“…we have to look at death before we can be brought to God”
— John Calvin
One of my favourite theologians is John Mellencamp, whom Wikipedia describes as a “Grammy-winning American singer-songwriter, known for his rootsy, organic brand of heartland rock that is infused with evocative, introspective lyrics about such hot-button subjects as politics, racism, poverty, and mortality.” On his 2008 CD called Life, Death, Love, and Freedom, Mellencamp offers this lyric: “Life is short. Even in its longest days.”
He’s right. “Inevitably,” as a good friend wrote, “on this human journey I am going to die.” I may choose to live without giving it much thought, but at some moment and in some place, life as I know it will end. It may be an accident or illness that takes me, or I may live into old age, but a day will come when people will gather beside my casket. They will share memories and speak of times together. Whatever form the funeral takes, death is my destiny.
Death is the great leveler. People believe different things about what happens when we die — heaven or hell, reincarnation, nothingness. But we all share a common humanity, people of Christian faith, people of other religious faiths, and people of no faith: we’re all going to die. As someone quipped, the mortality rate among human beings is 100 per cent.
Looking at death is what theologians call eschatology (literally “words about last things”). Eschatology raises questions about the consummation of personal existence and the culmination of cosmic history. What is God’s ultimate goal for human beings? What can we know about God’s purpose for creation? What can we hope in the face of death? Let’s identify the core ideas in this doctrine.
First, Christians hope for the resurrection of the body, not the immortality of the soul. The resurrection of Jesus defeated death once and for all. Resurrection is, as the American Methodist Bishop Will Willimon says, “death working backwards, and it scares the hell out of us.” The resurrection of Jesus unmasks the fraudulent claim that death reigns.
A scene from the old television show M*A*S*H. makes the point. Frontline surgeon Hawkeye Pierce tries to resuscitate a dying soldier by pounding on his chest and massaging his heart. As he does he yells, “Don’t let the bastard win!” A visiting physician asks the commanding officer what Pierce means. Colonel Potter replies: “He’s talking about death. When it comes to death, Hawkeye is a sore loser.” The image of death as a “bastard” is apt — the illegitimate child of the universe in a world gone awry.
The resurrection of Jesus exposes the sting of death for what it is, an ugly lie. Apart from God, death is a threat. But in Christ, death — the last enemy — is destroyed. For the Apostle Paul this was the great hope of the believer: if Christ has been raised, then so too shall we (1 Corinthians 15).
Second, Christians hope for a new heaven and a new earth, not some ethereal existence floating on the clouds. As Living Faith says “Our hope is for a renewed world and for fullness of life in the age to come … our hope is for heaven, eternal life with God.” We’re not talking about some spiritual otherworldly realm, but about an entirely new and renewed reality, creation regained, beyond our imagining. The Bible is filled with pictures of what this might be like — an unending day, a marriage feast, a city bursting with life, the wiping away of every tear.
Third, Christians hope for an immediate experience of God’s glorious presence.
The Christian message emphasizes the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting as the ultimate fulfillment of human existence. But there’s a time problem. One day we will join Christ in the glorious Easter experience. What happens in the meantime? What does this future hope offer as I contemplate my own death, or the death of someone I love? What happens immediately at death?
This is what theologians call the intermediate state. To deal with this problem, some have suggested “that the human soul sleeps after death, awaiting the eschatological judgment and the eternal state beyond.” Others have proposed death as the immediate entrance into eternity, collapsing death and resurrection into one event. Time is a problem of history, not eternity. If, as Einstein posited, time is relative, then when you die, the end of all things has come for you (I have to confess some partiality to this view!).
The majority opinion, for Roman Catholics and Protestants, however, is the continuing personal, conscious disembodied existence of the soul. Roman Catholics add purgatory as a place of refinement in preparation for God’s presence. Protestants have emphasized that the soul immediately returns to God who gave it (see the Westminster Confession of Faith, 33.1). The challenge, of course, is to hold this together with the resurrection of the body.
That said, the great thing I must learn about death is that it’s not about me. If I were to die soon, my family and friends would mourn. It might be painful, but life would go on. The students, faculty and staff of Presbyterian College would pay their respects, but the General Assembly would soon appoint a new principal.
Jesus alone is indispensable and therefore the one whose face I want to see when I look at death; Christ crucified, risen and ascended. The Heidelberg Catechism puts it beautifully: “my only comfort in life and in death is that I belong — body and soul, not to myself but to my faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ … who assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.”
Near the end of his life, the theologian Karl Barth gave a radio interview and was asked whether he had any final words for the listening audience before he signed off. As it turned out, these were Barth’s last public words before he died at the age of 82. “The last word which I have to say as a theologian,” Barth said, “is a name. Jesus Christ. He is grace and he is the last, and what I have been concerned to do in my long life has been increasingly to emphasize this name and to say: There is no salvation in any other name than this.”
What happens when I die? We can’t walk by sight here. But by faith we know that even death itself cannot separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).
Study Guide:
- What is the difference between the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul and why does it matter?
- Discuss the difference between these three views of the intermediate state: immortality of the soul, soul sleep, and instantaneous resurrection.
- What is the hope of the Christian believer as set out in Chapter Ten of Living Faith?
- How does the Christian understanding of what happens at death differ from the views of other religions? Islam? Judaism? Hinduism? Buddhism? Or western secular thought?
- What does the Apostle Paul mean by “a spiritual body” in 1 Corinthians 15:35-58?
- The philosopher Immanuel Kant said there were three practical reasons for being a person of faith. It gives meaning to life, it provides a basis for morality, and it provides hope in the face of death? Was he right? Are there other good reasons for believing the Christian faith? If so, what might they be?
Discuss the ways in which contemporary funeral practices do or do not express the hope of the Christian faith.
