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Text: Mark 16:1-8 (1
Corinthians Life Beyond the Grave In the name
of him who was dead, and now lives and reigns forever, dear brothers and
sisters in Christ: Of all the questions
in life that sooner or later every person must grapple with, none is more
compelling than the big one: is there
life beyond the grave? I don’t need to
tell you that there are all kinds of answers to that question; but at the most
basic level, the question only calls for a simple yes or no. Either there is life beyond the grave, or
there is not. Now, throughout human history there have always been a very small number of people who assert, “No, definitely not. This is all there is. You live, you die, and then it’s all over.” I hasten to say again that they are the exception; and that usually they’re not even very consistent. It often happens that even the most passionate denier of the afterlife changes tune when standing before the grave of a loved one, or when facing his or her own mortality. Then, suddenly, however “unscientific” it may be, at least the possibility of there being life beyond the grave doesn’t seem to be such an unreasonable idea. And though such a person might attribute the thought to nothing more than the desire that it be true, I think there is a lot more to it. And that’s that deep down we all
know that there’s something more. It’s
built into us, this idea that human life has purpose and meaning and continuity. The Bible says it this way: that God has placed eternity in the heart of
man. He has given everyone the knowledge
that there is for us an eternal existence that is at present beyond our
perception. Some manage to suppress that
knowledge with limited success, but most do not. And for the vast majority of them, the simple
“yes” to the question of whether there is life after death is not enough. They require more detail. If there’s a life after death, then let’s
know something about it. Where is
it? When will it be? How long will it last? And what – especially what things in the
present – determines its relative quality? Every single one of the world’s
multitude of religions attempts to answer those questions. The vast majority, however, only give rather
hazy answers. Most of the eastern religions,
for example, promise the dying person repeated iterations of rebirth and death
(maybe as a human, or maybe as a animal of some kind) going on and on until
some higher state of being is achieved.
But who determines how many cycles are required, or under what
circumstances the next rebirth will occur … well, no one can say for sure. You just have to wait and find out. If you find yourself sticking to a tree trunk
leaving a slime trail behind you, you’ll know that you were reborn a slug (or
perhaps a tree-hugging lawyer) – so you must have really screwed up in your
previous life – except you won’t really know it, because you’ll have no
conscious memory of any of your previous lives; besides, slugs aren’t known for
their higher reasoning abilities. Really, you don’t get much more
from either Islam or Judaism. True,
there are no cycles of rebirth; you only get one shot. But after the end of your earthly life you’ll
stand in judgment. And you’ll be judged
according to your performance with respect to a list of divine commands or
mandates. But how severe the judging
will be is anybody’s guess. No one’s
perfect, and no one knows how many of the divine mandates you can mess up
before it’s one too many. You’ll just
have to wait and see. Though Islam does
give its adherents one sure guarantee:
if you die as a martyr against the enemies of Islam, you’re a shoe
in. So, if you know that your track
record of keeping the divine commands is really bad, that is to say, you’re a
pathetic excuse for a Moslem, the best thing to do is strap explosives to your
body and get on a bus filled with innocent passengers and blow yourself up
along with them. Then you’ll awake in
your own palace with a harem of seventy dark eyed lovelies attending your every
desire. At least that’s what some of the
learned holy men say. Others aren’t so
sure; and some say definitely not. So,
if you decide to try it, you’ll just have to wait and see what happens – but if
you’re a really lousy Moslem, perhaps it’s worth the risk. And hopefully by now you’re
beginning to see the point I’m driving at.
God has placed eternity in our hearts.
We know that there is a life beyond the grave. And so it’s only natural that we are curious
about it. Unfortunately, the world’s
major religions all fail to provide adequate answers. If you probe for the important details,
you’ll only get responses that are unsatisfactory, contradictory, or in the
case of Moslem martyrdom, too horrible to contemplate. They can offer no genuine assurance or
comfort to us in what are some of the biggest questions and concerns we all
have. And there’s an important reason
for that: the grave is sealed. It’s a one-way passage with a panic bar on
this side and a lock on the other.
People go in, but they do not come back out to tell of their
experiences. And so there’s a huge stone
of silence blocking the path to direct inquiry about the afterlife. And there’s no one in all these faiths who can
roll the stone away. And this is where Christianity
stands alone. To the biggest questions
in life our Christian faith gives the most direct and straightforward
answers. It can do it because the stone
that seals the grave has been taken away.
