What happens after we die? This is one of the most basic religious questions. The Bible says some things about afterlife, but it is usually presented indirectly in the context of stories. The bible does not present a systematic treatment of the subject. It is not a Fodor’s Travel Guide to the Afterlife. The Bible is not like the Tibetan Book of the Dead, for example, which purports to guide the reader through the experiences that the soul has after death, during the interval between death and (in the Buddhist religion) the next rebirth. In the Biblical description of the hereafter, it is not at all clear how much of the Biblical language is to be taken literally and how much symbolically.
Are there real streets of gold? There is a joke about a guy who found a way to take his wealth with him to heaven. He converted all his wealth into gold bullion and somehow found a way to bring it with him to the Pearly Gates. St. Peter looks down at the wheelbarrow full of gold bars and say, “How nice of you to bring pavement!” Obviously the idea of streets of gold is not meant to be taken literally; it is meant to communicate the priceless value of eternal life and perhaps how worthless material wealth is in comparison.
Can we really know what happens after we die? There have been a lot of stories of Near Death Experiences in recent decades. People have been clinically dead for a few minutes and been brought back to life through medical intervention. Some of them have fantastic stories of going through a tunnel and toward a light, meeting a figure of light, and seeing loved ones. Skeptics say these are just hallucinations caused by the brain shutting down. Those who have had these experiences swear they are real.
Eastern religions talk about reincarnation. Roman Catholics talk about Purgatory. Traditionally Protestant Christians have spoken in terms of heaven and hell – mostly heaven. Hell is gradually becoming unpopular. American culture has TV shows and films about ghosts and spirits and a spirit world. I have no personal experience of the afterlife. People have shared with me their Near Death Experiences, but I do not know what to think of them.
Because I have no personal knowledge of the afterlife, I rely on the testimony of Scripture when it comes to what happens after death. I figure Jesus knows more about this subject than I do, and I trust his opinion. I tend to see the Biblical pictures of afterlife as trying to describe a spiritual reality using earthly language. The Apostles Creed uses two phrases to describe the Christian concept of afterlife. These two phrases end the creed, and this sermon today ends this series on the Apostles’ Creed. It says, “I believe in … the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” I will group my remarks this morning under these two categories.
I. First, the resurrection of the body. When most people – and even Christians - think of the afterlife, they do not think of bodily resurrection; they think of the immortality of the soul. But that concept comes from Plato and Greek Philosophy, not Jesus and Christian theology. My theology professor in seminary called it the oyster theory – that we are souls in a body like oysters in a shell. The idea is that at death we leave our earthly shells behind and are transported to a spiritual realm where we will spend eternity. End of story.
That is not the biblical concept of human nature or our eternal destiny. The Bible and Christianity have the strange idea that we are not designed to be permanently disembodied spirits. Our immediate experience after death is a purely spiritual one. Our spiritual essence – our souls if you want to call it that - do return to God, but that is only temporary. Scripture teaches that there is more; there is the resurrection of the body. Somehow in some way there will be a resurrection day.
Christianity has believed this because of the resurrection of Jesus. At Easter time we do not tell the story of how Jesus died on a cross and his soul left his body and appeared to the apostles as a ghost and then went to heaven. That is not the Easter story. The gospel writers make it painstakingly clear that the risen Christ was not a spirit. He was physically real. He could be touched. He could eat. In Luke’s Gospel, the risen Jesus says to the disciples, “Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
The teaching of scripture is that Jesus physically rose from the dead. And he wasn’t a zombie or a vampire or any of the other supernatural creatures that seem so popular these days in teen books and movies. The scriptures teach that Jesus really rose from the dead. Many people have a hard time with this teaching, and many theologians have tried to reinterpret it to mean something less physical. They will say it was a spiritual vision of Jesus that the apostles had, or that Jesus’ resurrection should be interpreted symbolically or metaphorically. But when you do that you are stepping away from historic Christianity. Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus actually rose from the dead. Furthermore it teaches that we will rise from the dead. The Apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:
12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
The next question then becomes what kind of resurrected body we are talking about. That is where our Epistle Reading for today comes in.
