Dead or Alive? Ask Jesus.

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Inc. and renowned for ipods and computers, was in the news recently, commenting on the new elec- tronic book, Kindle, made by Amazon.com. “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is…the fact is that people don’t read any- more. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.”

As a person who thinks of himself as a reader, this was disturbing news. Many things go the way of the buggy-whip: CB radios, The Ford Pinto, Echinacea, The Smurfs (though they are staging a comeback, I hear). Time marches on. Things usually outlive their useful- ness. Could books be next? I wondered. Then I thought about Barnes and Noble, how many people are always there, and how Ama- zon.com is now the center of most shopping considerations. Which impression is correct? Steve Jobs’ or the long line I find myself standing in at Barnes and Noble all the time?

It turns out that Steve Jobs was quoting one study, one done by National Endowment for the Arts in 2004. That’s where he got his forty percent number. As is often the case, the conclusions and methodology of that study have been questioned. Another study suggests that number is closer to 27%. Still another study says there is a healthy contingent of people (25%) who read as many 15 books a year. We all know one or two bookworms.

Death is in the eye of the beholder. Deaths are often exaggerated. But there is no denying that death is part of our existence. We grieve the death of loved ones, the death of relationships, the death of hopes and dreams. Along with death comes pain, hardship and loss.

The most read book of all time is the Bible. It has a lot of death in it. Wars, disease, tragedies, pain, and separation are all a significant part of the narrative. And the Bible even features God braving the world in Jesus Christ. The world rejected his radical message of love, justice, and mercy, and killed him. Even God dies in the Bible, in the one called Jesus Christ.

Yet he came back to life. He was resurrected from the dead. That is what we celebrate this month at Easter, that Jesus went from dead to alive, and he brings his resurrection to all of us. So we needn’t fear death, but know that in Jesus we have life. Jesus is God’s final say on the death question. And as God’s people, we rejoice in this. From death to life becomes the pattern, thanks to Jesus.

for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:20

God made you alive together with him. Colossians 2:13

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved—Ephesians 2:5

for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:20

Happy Easter,

Pastor Jason Talsness