Stephen
Terry, Director
Resurrections
Before the Cross
Commentary
for the October 29, 2022, Sabbath School Lesson
"...Jesus
called in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!' The dead man came out, his hands
and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face."
"Jesus
said to them, 'Take off the grave clothes and let him go.'"
John
11:43-44, NIV
Many years ago, I had the
opportunity to discuss truth with a judge who had recently joined the church. I
wondered, when faced with all the prevarication rampant in society, how a judge
could get at the truth amidst conflicting testimonies. He shared that the truth,
no matter how bizarre it might appear, was always consistent. We explore that
consistency in this commentary regarding the ability of God to give life, not
just initially, but even when it has been taken away later.
Ironically, as an entire genre
of horror in the visual and literary arts is resurrected each year for the
celebration of Halloween, itself being based on the idea of corrupt flesh rising
again to afflict the living, many of those devotees to such fantasies deny the
possibility that there is a resurrection of the dead to come. They laugh off
the idea that the death of one individual on a cross on Golgotha could in any
way make possible resurrection, life from death as it were.
But God, being the source of all
life, always had the power to give life to whomever and whatever he chose. In
our case he chose dirt. For the rest of Creation, his word was enough. Dirt was
an excellent choice for us since our thirty trillion human cells are balanced
in a biome with thirty-nine trillion microbes: bacteria, viruses, and fungi.[i]
When these get out of balance with one another, disease and even death can
ensue. Paranoia about this may cause us to feel the need to eradicate all such
microbes with a prodigious use of disinfectants to hopefully wipe the slate
clean and reboot the body into its perfect initial state. But not only have
these microbes been a part of our biome our entire lives, they are essential to
our existence in several ways. One such example, is if we get too much sugar,
the fungi can gain the advantage, even increasing our craving for sugary foods.
This gives them a competitive advantage over beneficial bacteria. The resulting
imbalance can set us up for a full-blown candida infestation that will take
antifungal medicine to bring back into balance. This idea of maintaining a
balanced biome is why so many take daily doses of probiotics. This is often
recommended when taking a course of antibiotics to help keep the fungi from
taking advantage of the reduced bacteria count. Our understanding of these
things demonstrates how far we have come from a simple stick figure like painting
on a neolithic cave wall being an adequate representation of the human condition
and the microscopically detailed understanding we have today. Nonetheless, it
all seems to come back to dirt, whether the dust of the ground that gave us
Adam in Genesis, the dirty cave wall with its simplistic renditions of humanity,
or the complex data sets formed with MRIs, CAT scans, and metabolic panels from
lab work.
Despite the progress we have made
in understanding our biology, there remains a holy grail to be found. We have
yet to understand the source of the human consciousness and thereby that spark
that differentiates life from death. Unfortunately, that lack of understanding
gives rise to imagined possibility of a whole host of specious ideas. Zombies,
vampires, animated mummies, and ghosts all derive from the idea that some consciousness
survives death. But this belief is one in nature with spontaneous generation,
the belief that flies can spontaneously generate from a piece of raw meat. That
belief was put to rest when someone thought to place a cover over the meat to
keep the flies from laying eggs in it. Once covered "spontaneous" generation in
the meat no longer took place. We have gotten to the point where science
demonstrates through tracking of brain activity that consciousness ends. But
the belief otherwise persists bolstered by tales of near-death experiences by
some purporting to prove life and consciousness after death for all.
Some offer as biblical proof of
this the parable of "Lazarus and the Rich Man," shared by Jesus. However,
offering a parable as proof of something that had nothing to do with the point
of the parable is abuse of the parable. This would be in the same vein as
offering up Aesop's parable of "The Fox and the Grapes" as proof that foxes can
talk. That was not the point of Aesop's parable and conscious, unconditional
immortality is not the point of Jesus' parable. His point was that justice will
out, and we should be careful how we treat others before it is too late to
correct. Besides if we place that parable on one side of the scales and all the
other texts from scripture that speak forthrightly about what happens when we
die, we find that the side containing the Lazarus Parable has little to no
weight in the overall argument.
But then there are the outliers.
For instance, there is Enoch whom God "took."[ii]
Many take this to mean that he joined God where he is without experiencing
death, though Genesis never actually says that. It may mean the opposite. Even today
we use euphemisms to describe death such as "He went to be with God," or "God
took my child to be with him." In neither case does it mean the person in
question did not die.
A more direct example of a person
going directly to heaven is that of Elijah ascending in a fiery chariot. That
incident was so singular that many people searched for Elijah for days, not believing
that he was able to go directly to heaven without experiencing death. But he
was not found either dead or alive. and was not seen again until the Mount of
Transfiguration experience recorded in the Synoptic Gospels.
This brings us also to the story
of Moses who did die, and likewise, his body could not be found, only to also
reappear at the Mount of Transfiguration. This gives credence to the idea that
whatever the manner of the transition, these individuals were honored with an immediate
entrance into the presence of God. Some have said that their appearance on the
Mount of Transfiguration with Christ is symbolic. Elijah represents all those
who, although living at the Parousia, will be taken to heaven without experiencing
death, and Moses represents those who have died but nevertheless are
resurrected at the Parousia. Both classes of individuals are represented in
Paul's resurrection homily found in chapter 15 of his first letter to the
Corinthian believers.[iii]
But this explanation of the transfiguration experience begs a question. Why was
Elijah chosen over Enoch to represent those translated while living? If the
Bible narrative is accurate, Enoch walked with God far longer than Elijah. But
then whether he was translated or died is opaque to us.
A more puzzling conundrum would
be those individuals who died and were resurrected, not to heaven, but back to
this life of struggle and pain. The widow of Zarephath, who cared for Elijah
during a famine, had a son who died, and Elijah raised him back to life and restored
him to her. This would be an irony if, as some believe, we go to heaven upon
death. How could being resurrected back to our current life ever compare to
that? But if death is only a sleeping unconscious state, then we might see how
returning to life may be an advantage, even temporarily, for both child and
mother, instead of sleeping in the dirt awaiting the last trumpet. We could say
the same of those resurrected from death by Jesus during his three-and-a-half-year
ministry. If his other miracles of healing the lame and lepers and restoring
sight to the blind are any indication, those miracles were all aimed at
improving the life of the person healed. It makes sense that his miracles of
resurrection, to be consistent with the rest of his ministry, would be for the
same purpose. To deny someone the opportunity to pass immediately to heaven
would not fit that mold. But to restore them to life and consciousness would be
a great benefit beyond eons in the grave. Besides, that time will come all too
soon for all of us in any case.
Although we never hear from them
again, I cannot help but wonder what happened with those given the gift of more
life in this world. What did they do with that gift? Did the widow of Zarephath's
son make a difference with those years restored to
him? Did the people resurrected by Jesus change the direction of their lives?
Were they a blessing to a world that was almost bereft of their presence? We
cannot know this side of the Parousia, and when we are on the other side, we
may feel it no longer matters. But we can ask ourselves regarding our own short
span of years above ground, "Am I making a difference with the days, months and
years granted to me?" One day, the opportunities to love others, treat them
with kindness, and do what we can to care for them will quickly pass like a
vapor. When we are young, the time seems almost endless, but when we are old,
we discover how quickly half a century can fly by. The opportunity for change
is never tomorrow, and certainly not yesterday. It is now.[iv]