Living Among The Dead
-B. Thomas Clark

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?

- Luke 24:4-5 (NIV)

"Why do you look for the living among the dead?" That's the question of the ages. Mary and Martha were looking for a living God in a place that belonged to dead men. This isn't uncommon. People look for the living among the dead all the time, don't they? Look around your school next time you're there. How many people are looking for some meaning for their life, something to make their spirit feel alive; in places where there is only death?

How many of your friends are looking to drugs? There is no life there. Only death can be found in drug addiction and abuse. It will kill a person both physically and spiritually. Just as Mary and Martha were trying to find answers in an empty tomb, how many of your peers look for answers in an empty bottle? There is no life in either one. In fact, the bottle will destroy lives. I know this for a fact. My grandmother was an alcoholic. Her entire side of the family is a mess because of it.

Some teens are looking to sex to add meaning to their lives. To them it is only a physical passion. The love, like the tomb is empty. An empty heart is a dead one. There is no life to be found in empty love. They need the true cleansing love of Christ. The same is true for people who go from one meaningless relationship to another, but who have never experienced true love. That is, the love of Christ reflected in a human relationship. You can have that. It is not something that is out of your grasp, even when it seems hopeless or like you will never love again, God can set the wheels in motion and give you the love that you crave.

This even hits people of other faiths. There are people that look to Buddha for their answers. Buddha is dead, yet thousands look for life in him. Mohamed is dead. Yet in him, people look for life. Evolutionists look to the remains of primitive species to try and find their answers. They, like so many others, look to the dead to explain the living. Why look for the living among the dead? There is one savior, one man, who stared death in the face and won. He is the one that life can be found in.

The book of John says of Christ: "In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." The life that is found in Christ can light up the darkness. That means that it can penetrate the darkest of souls, the hardest of hearts, and the narrowest of minds. The obstacle is human understanding. We have a tendency to look for life where there is death. The verse doesn't say that the light can not shine in the dark because the darkness doesn't understand it. It says the light shines in the darkness but it is not understood. The light is there. For every person who is looking for life where there is only death, there is a blinding light of hope staring that person straight in the face. The problem is that they have become so involved in looking for life in the midst of death that they can only understand death. The light of life is penetrating every corner of their lives, and people may even see it. But they refuse to look to that light for understanding.

The good news in all of this is that Christ is alive. He didn't stay dead. The stone has been rolled away and the one and only Son of God walked out, changing the course of human history forever. No other man has had such an impact on history. People can deny His message; they can even deny that He came back from the dead. What they can not deny is that He did in fact live. They can not deny how He has impacted society. Not just Jerusalem or the Middle East, but the entire world. They can not deny His heart. The power of Christ's teachings can be felt just as strongly now as it was two thousand years ago. The reason for this is because He sent His Holy Spirit to the disciples and it has spread as rapidly as His message. Jesus Christ did not remain in that tomb. Only a living God could have as much of an impact on us.

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