(Did you know you can tweet any text on this blog just by highlighting it? Try it for yourself!)

When it comes to Passover, there’s too much. Too much love, too much anguish, too much joy. It’s easier to go numb than confront all that blood and power and beauty. So every year, a few weeks before the celebration, I ask God to bring it to life for me again.

This year, a bizarre detail of the gospel account caught my eye:

“The bodies of many people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

In Jerusalem, at this time of year, dead people walking around posed a huge problem. Everyone needed to be ritually clean for the feast. Going near a dead body would make them ineligible to celebrate one of the most important days of the year. This was so important they sent out crews from Jerusalem to freshly mark the graves on the route pilgrims followed to the city, so no one would inadvertently go near a grave.

Imagine their horror when tombs opened and, three days later, dead people started walking around the city! Not just the “usual” terror of witnessing the paranormal, but also the awful thought of being excluded for being unclean.

I wonder how they processed that. A few concluded that Yeshua was God’s son, but most found a way to explain it all away, just like people today. You can explain the sky growing dark at midday. You can explain earthquakes. But how do you explain dead people walking around?

Except, they weren’t dead anymore. They were alive by God’s power.

Today I spoke with a friend who was suicidal and pursuing a very destructive lifestyle. For years, she felt so trapped, she equated death with freedom. She described herself as “holding hands with death”. I was sick with grief for her, but every time I thought she’d hit bottom, things just got darker and more twisted.

Over the last few days, God has healed her and restored many of her broken relationships. Now she’s testifying to God’s power in her life every chance she gets.

She’s a dead person walking around. Except, she isn’t dead anymore. She’s alive by God’s power.

How is this possible?

How do we respond?

We can go numb to the miracles around us. Or we can explain them away. But since there’s no explanation, apart from the power of God, we’re celebrating, and inviting her into our celebration.

What was dead in your life, that’s now alive because of God’s power?