Does Christ really command the Church to raise the dead? PART  B

 Does that mean every prayer for resurrection produces the result we desire?

The answer is no.
The Church is not a spiritual machine.
Prayer is not a technique.
Faith is not magic.
The Apostles themselves did not possess resurrection as a personal power they could deploy at will.
They remained servants. Christ remained Lord of Lie and death.

Even miracles occur as gifts, not as rights.
The Church does not say: “I know what God must do.”
The Church says: “Lord, have mercy.” “Thy will be done.”
Yes, we ask boldly. We trust deeply. We surrender finally.

And perhaps the tension between PART’s A and B is exactly where the Church must live.
Part A says: Never stop prayer to God for the impossible.
Part B says: Never imagine that God has become your employee.
Or, put another way: Christ commands us to pray for resurrection.
Christ never commands us to control resurrection.

The Church cannot quietly edit out the difficult bits.
The Kingdom of God confronts sickness, sin, demons, and death itself.
The Church therefore prays for healing.
The Church prays for deliverance.
The Church prays for resurrection.
Otherwise, we have reduced the Gospel to moral improvement and community support.

The reality is this: not confidence in our power, but confidence in His.
The Church asks for the impossible precisely because she knows she cannot accomplish it herself.
Perhaps the proper response to all of this is prayer.
Not a prayer of certainty that we know exactly what God must do.
Not a prayer attempting to control God. But a prayer of trust:
Lord, I know not what to ask of You. You alone knowest my true needs.
You love me more than I myself know how to love.
Help me to see my needs that are concealed from me.
I dare not ask for a cross nor consolation; wherefore I only wait upon You.
My heart is open unto You. Visit and help me, according to Your great mercy.
Strike me down and heal me; cast me down and raise me up.
In silence I worship Your holy will and Your unsearchable ways.
I offer myself as a sacrifice unto You.
I have no other desire than to fulfill Your holy will.
Teach me to pray, and pray You Yourself in me. Amen. (attributed to Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow)

Fr Ray Dobson (C) 2026