“35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” 36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. 39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh[a] of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”
I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t help me a whole lot? What the heck is a “spiritual body?” Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? Either it is spirit or body; it can’t be both, can it? As I struggle with this teaching, it comes down to a couple of issues for me. I think that the resurrection of the body is meant to communicate two truths. One is that the afterlife is real; the other is that it is personal. When we die we don’t just dissipate and that is the end of us. We don’t just live on in the memories of our loved us, and if we are lucky in the history books. We have a real existence after death.
I believe it will be more real than our present existence. This body of mine will perish. It will be destroyed. But who I really am deep down – deeper than body and deeper than my personality - will not cease. Atheists and humanists will think I am nuts and am deluding myself, that it is just wishful thinking and a denial of the finality of death. Maybe they are right; maybe when I die there will be nothing. If there is nothing after death, then I don’t have to worry about it because I won’t be around to worry about it.
But I think that you and I are more than just temporary physical beings. I believe that there is life after death and that it is real. And it is personal. The concept of the resurrection of the body is meant to communicate that we will have consciousness after death. That we will not just merge into the impersonal energy of the universe. We will not just dissolve into the ocean of Cosmic Spirit. I can’t believe we will be less conscious than we are now, less aware than we are now, less personal than we are now. We will be much more than we are now.
II. This brings me to the second phrase in the creed. “I believe in … the life everlasting.” Normally we call this eternal life. It is not just never-ending existence. I would not want that. There is a push these days to cure death. The February 21, 2011 issue of Time Magazine had a cover story entitled “2045, The Year Man Become Immortal.” The story covers a lot of ground, but part of it is the belief that medicine will cure death within the lifetime of some living today. I would be 95 in 2045 so I probably won’t life to see it, which is alright with me. I don’t want to live forever in this physical body on this earth. I want the life everlasting. I am looking forward to eternal life.
The Christian teaching of eternal life is not unending temporal existence. It is sharing in the very being of God. Eternal is not endless time and space. Scientists tell us that this earth had a beginning and it will have an end, just as the cosmos has a beginning and an end. Eternal life is to share the eternal life of God who has no beginning or end. When God grants us eternal life, he is not just giving us extended existence in time and space. God is inviting us to participate in his eternity beyond time and space.
This is where Jesus comes in. Before Jesus was born, he was the Eternal Word. John starts his gospel saying, “in the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the word was God…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” He is speaking of Jesus. Christ was God the Son before he was the Son of God. In Jesus God became flesh. Eternity entered time. The Infinite entered space. The unborn was born and the deathless died. God became a human being to redeem human beings from time and space and death. He sent his Son so that we might not perish but have eternal life.
God identified with man in Jesus Christ. When we identify ourselves with Jesus through faith, then we are caught up into the very life of God. Jesus shares his divine life, which is eternal – with us. That is what eternal life means. We are united with Christ through faith. We are one with Christ and therefore one with God. That is what Jesus prayed would happen on the night before he died. He prayed, “20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will[e] believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us….” That is eternal life.
We have been offered the amazing gift of eternal life. We can share in Jesus’ divine eternal life. And we don’t have to wait until we die. Eternal life is not some time in the future. Eternal life has nothing to do with time Eternity is here now. The question I asked at the beginning of this message is “What happens after we die? But the more important question is “What happens now?” Time and space are just the fabric of this creation that will pass away. But eternity is now. We can experience eternal life now. I experience it now. I am aware of it. Again, perhaps I am deluded, but I am happy in my delusion. Eternal life is more real to me than time and space. I don’t have to wait for the Kingdom of God, because the Kingdom of God is within me and in our midst and all around us. The Kingdom of God is here now.
The Holy Spirit is here now dwelling within us, and where the Spirit is, there is God. And where God is, that is where God reigns. Where God is, there is eternal life. That eternal life is apprehended and experienced by faith in Christ. It is identifying with Christ, his death on the Cross and his resurrection from the dead. In our union with Christ we live in him and die with him and rise with him. In him is life.
At the graveside of Lazarus Jesus had a conversation with Lazarus’ sister Martha about resurrection and eternal life. 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” That is faith, and that is life everlasting.
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