In fact, the central truth of the Christian faith is the absolute
certainty of life beyond the grave. The
whole of our faith rests upon it. St.
Paul goes so far as to say if there’s no resurrection – no life beyond the
grave, then there’s no Christianity. That’s why today, the Feast of the
Resurrection of our Lord Jesus, is the highpoint of the year for everyone who
is a part of the Christian church. Today
we celebrate our God’s triumph in Christ Jesus over death, the grave, and what
brought it all about: our sin and
rebellion against God – that is, our failure to keep the divine mandates. Sin brought death to us. But the angel’s words to the startled women,
“You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.
He is risen. He is not here” are
God’s declaration of victory over sin and death. And because the seal of the grave
is broken and the stone of silence is rolled away, we have all the pressing
questions answered by someone with first hand knowledge of the truth because
he’s been there and back. He was dead is
now raised to life. He answered the when
and where of life beyond the grave before he died, when he told a
dying thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”. How long the next life will last he answered
numerous other times when he said with equal clarity, “I give them life
eternal”, and “these will be forever with the Lord”. And to the question concerning what
about the present determines the quality of life beyond the grave, he has a
unique and surprising answer. All other
faiths and religions of men tie the answer directly to the performance record
of the individual with respect to divine laws and various purification
methods. They tell you what you must do
and not do to attempt to gain a future of blessed happiness beyond the
grave. But the Christian faith says that
can never work. The reason that you must
face death and the grave in the first place is your failure to keep the divine
laws. You die because your performance
record is no good. So anything dependent
upon what you do can only have the same result:
death. Because this is so, it
should be obvious that any possibility for an encouraging and positive answer
to the question cannot be found in yourself – it has to be outside you. And so we find that in Christianity, the
answer does rest outside you. You and I
are specifically directed to look away from our own pitiful track records of
performance, and to focus completely on the holy and perfect God who has done
all things for us. In Jesus Christ he
became a man and lived the perfect life that none of us could – a life that
didn’t deserve to end in death. But the
sinless One took upon himself the sins of all, and died the death we
deserved. This was the act of
purification and atonement that had to be made for us because none of us were
qualified. But when God who is life
faced death for his creatures, he conquered death for us and opened the way to
life. And to prove to us that the way to
life beyond the grave is clear and safe for those who trust in him, he rose
from the dead and showed himself alive. What that does is guarantee to us
that the answers he gives to the really big questions are true. We can be confident of it. And that makes all the difference in the way
we live now. We don’t have to worry
about the unknowns that lie beyond the grave.
We don’t have to “wait and see”.
Because we understand that Jesus Christ died for us and was buried, in a
very real sense, his death and tomb were ours.
As a matter of fact, he gives us the gift of Baptism to assure us of
that. The Scripture says that Baptism
directly connects us to his death and burial – we died and were buried with
him. And because he’s no longer dead, we
who are connected to him aren’t either.
We’ve risen from death with him.
So, if you’re looking for proof that there’s life after death, ask the
person sitting next to you if he or she was baptized into Christ and if they
believe that Jesus died for their sins and rose from the dead. [Go ahead and do it.] If they answered “yes” (and I hope they did),
you’re looking at someone who is already living beyond the grave. They are living proof of it. And so are you if you trust in Jesus. And that
must change the way you think about the upcoming deaths of these mortal bodies
we now call home. It certainly did for
the apostles of Jesus and those who came after them. As you read their writings in the New
Testament and other early church literature, you see that they stop calling
what happens to these bodies “death”.
They no longer use the word.
Instead they refer to people being “asleep in Jesus” – “asleep” because
they are sure to wake up again. It’s
like we’ve been hearing from the Whitehouse and the Pentagon for the past
month: yes, there’s a battle to be
fought; but the outcome is sure. The
resurrection of Jesus assures it for everyone who trusts in him; which means
that those of us who have heard the declaration of victory over death have the
responsibility to share it. Like the
women at the tomb who heard it from the angel, we are told to “go and tell”
those who have not yet heard, and who are still living in fear of an uncertain
future. At first the women were too
startled and afraid to speak – but we know that they were ultimately overcome
by the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and what it meant to them, and that
they hurried back to tell the others.
And we too, who by faith are already living beyond the grave, have the
privilege of announcing to a world of people without hope and without answers
to their biggest questions the best news of all: Christ is risen! Amen. Soli Deo
Gloria! |
