From the Dead: Life by Association

In recent weeks I have been going to work out at 5:00 a.m. And for all intents and purposes, I go feeling...sort of...dead. My alarm goes off at 4:30 a.m. and I think: "I can't do this." But I trudge on, through the doors of OrangeTheory Fitness where I am greeted by a crazy person. The trainer. This guy is really UP for 5:00 a.m. He's giving you high-fives, and scrolling through his iPhone for his perfect playlist of jams. He yells randomly and roars in your face.

I remain deadpan.

But...I do feel the beginnings of life. I set my treadmill jog pace at 4.5. Effort = "I don't care." But then I look over to the girl next to me, and she's already at 6.0. I tick the speed up a little bit. More life. And after a few minutes, I am completely alive. I'm working out at 100% and the hour just flies by!

This is not a commercial for OTF. It's been 2 months since I joined, and I haven't really lost any weight (note: I've been eating the world), and I don't think I have tons of new muscles (but perhaps a few). But I'm in a routine now, whereas before I may have been in a rut. I came in contact with a lively trainer, and a lively/bustling group of people...and it revived me.

Life by association.

 ...Is that a thing? Maybe.

Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites would invade the land in the spring of the year. As they were burying a man, behold, they saw a marauding band; and they cast the man into the grave of Elisha. And when the man touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood up on his feet. - 2 Kings 13:20-21

This is perhaps the most random section of scripture I've ever read. And what makes it random is that 2 Kings 13:1-19 and 2 Kings 13:22-25 are not even remotely related to his occurrence. This account is seriously out of nowhere! But, this is the third recorded account of a resurrection from the dead. 

There are a couple of ways I could go with this: 

1. Create a "read-between-the-lines" metaphor-type blog that you might hear in a charismatic sermon somewhere. It goes something like this:    
   When your friends and your family gave up on you...when they left you for dead, God had the power to bring you back to life. Sometimes, people are beyond hope. But even in death. Even in the tomb, God can work a miracle. God can take the hopeless person who is dead, in a hopeless place like a graveyard, and give life. Can I get an "amen?" Or, 
   
   
2. I could try to figure out what happened in this scripture.

But, honestly, even that is reading between the lines, because it's two verses. But I break the two verses down like this (in my mind):

• Elisha died, and he was buried. 
• Another man died, and in haste (because bandits were coming), they threw the man into Elisha's tomb.
• When the man's dead body touched Elisha's dead body, the man came back to life. 

1 dead person + 1 dead person = 1 alive person?

We've see instances where 1 alive person has brought 1 dead person back to life. If someone drowns, they can breathe into your mouth, do chest compressions, and that person sometimes comes back. We've seen (in real life if you're a doctor, on TV if you're not) someone flat line, and someone charges up the paddles and shocks someone back into a heart rhythm. Who was gone.

But if both people are dead...? I'm thinking: it's chopped.

And so I've decided (and I may be wrong): there was something alive in Elisha's tomb.

And the man's dead body came in contact with something that, though it looked dead, was very much alive. And that man was revived. Life by association.

But what do I mean that Elisha, though dead, was alive? Well, I think scripture says eternal life is gained, while we are living:

Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 

- John 5:24

When does forever start?! It starts at hearing and believing the Word of God. And that happens, while you're still alive. While you're walking around, while you're going to work, and while you're trudging in to 5:00 a.m. workouts. We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8) in both the New Testament and the Old. Elisha was a man of intense faith in God, so I think it's fair to say he had already crossed from death to life before he was ever laid in a tomb. And when that dead thing came in contact with that living thing...life spread. By association.

Which is why, those of us who have already crossed over from death into life, should try to get as close to dead things as we possibly can. This is the charge of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19). It is getting close to dead things that Paul prescribes, in order to save some of them:

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

1 Corinthians 9:19-22

So, be careful who you associate with. And I mean that in the opposite way of how we usually mean it, but be careful who you associate with, because you might be able to show light, and therefore give life...by association.