Rising from Death

As I was working on our Advent devotional, assigned dates and scriptures, I ran across Mark 9:9-13. The person who had that particular scripture associated with the date didn't use it, but as I read it, I was struck by a particular sentence:

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean. (Verses 9 and 10)

There is, of course, an obvious answer -- what does rising from the dead mean? They probably couldn't have even imagined what he meant by the phrase or what it foreshadowed. Even with the advantage of hindsight, I think it's a something that we can't even begin to understand.

Putting the obvious aside, though, what does it mean for us, right now? Is there life after death? Do we live a life in which we are dead only to be brought to real life after we come to know God? Does our life after death begin when we say "yes?" Does it begin every day as we continue to say "yes" to God?

If we live in the kingdom of God now, then isn't it true that we have already risen from the dead?

Image: Moon rise in Hungington on Thursday