Sleeping

"Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep," John 11:11.

Why did Jesus speak of dead people as though they were sleeping? because he knew their death was temporary. He would bring them back to life. He would wake them up. He woke up a sleeping little girl. He woke up Lazarus. (They had been dead, right?) Sleep followed by waking up is like death followed by resurrection. Big note: without resurrection death and sleep have nothing in common. Jesus claimed: I am the resurrection and the life. He declared: Whoever believes in me, though they die, yet shall live. (No one else has that promise.) That's the only reason we can say with confidence that believers who died in Christ are asleep in Jesus. They go to sleep in anticipation of resurrection. Of waking up to for ever life. Not by their sleepful ability. But by God's power.

When we visit a brother or sister today we confess life in Christ wins. And together we give thanks to God in whom alone dwells immortality.