Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

Acts 26:1-8 (TNIV) -

1 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.”
So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense:2 “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews,

3 and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.
4 “The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem.5 They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee.6 And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today.7 This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me.

8 Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

My thoughts -

Is the scandal of Christianity the incarnation, the crucifixion or the resurrection? Is it that we believe God loves us so much that God became human, that God in human form died for us, or that God raises the dead? These beliefs seem absurd, don't they?

Paul poses the question here: "Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?" He's on trial, and there are some among the Pharisees and Sadducees who want him dead. Earlier he escaped their wrath in part by stirring up debate about the resurrection of the dead. This is a topic of great importance to those of us who have discovered our own mortality. Is it just wishful thinking that God would raise the dead? Is it just wishful thinking to believe that there is nothing for us beyond the grave?

Honestly I don't know. I'd love to say that I *know* that there is more, but how can one know this? We don't have access to the other side, if it even makes sense to refer to an other side, from here. We are alive now. We are mortal. The idea of being eternal is a little abstract for here, especially as we see ourselves dying every day. But is it crazy to believe that that which creates and sustains us does so not just here and now but beyond this physical life and beyond time itself? We exist. No one can adequately explain why. Who is to say that this is it? Would it be too incredible for God to raise the dead?

We talk of heaven and hell. Heaven is being in God's love forever and hell is being separated. Can anything really exist apart from God. If God creates and sustains all life if you are separate from that which sustains life how can you exist? There are so many questions and so few answers.

But is it incredible to believe that God raises the dead? Is it incredible to believe that God became one of us and died as well? Pretty much all that we believe is incredible. In my darkest hours I don't even really believe it. It's too good to be true. It's a fairy tale. It's magic, and there's no such thing as magic in the *real* world. It's a fantasy.

And yet I hope. And yet I trust. And yet I experience the reality that is the awesomeness of God on a daily basis. I don't *know* there's an afterlife any more than I *know* there's a God. But I do believe there is, even when I don't, if that makes any sense. Like the father in Mark 9 I cry "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

What we believe is strange. What we believe is a scandal. What we believe is ridiculous. God became human in Jesus. Jesus who was also God died for us. God raised Jesus from the dead and raises us as well. On an objective level that's just crazy! But to experience that love is REALLY something.