Stephen Terry, Director

 

Still Waters Ministry

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Resurrections Before the Cross

Commentary for the October 29, 2022, Sabbath School Lesson

 

"The Raising of Lazarus" by Duccio di Buoninsegna
"...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]

 



[i] BBC Science Focus, "The Human Microbiome"

[ii] Genesis 5:24

[iii] 1 Corinthians 15

[iv] Romans 13:11-12

 

 

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Scripture marked (NIV) taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION and NIV are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.