John 14:15-21

John 14:15-21 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  We've all got a lot of questions about the universe and the world and good and evil and life and death and pain and suffering.  I've been reading The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, and what's fascinating to me is how immense the time frames are.  The author talks in terms of millions of years.  At the end of the Permian era, roughly 250 million years ago, volcanoes erupted for a few million years.  I can't even wrap my head around that.  When I think about things that take a long time, I think in terms of weeks or years.  Geologic history is just so much longer, and human life is but a blink of an eye, and I have so many questions about God's plan and God's Kingdom and redemption and life after death and heaven and hell.
  Here, Jesus is focusing us on one simple truth:  Because he lives, we will live.  Because Jesus rose from the dead, we, too, will rise from the dead.  Because he has been resurrected, we, too, will be resurrected, and will live with him forever.  It's as simple as that -- it's what we celebrate in baptism.  When Jesus Christ burst forth from the suddenly empty tomb on the first Easter morning and demonstrated his power over death, he was showing us that there was a way forward. 
  We don't have to have all the answers.  But we can trust that Jesus' life is a signal to us that we, too, will have life beyond what we can ask or imagine.