Eternity ...

Thursday, Aug 23, 2012. He had been healed when he was ill at the age of 5. That was only a little accident, a broken arm - and some weeks later everything was well. He was healed of some serious illness at the age of 42 - some cancer could be removed and the subsequent treatment worked well. But then from the age of 70 the little illnesses grew … he dies with 76 after a severe pneumonia. You can be healed … but there is a limit to this type of healing!

The final perspective …

We cannot talk about healing without talking about eternity. All healing which we can experience in this life is just temporary. One illness is healed, but there will be others. And there will be death.

Humans need the perspective beyond death. We are not made for a life which ends soon, after some years. Our whole body and mind are made for going on, for some real perspective, for a life which has no end. Look at older people - yes, the body grows old and it shows the signs of age. We can see that this body will not go on forever. It gives us signs, warnings, indications. But mostly the mind wants to continue. We are still full of curiosity, full of life, full of plans, full of future …

The problem is that we cannot solve our largest problem - death. We cannot solve our key problem: the limits which our life has. Illness is bound to come in one or another way. Death is bound to come, sometimes a rapid and unexpected death. Sometimes a slow death, a scenario clearly visible and predictable to us.

Jesus opens the door to eternity …

The New Testament shows us another perspective. Jesus dies at the cross - he takes the predictable death route, a judgement and a punishment, a clear road map which is executed with the precision of the Roman empire. But then, on day number three, the tomb is empty. The disciples meet the risen Lord. He lives. What has happened?

Death is not the end. That is a key point of the Christian message. The perspective humans long for is given. Death is not completely removed, but it is transformed into a door, where our old body is changed into a new body, where our old life is completely absorbed into a new life, eternal life.

But this process is not something, which would take place then. In faith we are already on the new route. In faith we are already living the new life. Something happens deeply in us, which changes our perspective to Jesus' perspective. The bible calls this the real healing. Who comes to faith, the apostle Paul writes, is a new creation. He will live with him forever. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts