The Rev. Canon Dr. Brett Cane, November 7, 2010
Remembrance Sunday; 8:30 & 10:00 a.m., Act of Remembrance and Holy Communion
“Are You Clear About the Afterlife?”
Luke 20:27-38
Opening Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we are often so limited in our view of reality; help us now, by your Holy Spirit, to catch a glimpse of the afterlife to come, that we may live out the fullness of life in Christ today, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Have you ever heard folks say, “If Heaven is just sitting around on clouds playing a harp, then I want to be having a good time in Hell with my friends!” The Sadducees in today’s passage from Luke had a similar reaction to the after-life. They were a very secular and aristocratic religious party in Jesus’ day who denied much of the supernatural, including life after death and the resurrection.
Like many sceptics, they erected a straw-person – a caricature of the belief – and then proceeded to knock it down. Using rules laid down in the Old Testament for the continuation of a man’s name and property if he had died childless, they portrayed the ludicrous situation they thought would arise in heaven of a wife with seven husbands. Jesus shows that they were greatly mistaken – they had transferred ideas of life here to the life hereafter. There is a discontinuity between the two which requires a totally new way of thinking of what lies beyond.
But then there arises a query from all of us, “What does lie beyond the grave?” “After death, what?” On Remembrance Sunday this might have a special poignancy for some of us. Others may be reminded of other loved ones or friends they have lost more recently and still more might be wondering about their own ultimate destination. Today, I will attempt to address the question “Are you clear about the afterlife?” There is no way we can cover all the issues, but with the help of Scripture, we can paint a broad picture of what God wants us to see.
Through Death and Beyond
1. Christ has destroyed death and the fear of death: Let us tackle first what many of us feel as we look at death – a certain fear. It seems so final, such a break with what we have known, such a separation. But, for the follower of Jesus, there is good news. The author of Hebrews says, “Christ shared in our humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15).
Jesus, by his death has conquered death (Revelation 1:18); he is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25, 26); death has been swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54); he or she who hears the word of Jesus and believes in the One who sent him has eternal life and will not be condemned – they have crossed over from death to life (John 5:24). These assurances, which are found again and again throughout Scripture, give us a basis for our “sure and certain hope.”[1] It takes away our fear of what lies beyond. We may still worry about the process of dying, yet knowing we are in the hands of a loving Redeemer gives us courage and comfort to pass through that time of transition.
2. Difficulty of understanding the life beyond death: But what lies after that? Where do we go? What will it be like? The Bible gives us broad pictures, but is short on details. Perhaps it is impossible for us to see clearly. It is like trying to tell a baby in the womb what life is going to be like after birth. Imagine trying to explain to a foetus what life on the outside will be like.
The baby says, “What are these?” You reply, “Feet.” “And what are they for?” “They are for walking.” “What’s walking?” The baby says, “What are these?” You reply, “Eyes” “And what are they for?” “They are for seeing.” “What’s seeing?” The baby says, “What are these?” You reply, “Ears” “And what are they for?” “They are for hearing.” “What’s hearing?” and so on!
It is almost impossible to explain to a baby in the womb what life will be like after birth. It is the same with life after death. But the Bible does give us a way of helping us look beyond the grave through the concept of resurrection which the Sadducees in today’s story did not understand. Let us look at what they were missing so that, unlike them, we can be clear about the afterlife.
Resurrection
You may have noticed that Jesus speaks of the dead rising (Luke 20:37). The argument the Sadducees have with Jesus is that they don’t believe in the resurrection. (This is why they are sad-u-see!) Jesus speaks very confidently of the reality of this event in our Gospel passage and refers to people as “children of the resurrection” (verse 36). What does it mean that we are involved in “resurrection”?
1. The concept of resurrection: In describing the life beyond, people – even Christians – can become fuzzy and unbiblical in their thinking. Many believe in “the immortality of the soul” which means that humans have an existence independent of God, that their soul goes on forever, and that is part of their being in the image of God. However, the Bible says that God alone is immortal (1 Timothy 6:16), and our being in his image doesn’t involve immortality any more than it involves our being omniscient (all knowing) or omni-present (being everywhere) as God is. Our being in the image of God involves our capacity to have a relationship with him, to be a person, capable of making decisions. Humans are not independently immortal – our existence depends on God.
So, if immortality of the soul is an unbiblical concept, how do we as physical beings with bodies that decay very soon after death continue through to the life hereafter? A friend who is a physicist gave me a helpful analogy to understand this. He said that each person is a unique and complex series of patterns and interactions. There is no one else like you or me, but this series of patterns must be held together and expressed in some way. In this life, our bodies do that for us. Our physical nature is the framework on which these patterns exist and interact, which explains why the Scriptures emphasize the necessity for our spiritual convictions to be lived out and expressed through our physical and psychological beings. Our physical and spiritual natures are so intertwined that faith must be expressed in actions and our actions do affect our spiritual well-being.
So, at death, when our earthly body gives way, our existence is continued by the power of God. However, we are not ethereal spirits floating around, but securely resting in God’s care. At the resurrection, we are given new bodies, through which we express ourselves and communicate in a new and totally fulfilling way. So Christians speak of resurrection rather than immortality.
2. The “Intermediate State”: Before I go on, I will just touch on what happens in between our deaths and Christ’s return – the Day of Resurrection. We must remember that we will be outside of time so it is very difficult to speculate on what happens. Some see the intermediate state as being the paradise Jesus referred to when he spoke to the penitent thief on the cross beside him (Luke 23:43). The word “paradise” is not what we would think of as heaven but more like the garden of a palace where folks are gathering awaiting their final entry into the great house. However, the Bible also speaks about those who have departed as being asleep (1 Thessalonians 4:13-15). Using the picture of sleep, what happens when we die will be just like going to bed at night with our next conscious moment being our awakening in the morning – only it will be before the great white throne of God at the Day of Judgement and our joy at being welcomed into his presence. We can not speculate too much, suffice to say that we are safely in God’s care so we don’t have to worry about details of the “intermediate state” between death and resurrection.
3. Why we need resurrection bodies: We now come to the “life beyond” itself. Most Christians need a major shift in thinking when it comes to the hereafter. We appeal to folk to “Believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven when you die” making the assumption that the life to come is something “other worldly” in the sense of being ethereal and intangible – “up there” and sort of boring. In this scenario, talk of “resurrection bodies” sounds interesting but doesn’t seem to fit in with heaven, which is a spiritual dimension, right?
Yes and no! Bishop Tom Wright points out that we have misunderstood verses such as “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you…the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5). We think this implies that we have to go to heaven to enjoy our salvation. But “‘Heaven’ in the Bible is not usually a reference to a future state, but to God’s dimension of present reality, that dimension which is normally hidden from our gaze but where God’s purposes are stored up. The point is that salvation is being kept safe in heaven for you, in order then for it to be brought from heaven to where you are, so that you can enjoy it there.” Bishop Tom continues:
It is rather like a parent, in the run-up to Christmas, assuring the child that “there is indeed a present kept safe in the cupboard for you.” That does not mean that on Christmas Day and thereafter the child is going to have to go and live in the cupboard in order to enjoy the present there. Rather, it means that at the appropriate time the present will be brought forth out of its safe hiding-place, so that it can enrich the life of the child in the world of real life, not just the cupboardly world.[2]
This perspective is reinforced by the description given in Revelation: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:1-2). The fact that it speaks of both a new heaven and a new earth and coming down “from God” should alert us to the fact that the life beyond is not “other-worldly” but a totally new and united expression of existence, a restored heaven and earth.
What’s more, this final state is so all-encompassing, that the Bible speaks of it in terms of a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1). Romans 8 speaks about the whole of creation being “liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). The whole of creation, not just ourselves, will be restored and renewed. The effects of sin and rebellion will be reversed and the new order established. Far from being “other-worldly” and “ethereal,” this new expression of existence will be more solid and real than this one. C. S. Lewis, in his book, “The Great Divorce,” pictures heaven as being so solid that the people visiting it on a day trip from hell find their shadowy beings can not even take the pain of walking on the grass; the life to come is real and enduring. This is why we need resurrection bodies – to partake of the new, eminently solid and concrete dimension of the life to come.
4. What the resurrection body is like: This leads us to the question of what our resurrection bodies will be like. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 15 (37ff). He describes the resurrection body – that new entity through which we shall be perfectly expressed – using a very helpful analogy. He says that the comparison of our present physical body to the one we shall have in the hereafter is like that of a seed to a plant. The former contains within it the germ of what the plant will become, but we could never guess the beauty of the plant from the little seed in which it began.
To catch a glimpse of what such a body will be like, Paul points to the resurrection body of the Lord Jesus. After Jesus rose from the dead, people could recognize him, but he was somehow different. He could appear and disappear and pass through locked doors, and yet he could be touched and felt. He was physical but in a new way. Similarly, our new bodies will be totally under our control – I imagine we will be able to think where we want to be and, like the members of the Star Trek Starship Enterprise, “transport” ourselves over. Many of you know I refer to Jesus’ final ascension to heaven as “beaming-up.”
Some of you may have felt a tinge of sadness at hearing Jesus say to the Sadducees that there will be no marriage in heaven. Don’t despair! If our most meaningful human relationship now is as a seed, think what depth and delight will characterize our heavenly relationships – the plant. We can only imagine the possibilities of complete union and harmony with everyone. (For those of you who are “Star Trek, Deep Space Nine” fans, it might be something akin to the “link” which the “Founders” experience.) Our reunion with loved ones will be far deeper than anything we have known so far. The resurrection state will be vastly superior to what we know now.
Resurrection Hope
Meanwhile, though, for all of us here – that time has not yet come – “We groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). For those of us with disabilities or ill-health, we look forward to a time when those limitations will be no more. Being clear about the afterlife gives us new hope and spurs us on to live fully for Christ here and now. This is illustrated by a story from Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, which is most appropriate on Remembrance Sunday:
A nurse came up to me after I’d just spoken and said, “Hal, will you please come and meet a soldier I brought over from the veterans’ hospital? He accepted Christ as His Saviour and Lord as a result of my reading your book to him. It really took courage for him to come here tonight – he’s in great pain because both arms and legs have been amputated. He lost them in Vietnam.” When I walked up to the wheeled stretcher on which he was lying, the young man looked up with a radiant face and said, “Tell me, Hal, will my new body have arms and legs?” While choking back tears I turned to Philippians 3:20 and 21 and read:
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”
“Jim,” I said, “your body will be like Jesus Christ’s glorious body. We know that His resurrection body is perfect, so we know that yours will be, too.” [3]
On this day of Remembrance, grasp afresh the fact that in Christ we can be clear about the afterlife and look forward to the joys of the resurrection.
[1] Book of Common Prayer, Burial Office, pg. 602.
[2] N. T. Wright, New Heavens, New Earth, B11 in Grove Biblical Series. (Cambridge: Grove Books, 1999), pg. 7.
[3] Hal Lindsay, with C. C. Carlson, The Terminal Generation. (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell,1976)
