(Note from Editor: President Newton will resume his multi-part discussion of the Mission of God next week. Today, he would share with you a thought about this Holy Week and Easter.)
Roger and Surajah's twelve year old daughter, Lea, lay burning with fever. Like many of the other children in a small Hindu village in southern India she had contracted Small Pox. To make matters worse, Roger's family was forbidden to draw water from the village well, water needed to quench his daughter's thirst and cool her forehead. The elders had barred them from the well because Roger had declined to join the other villagers in their sacrifice to the goddess of Small Pox. Roger and his family were the only Christians in the village, and, therefore, the only household unwilling to participate in the sacrifice. Believing that the sacrifice required 100% participation to be effective in removing the dreaded disease, the village elders blamed Roger for the continued suffering of their children. They hoped that banning him from the well would force him to join in the sacrifice.
Roger and Surajah, on the other hand, were praying that the Lord would show His power by curing their daughter and the other children. He had performed many similar miracles when He walked the earth, so He could easily do it again. Such a miracle would prove to the other families that He was the only true God and stronger than the Hindu gods and goddesses. Such a miracle would bring joy not only to Roger's family but to the entire village. It would open the door for the Gospel to be heard by all.
The village gathered for the funeral of each of the children. Hindu burial rites were performed for each except for Lea. Roger and Surajah buried their daughter as a Christian. They committed her body to the earth in the sure hope of the resurrection. "Because He lives," they maintained, "our Lea also lives. Death does not own her."
About a week after Lea's funeral the elders of the village came to Roger with a request. "Please," they asked, "teach us about your God Jesus." When Roger asked the reason, they replied simply, "There didn't seem to be much difference between your god and our gods. You prayed and we prayed. Your child died and our children died. All of that is the same. But we see a big difference now. Your God enabled you not to be afraid of death. Our gods cannot do that. In fact, if anything, they frighten us with death to make us obey their demands. As you buried your daughter you talked about her still being alive. We are not able to talk that way about our children. Please teach us about your God. Perhaps we will have the same confidence that you have."
Beginning that day, Roger and Surajah taught their village the Good News of the Savior. The people came to know and believe that God loved them enough to sacrifice His own Son to pay for their sins once and for all times. Further sacrifice for sin on their part was not only unnecessary, it insulted God. It was like saying, "God you did not do quite enough. I had better add a little to it." Furthermore, the people learned that Jesus came to their world for the express purpose of destroying the power of death, thereby freeing all people who, through their fear of death, were held in lifelong bondage to Satan. The proof that Jesus had destroyed death's power was in raising Himself from the grave three days after He had died. Death was powerless to hold Him; it was now powerless to hold anyone who belongs to Him.
God had answered Roger and Surajah's prayers in behalf of their daughter and their village. They had asked Him to show His power by healing their daughter as He had healed in days of old. He showed them His power, power not only to sustain the lives of the living, but to give life to the dead. He performed for them the greatest of all of His miracles, Easter. His rising on Easter morning was not a miracle benefiting only the New Testament people who witnessed it. It is a miracle for all times and for all people. It proved that death did not speak the definitive word after all. Jesus did. As He said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live." Jesus, God's Word of eternal life, came to Roger's village and changed forever the lives of all who believed in Him. He has come and forever changed our lives as well-that's the Good News of Easter.
Have a blessed Holy Week as we continue to live on the right side of Easter!
Bob Newton
President, CNH District LCMS
