Sermonstudio

In an ever-lengthening pastoral ministry, I have had occasion to officiate more funerals than I can count. Some are more memorable than others. My father-in-law's, for example. He was 76 years old and suffered from Alzheimer's. He was a good husband, father, brother, friend, Pop-pop, even in-law (and, no doubt, I sometimes made that difficult). Fred Eaton served his country with distinction as a pilot during World War II flying over 100 missions both in Europe and the Pacific. He was forced to ditch in a swamp in Papua, New Guinea, where he and his crew dodged the Japanese for several days (eating nothing but what they could forage from the land -- until his last days, Dad would not eat anything with gravy on it because he wanted to know what was going in his mouth). Eventually he led his men to safety with exploits that make the stuff of television movies.

After he left the service (having been awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Purple Heart and having attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel), he became incredibly successful in business. For seventeen years he served as president of Sears in Venezuela, representing not only his company but his nation with distinction in a foreign land. He was so highly thought of that the president of Venezuela awarded him the prestigious "Amigo de Venezuela," one of the highest honors that can be accorded a foreign national in that land. Sears inducted him into their corporate hall of fame to honor his marketing expertise. He was quite a man. His passing was a loss.

One thing his death was not was a blessing. I said at his funeral, if I never again hear, "It's a blessing ... It's a blessing," it will be too soon. Oh, I know. The ravages of the Alzheimer's were brutal -- no one could have wanted Dad to continue to live that way. Just a few days before his death, my wife and I were talking -- she was in tears; she asked, "How do you pray for your daddy to die?" We did not lose Dad the day he died -- we had lost him long ago. But it was not a blessing. The apostle Paul called death "the last enemy" (1 Corinthians 15:26).

Paul had a good deal to say about death and about what comes after for God's people. That passage from 1 Corinthians, for example. Apparently some folks in the early church were questioning this bedrock belief -- that after life comes life, so Paul felt compelled to address the issues.

First, is there life after death at all? Absolutely, says Paul. He writes, "Look, this whole thing about life after death is something you have been taught from the beginning" (1 Corinthians 15:12 cf). It has been taught as a fact because it is so well attested as a fact. We have proof. Our risen Lord has been seen by too many people to be denied, including one appearance to over 500 at once. And Jesus' promise has always been, "Because I live, you also will live" (John 14:19).

"Let's be practical about this," he goes on. "If this life is all there is, it makes no sense for me to put myself through the troubles I have had or to ask anyone else to undergo any persecution or even the slightest difficulty for the sake of the gospel ... or for the sake of anything for that matter. Why not just look out for number one and let everybody do as they please? There is no justice in the universe. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die, and we will never have to account for anything we do because once you're dead, you're dead! No resurrection. Case closed. Pretty lousy, huh?" (1 Corinthians 15:29-32 cf). But Paul does not leave it at that: "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20). Resurrection is a fact!

Paul would continue in the chapter and address the subsequent question: "If there is life after death -- resurrection -- what kind of body will we have?" (1 Corinthians 15:35 cf). And that question is one that puzzles Christians even today.

Some time back a newspaper account was headlined, "Who Ate Roger Williams' Bones?" The Roger Williams in question being the religious reformer who founded the colony of Rhode Island. It seems that a local historical society decided to dig old Roger up and rebury him in a more suitable place. But they discovered that an apple tree had grown up through the original burial plot and much of Roger Williams had ended up in apples ... and of course the apples ended up in a lot of other people. Whatever became of Roger, and with what body will he be raised?

There is one aspect of the heavenly life that Paul does not discuss in this chapter: family reunion. Frankly, the idea of an afterlife without Christie and the kids would be hell, not heaven. Paul did not deal with that, but Jesus did.

If you recall, some folks who did not believe in life after death confronted Jesus one day with a strange scenario (Matthew 22:23-28). They described a childless woman whose husband died. Tradition demanded that her husband's brother marry her, which he did -- then he died. The next brother married her; he died. This first century Typhoid Mary went through seven brothers before she finally ran out (and I tell you, had I been number six or seven, I would have run out). The question posed to Jesus was, "In the afterlife, whose wife will she be?" Jesus responded, "Don't worry about that. Family relationships are going to be different over there."

Different in what ways? I cannot answer that. But if the Lord says earthly relationships will be changed, the change will be for the better. If he has not chosen to explain just how the changes will be made, perhaps it is because we would not understand the explanation anyway.

Unfortunately, there is much about the life beyond this life that we do not understand. But, when it comes down to it, we really do not need to know anymore than we already do. We have the promise that the new life is a fact because there has already been one who has shown it to us: Jesus Christ. We have the promise that the new life will be infinitely better than this one. And we have the promise that the God who controls it all loves us more than we could ever imagine, so much that he would let his own Son die so that we might live. Knowing all that, we do not have to understand. We will have life after life!

My wife spent some of her high school years at Northfield in Massachusetts. Northfield is a school that was founded by one of the most famous evangelists of the last century, Dwight L. Moody. In fact, his grave is on the campus.

I love what Moody said: "One day you will read in the paper that D. L. Moody of East Northfield, Massachusetts, has died. Well, don't believe a word of it. I shall have gone up higher, that's all, out of this old clay tenement into a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And at that moment, I shall be more alive than I have ever been." Life after life, indeed.