John 11:38-44
Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Matthew 9:18-26
Jesus Raises a Dead Girl
18 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.
Mark 5:22-43
Jesus Raises a Little Girl
22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Luke 7:11-17
Jesus Raises a Widow’s Son
11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
14 Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16 They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” 17 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
Luke 8:41-56
Jesus Raises Jairus' Daughter
41 Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house 42 because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.
As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. 43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. 44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
45 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”
47 Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
49 While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.”
50 Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”
51 When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. 52 Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”
53 They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” 55 Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. 56 Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.
Isaiah 55:8
God Thinks and Does Things Differently than Man
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
In the gospels we get four different authors and therefore we get four different views from these writers...Four different witnesses to Jesus give us their story of Him and their observations of what He did in His three years of His ministry...The believer believes these amazing stories of Jesus, His miracles, and are amazed at the words He spoke...
In each of the four gospels, Jesus raises the dead...St. Luke's Gospel has Him raising two different people from the dead...We are told there were eyewitnesses and personal accounts to Him resurrecting people...These eyewitnesses were witnessing the greatest miracles of the Messiah...And Jesus did many different miracles, but here we are told of His resurrection powers and these miracles...So the idea of someone dying and returning to life by Jesus' word or touch would have been fresh in the people's mind, especially the one's that had seen these miracles, and even more for the one's He resurrected back to life...If one cannot believe that Jesus can raise people from the dead, there is not much believing in any of the gospels, since there are these miracles, as well as other miracles He performed...And if these resurrection miracles are lies, then why believe any of the four authors -or the New Testament for that matter?...Why believe anything in the New Testament, since in the four gospels -Jesus and His Disciples are the key figures and the ones the books and epistles focus on?...For the believer, however, these resurrection miracles foreshadow a greater faith inspiring miracle that will happen later...
As I listen to different debates and opinions from atheists versus believers in Jesus, similar things come up regularly to the non-believer...One of those things is that Jesus died on a cross and then was resurrected by His Father three days later...How can this be they ask?...This seems to be one of the sticking points for many non-believers, and, of course, there are others...For the believer, I think, he has many thoughts and questions -about the resurrection stories...Can you imagine how Lazarus and Jairus' daughter felt after dying and then returning to life?...How long did they live, after their resurrections?...How was their faith affected, by dying and now coming back to life?...What was death like?...The gospels do not give us accounts of the lives of the ones that Jesus resurrected, but my guess is those resurrected would look at death much differently than others...For the nonbeliever he has no questions, because he believes the stories are fiction and are not true...These miracles, to the non-believer, never happened...They do not think these miracles happened...There was no and is no raising from the dead...
I personally think most people (but not all) believe there are some things in life, that are sacred and holy...The hope inspiring resurrection stories are sacred and holy to them...And the question remains for both the believer and non-believer is -how can this be?...Some theists and apologetics and those arguing for God, Jesus, and belief -believe in miracles...One must believe in miracles to believe in God and Jesus...For a God to exist His thoughts would not be like my thoughts, and His ways, would not be similar to my ways...Believers in God, I think, fully expect His Son (if God had a Son) would be blessed and divine enough to do miracles...And they see His resurrection as not only another miracle from and by our Father, but the Miracle of Easter, as the Grand Miracle...Non-believers do not believe in miracles or the miracle of a Father, who resurrected His Son...
Faith believes in miracles...One with great faith, I think, sees many more miracles than one with no faith...There is a mystery in faith because faith sometimes must count less on reason and resist the idea that everything needs to be fully understood by our own thinking and our personal reasoning powers...In faith, this is called trusting in the LORD...And sometimes this is a very difficult thing to do...But faith is not always an easy thing to do and have and keep...
If we believe the gospels we see that Jesus has already resurrected people after their death...So, if we believe in Him we can see that He can resurrect us too, to get us to heaven...