.jpg)
Articles
Cicadas & the Resurrection
This past week, if you were anywhere near a wooded area, it was nearly impossible not to notice the loud chirping of the cicadas. Their songs filled the air during my drive home from work, practically every afternoon last week. Indeed, it’s cicada season!
The cicadas (who are often mistaken for locusts) are amongst the most fascinating creatures in all of God’s creation. Their life cycle is unlike any other insect on the face of the earth. After playing their distinctive “songs” for a few days, cicadas will mate, and the eggs that the females produce will be hatched high within the treetops. The nymphs that spring from the eggs then drop to the ground and burrow into the earth where they will remain for the next 17 years!
During that time underground, the cicadas feed on sap from the tree’s root, in order to sustain nourishment and grow into an adult. And then at the conclusion of 17 years, billions of cicadas from all over the world, burrow up from beneath the earth, and emerge to sing their songs, and start this process all over again. Now whether God provides them a signal to come out of the ground, or has built an internal clock into their nature, I cannot say. But one thing is for certain: at the conclusion of those 17 years, the cicadas rise from the ground, right on time!
When picturing the “resurrection” of the cicadas, the spiritually-minded person can’t help but think about the resurrection of all mankind that will take place in the day of judgment. Because just like the cicadas, all men and women who have ever died and are buried in the grave, will come up from the ground to meet the Lord in judgment.
The very notion of a resurrection of the dead has been unfathomable to many people for ages now. The Sadducees of Jesus’ day did not believe in the resurrection (Mt. 22:23); some of the Greeks that Paul preached to in Athens mocked the idea of a resurrection (Ac. 17:32); even some Christians in the first century had difficulty accepting the teaching on the resurrection (I Cor. 15:12). So the fact that some people today still deny the concept of a resurrection of the dead, should come as no surprise.
However, the Christian believes that “with God, all things are possible” (Mt. 19:26) and that he does have the power to raise the dead, despite what men think (Ac. 26:8). If God has the power to call forth billions of cicadas from underneath the ground right on time every 17 years, surely he has the power to call forth the dead at his beck and call!
Furthermore, the Christian believes that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the tell-all sign that we, too, will be raised from the dead someday: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (I Cor. 15:20 ESV). Jesus’ victory over death is heaven’s pledge to us that we will also be “harvested” from the ground by the Lord. And those who have gone on before us will not be forgotten either: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (I Thes. 4:13-14 ESV).
Now whether a person believes in the resurrection or not, has no bearing on the certainty that this event will take place. This resurrection will be for all people who ever lived, regardless of their spiritual condition. Paul said in Acts 24:15 that this will “be a resurrection both of the just and unjust.” No one will be exempt from this resurrection, because at that time, all nations of the earth will stand before the judgment seat of Christ (II Cor. 5:10).
So realizing the certainty of this event, and the impending judgment that will follow, the question we need to ponder is this: Will you receive “the resurrection of life” or will you receive “the resurrection of damnation” (Jn. 5:28-29)? How you live NOW will answer that question.
