New Kids At The Grown Ups Table

I haven’t blogged in quite a while. With all the loss and stress and demands of the past few weeks I have had other priorities.

But I thought it was important at this juncture in our lives together to talk about death. It is important because of how confusing it can be for so many. The different perspectives and often conflicting messages we get in the world around us, and how huge the feelings and emotions are that we experience in the face of such loss.

Before moving forward in developing our theology of death, it must be stated again that theology is meant to explain (whether well or partially) what we find in scripture. It is not meant to dismiss or make irrelevant or alienate a person from their feelings and experiences of loosing loved ones in death. Theology is meant to guide and encourage, not bludgeon and condemn us when our grief and love have at us at odds with our theology. We are human beings who are growing and who struggle. We are not perfectionists who always believe right and act right. If you are going through grief and struggling with loss and death, my prayer is that these thoughts will help not hurt. If it does hurt, put it aside until such a time as you are ready.

So here are some important pieces of information about death that we find scripture:
1. Death is not natural. It is something that comes after the fall (Gen 3:22) and serves God’s purposes for redemption (John 11)
2. Jesus resurrection has broken the power of death (1 Tim 1:10) and the power of the one who uses death to deceive and destroy – the devil (Heb 2:14)
3. Death is called the last enemy. (1 Co 15:26) Believers are promised that one day they will celebrate the complete victory over death (1 Co 15:54)
4. Death itself will be destroyed (Rev 20:14, 21:4) even as Jesus has already overcome it.

What is important to remember is that the scriptures say far more about life and living in faithful relationship to the Lord than they ever do about death “per se” or the after-life. Jesus famously declared in Mark 12:27, “[Our God] is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

With these things in mind, what is that we can say about death? How do we think about it, explain it, hold some of the tensions we feel about the future hope and the present reality?

We can say that physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. It is never a cessation of existence. Its purpose is to “humble the proud, mortify carnality, check worldliness, and foster spiritual-mindedness”. (Louis Berkhof, I think) Or, to update the language a little, to remind us of our fragility and limitations in the light of our immense egos, to let us know that there really is more than just this life, to keep us from living in whatever way we please without accountability, and to have an ever-present reminder that things are not just as they appear.

I look at death as a reality that checks my (all of humanity’s) prodigious rebelliousness. It is a tool in the hands of God that is part of the judgment for sin, one that will be discarded at the proper time. For those who belong to Christ the fear of death is replaced with a very real hope.

The real wisdom is how do we live in light of the (temporary) reality of death? We live in faith and obedience, waiting for the promised resurrection, focused on adoring God and cherishing others. (BTW, the resurrection is physical just like Jesus at the end of the gospels. No floating on clouds like fat little cherubim with harps.)

I know this barely scratches the surface of the questions and issues. What happens to the soul? In both the Old and New Testaments the immortality of the soul is affirmed: Job 19:25-27, Ps 16:9-11, Ps 17.15; Ps 73.23,24,26; Mt 10:28; Lk 23.43; Jn 11.24; 2 Co 5.1. What about other ideas like “soul sleep”, “annihilationism”, or “conditional immortality”? (I don’t hold to any of these, though some do) What about “hell”, “Sheol”, “the grave”?  What happens to people between their death and Jesus’ return? 

If people want to talk more about these kinds of question, I’m happy to continue. But for now, please know that the scriptures give us a picture and an explanation for understanding some aspects of death and other questions that are closely tied to it (suffering, the problem of evil, etc). It is important to know what our orthodoxy teaches us if we are to maintain hope and faith in light of competing ideas about death and eternity that come at us from so many different sources (other religions, popular books and movies, personal hopes, etc.).

Above all else we need to remind ourselves that all things, even death, have placed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ (2 Co 5:6-8, Phil 1.21). In the fullness of time, at just the right time, he says that he will return to complete the work that he started. A big part of the work is doing away with death itself.