As they hauled the casket off the
ambulance, I asked someone to show us a close relative of the dead man. His
brother was pointed out to us and we asked him if we could pray for the dead
man to rise again. I was in company of two younger disciples in Yei, South Sudan.
The elderly man looked at us with
shock written all over his face, waved us towards the casket and
said, “Go ahead, pray.”
Unknown to us, there was a
presiding Priest who was paying close attention to our discussion with the dead
man’s brother. As we approached the casket, which was now being opened for the
relatives’ final viewing and rites, the Priest, armed with a bottle of “holy
water” and a prayer book, raised his hand and said in the local dialect, “We’ve come here to bury
this dead man and not for a prayer meeting. There will be no praying here until we
have finished burying the dead man.”
Annoyed more than surprised, the two young
disciples looked at me and when I said nothing, they wanted to challenge the
Priest. I stopped them.
“Let’s mourn with the family.”
As the lid of the casket was being
nailed back by this Priest and his assistants, each strike was with such ferocity that I wondered
if he personally wanted the man dead or just making a point to us that this is
a finished case.
Burial over, we shared precious
moments with the widow and her two daughters present and headed out.
“What did you learn from
this encounter?” I asked the two guys as we walked home.
“Remember we prayed that God should
grant us opportunity to raise the dead, now it seems we missed our chance.” One said,
still very upset. Guess he felt it was my fault.
Lesson One: God never gives us all we ask for when we ask for it. In fact,
sometimes we don’t understand what we are asking Him. Were we prepared to
engage heaven that evening until the dead man was raised? In retrospect, I don’t think so. I read the
story of Pastor Rago from Mozambique- [Does
God still raise the dead], and that of two African believers- [Has
anyone died today?] and noticed that it could take hours and even days of
praying over a dead body before life returns. But we should be prepared for such moments and look forward to
them.
Lesson Two: The sin of unbelief cripples great faith. Jesus prayed (God prayed
to God) but couldn’t do many mighty works amongst His own people. In fact, their
unbelief shocked Him. (Mk 6:5-6) It was no different here. We met with
religious opposition and had to let the dead bury their dead.
Still wrestling with the
anger and I guess also some measure of humiliation he thought was meted to us there,
the other disciple said, “If we had raised our voice there to tell the people
we wanted to pray for the dead man to rise, they would not refuse; we could have preached first and prayed in the end. I’m sure that man will rise up.”
Lesson Three: Love never insists on its own way and in the absence of their faith, their consent is important. Jesus
often asked, “What do you wish I do for you…” They made it clear we were not
welcomed there. Should we have insisted? Someone said, “I’d rather be a righteous
scoundrel than a religious bigot…” What do you think?
Lesson Four: Take advantage of every scenario for a discipleship tutorial, either
for yourself or for those with you. Jesus always had a lesson to teach with
each encounter. He marveled some people and some others marveled Him as well. Each time, His disciples went away better prepared for their own encounter.
Lesson Five: Not everyone at a funeral may want the deceased brought back to life. But what could God be aiming at with each case? A
huge stone was used to seal-off the tomb where the Lord Jesus was laid. But His
resurrection not only gives impetus to our message, it is The Message!
Jesus therefore commands
us to, “Bring health to the sick. Raise
the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated
generously, so live generously. (Matt 10:8 The Message & my emph)
May
He find you and I doing these.
Kingdom Exploits With Uche 