Remember, Jesus WAS RAISED.

Hey Timothy,

      This is your dear ol' dad, a.k.a. Prisoner Paul, with a quick note before I head off.  Some things for you to think over:  Don’t forget that Jesus is alive… 

What!!?  Seriously?  He’s not writing to little Timmy.  Timothy is running the church at Ephesus, and Paul has just finished telling him to train teachers, of teachers of the gospel.  Why tell the top educator at Ephesus to remember the most basic point of every class?  How could he possibly forget?  This fact is secure my brother.  It’s not going anywhere.  Don’t mention it for thirty years, and even if he completely loses his marbles, he could probably still tell you.  So why does he say it?  Because, it is the most important truth. 

        “REMEMBER, THAT JESUS CHRIST, THE SEED OF DAVID, 

WAS RAISED

FROM THE DEAD, ACCORDING TO THE GOOD NEWS I PREACH.” 

(2 Tim 2:8)

Paul says in another letter, look, if Jesus wasn’t raised, this whole thing is a sham.  At the risk of looking like I’m chasing my own tail, I’m gonna ask this question.  If it’s the most important concept why does Teacher-Trainer Tim need reminding???  OK, it helps to look at context.  This number-one concept, has a name.  It’s the name of a person.  A little further along we see that it’s a person from a particular family.  The founding principle of this subject has ancestors!  He’s not telling Timothy to remember a formula, not the quadratic something-or-other for some kind of fancy math, not a chemist’s recipe, not a lesson in grammar, or etiquette, or something he learned in Phys-Ed, which is maybe the closest, but not it!  Timothy, remember this person, and not like Great Aunt Bertha who died a few years back.  Oh wasn’t she the nicest old lady.  No!  I mean, yes she was nice, but don't think of him like that! 

Don’t remember him that way!  He was raised!  If Chief Burns died somehow, you’d hear tell of it soon enough.  Since you haven't, when you think of him, he’s still around.  You'll probably see him soon.  His memory to you is more than the charred remains you find when sifting through the ruins of your mama’s scrapbook!  He fits into your understanding as a man of proper authority, going about his business today like the rest of us, except he's dispatching justice, and seeing to it the citizens are protected and served, and criminals tried, unless for some reason in your mind he was the fire chief.  If you have trouble, you may call him.  You might expect an answer.  He never takes too long to get back to me.  Finally, if something wakes you to gratitude for his service of the community, you may attend his celebration.   

Timothy, remember this living man, the king, our friend, Jesus.



Jonathan Parnell speaks to the point right (here.)