The Boy Who Walked Away Alive

Have you heard about the boy who died?

There is a scene in Acts chapter 20 where Luke records something miraculous that occurs in the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Late one night in a well lit upper room, Paul is sharing the good news of the Kingdom of God with a group of disciples in Troas. As night wears on, a young listener named Eutychus is overwhelmed by sleepiness and tragically falls out of a window to his death.

Paul descends the stairs of the building and hovers over the boy. In the same way that Jesus assured the ruler whose young daughter had died, so Paul issues forth comfort in his speech, saying, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him” (Acts 20:10 ESV). This calls to mind life-giving resurrections told of in the ministries of Elijah and Elisha as well. The miraculous happens again, and they took away the boy alive.

How can this be? How can the dead be made alive? Who invests this resurrection power to defeat this solemn and universal enemy? Truly this is the point of the story, that the God of all creation has sent forth his Son and Spirit to bring people from death to life by resurrection power.

The story ends with us hearing that as they took the boy away alive, they were greatly comforted. There is nothing better than being united with the God of all comfort, and we can be comforted because of the sinless Son taking our place and paying our penalty.

Elsewhere, Paul will tell us that beyond the physical resurrection comes an even greater one – God is in the business of making spiritually dead people - those trapped in slavery to sin and fear of death - alive again. It is what he has done for me. There was a day in 2015 where the phrase could be said of me, as I walked out of the doors of a church in Downtown Minneapolis, “They took away the boy alive.”

God is in the business of making spiritually dead people alive in Christ, through the gospel, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ means the gateway to true life is open. Therefore, God is a God of reconciliation, making the way of peace possible through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

Have you been made alive?