RESURRECTION

Dr. Richard J. Henderson April 30, 2006

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Psalm 133
John 20:19-31

A young woman comes to talk with her pastor after the death of a close friend. She had known this woman her whole life. "I am still dealing with her death, even though it has been months since she died. I know we believe in eternal life, but I have to tell you, I'm not so sure about this immortality of the soul thing. It doesn't feel right. I mean, what is a soul anyway? Where is it? Is it something inside us? At death does my soul go off to be with God?"

"First, your continuing grief is normal. It takes a great deal longer than most of us think to deal with the death of someone we love. Sometimes we never completely get over it. Second, Christians don't believe in the immortality of the soul. We believe in the resurrection of the body."

"Yea, yea, but it's pretty much the same difference. You're talking church talk now. You're splitting fine hairs."

"Actually, there is a huge difference. It has to do with what we are like as people and what God is like. The difference is whether God has the power of afterlife, or if it is built into us as humans."

"I don't get it."

"Immortality of the soul says that we humans have a soul, which is different from our bodies. The soul that everyone has is immortal; it never dies. Those who believe in the immortality of the soul believe that when we die, our soul leaves our body and goes on living. Our body disintegrates, but our soul lives on. Immortality of the soul is about us, about what it is like to be human. It says we are divided between a body and a soul, or in our bodies we all have a soul. Usually, it's assumed that the body is basically bad and the soul is good. It's an old Greek idea that goes way back."

"But today we understand ourselves to be whole beings. My body affects my idea of myself; that's one of the reasons we have so many people constantly on diets. You know, we say we want to 'feel better about ourselves,' by changing how our bodies look. As Christians, we don't see ourselves divided, but as whole persons. We are one."

"So you're saying Christians don't believe in the immortality of the soul?"

"That's right."

"Are you sure about this? I've always heard our soul lives on after we're gone."

"We haven't done a very good job of clarifying this, I admit; but yes, Christians believe in the resurrection of the body, not the immortality of the soul."

"So how is resurrection different?"

"We believe that God has the power to raise us up from death, not that humans come with a built-in immortal soul."

"Huh?"

"Belief in the resurrection of the body says that all of us die - and all of us dies. We are really dead; nothing lives on within us. But because God loves us, God raises us up from death to life. We die but God has the power to bring us back from death. We are really dead, every part of us, and God in his love raises us up. When Jesus died on the cross, he really died. There wasn't a little light still burning inside him. He was dead. But God raised him up from death and gave him life again. It's not that we have a little part of us that can never die; it is that God has the power to raise us up from death to life. "

"OK, if this is true, you mean our bodies don't die; this flesh and blood is somehow made to live forever, as if it were made of fiberglass?"

"No. Our bodies decompose but God gives us a new kind of body. Paul has a neat way of putting it, he says, 'We know that if our earthly dwelling were taken down, like a tent, we have a permanent house in Heaven, that isn't made by humans, but by God.' God gives us a new kind of body. Paul says the visible things don't last, but the invisible things are permanent. The new body we receive is probably not like anything we know of today."

"Remember when Jesus was raised from the dead, he ate fish along the shore with his disciples. Then later he appeared in a locked room to the disciples. He had a body like ours, but it wasn't like ours. It was physical and not physical. God gives us a body that is like ours, only different."

"That's a different understanding of what happens after death. Is that why we don't say Jesus lived on, but Jesus was raised from the dead?"

"Exactly. What God raises up is our whole self, not just a soul. So we bring with us all of our history, our personality, our experiences - although some of them are healed. God resurrects our entire selves. Our resurrected self still has the concerns, passions, love for friends and family that we always had. Maybe we still have some of the quirks that are unique to us!"

"I got more than I bargained for today. I'm going to have to think about this for a while. But I like the idea that it isn't that I have an immortal soul because I am human, but that God has the power to raise me up from death to life."

"That's the wonderful thing about our faith. We trust in a God who has conquered death and who will bring us from death to life. As Paul says, 'God has conquered the last enemy, death.' God brings us to be with Him, forever."

Amen.

©Richard J. Henderson 2006