as well as the other apostles and disciples. How can you possibly argue with the curing of a completely paralyzed man or the raising of a certifiably dead person?
Yet, even as great as those miracles are, they take a back seat to the greatest miracle available to us all: the rising of the dead to eternal life.
We know that not everyone will have their paralysis cured or their sight restored or their limbs made straight. Not everyone will be brought back to life. But, everyone will have the opportunity of rising to new life in Christ at the end of their days here on earth. That opportunity was won for us when Jesus destroyed death and restored life by His own resurrection on Easter morn.
Rejoice, then, at the prospect of being able to “go home” to God at the end of our days.
FAITH ACTION: Pray for the dying that they may put all their faith and trust in God.