Resurrection Faith

“As Vice President, George Bush represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev’s widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev’s wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband’s chest. There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband” (Gary Thomas, Christianity Today, October 3, 1994, p. 26).

The resurrection of Jesus Christ has a long history of inspiring uncommon acts of faith and courage from very common men and women. What motivated Peter, the one who had denied Jesus before a servant girl the night before His crucifixion, to become the great defender who boldly proclaimed the faith in the face of physical beatings, imprisonments and threats of death? He knew that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead! What motivated Paul, who was a vocal critic of Jesus and actively persecuted His followers, to become one who shared the story of Jesus at great personal cost? He had been confronted by the resurrected Lord on the road to Damascus!

I know almost nothing about Mrs. Brezhnev’s faith. Was her faith biblically based? I don’t know. Did she have a clear understanding of every point of doctrine? I doubt it. But it does appear that she had some measure of resurrection faith and that faith caused her to make a silent but bold statement in the heart of an atheistic stronghold. Lord, please help me to have resurrection faith!

God loves you!

Mike