Belief is a life-and-death issue for Jesus.

Try having a talk about death and see where it gets you. Talk to your parents about making a will, and they come up with a million reasons not to have this conversation. Scan the newspaper in time of war and count the euphemisms for the dead: “casualties,” “collateral damage,” “losses.”

A man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. This was the same Mary who massaged the Lord’s feet with aromatic oils and then wiped them with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus who was sick.

I heard a TV commentator say, “The difference between a rut and a grave is only about 5 and a half feet.” I thought of that this week when I was reading the bold and amazing promise that Ezekiel delivers: Thus says the Lord God, “I will open your graves and have you rise from them.”

Actuaries traditionally use a 75-year window when projecting into the future. Going beyond that into infinity would make their calculations unrealistic for decisions here and now. Jesus must have had an actuary’s spirit because he was a real here-and-now guy.

A mother came up to me with her second-grade son at her side. She told me that he had something he wanted to ask me. He held on to her hand tightly. The words clearly were difficult for him to formulate.

Our Lord Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Let us ask for pardon for the times we have turned from that life.

One truth stands firm. All that happens in world history rests on something spiritual. If the spiritual is strong, it creates world history. If it is weak, it suffers world history.