Comfort for the bereaved

I Thessalonians 4:13-18

Several years ago, I went to a funeral in Kansas. Prior to the funeral was a family dinner. At the end of the serving table was a bowl of white tablets. One of the servers was recommending that each person take several. They were nerve pills, and they didn’t want anyone breaking down during the ceremony. I was shocked, especially as the people purported to be Christians.

A distant relative became very angry when asked what arrangements she wanted for her husbands death, because he was dead, and it was finished. She didn’t want to think about it anymore. Several religions promote the idea that one becomes nothing, or is re-incarnated as something else, to die again at a later date. Paul, speaking by the spirit of God, tells us that he does not want us to be uninformed or confused about death.

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” (I Thessalonians 4:13-14)

The Christian belief in life after death is founded in the literal death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The beliefs of others are based upon some teaching that has no physical evidence. We can go to where Mohammed, Buddha, and many other religious leaders are buried. The Egyptian pharaohs prepared for an afterlife. But there is no evidence that any of them attained it. They have no proof of an afterlife. Jews, Moslems, Wicca, Shinto, and every other religion have the same problem, a lack of physical evidence.

There are both secular and religious records of Christ’s crucifixion. Many have tried to deny that he actually died, but the record of his crucifixion make that unlikely. The Roman soldiers believed him already dead, but to ensure that he was they ran a spear into his heart to make sure. This is described in John 19:33-34. “But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” The separation of blood and water indicates that the heart was no longer pumping, leading to the separation of the bodily fluids.

The body was then wrapped in a linen cloth and placed in a grave, where it remained for three nights and at least part of three days, according to the record, between 60 and 72 hours. Lazarus was wrapped in a fashion that bound him hand and foot, with a separate napkin around his head, according to John 11:44, and John 20:6-7 indicates that Jesus was wrapped in a similar fashion, not like the Shroud of Turin portrays. The idea that Jesus survived all of these things, lay unconscious over 60 hours, and was still able to escape such bindings and have the strength to roll away a stone the women needed help to move is ludicrous. That he was then able to drive away armed Roman guards is even more so. The ideas that his disciples stole the body, that the guards were protecting the wrong tomb, or that the women went to the wrong place are equally ridiculous.

That Christ was seen alive after the crucifixion is clear from I Corinthians 15:5-8. He was seen numerous times, and by more than 500 people. There can be little doubt as to the validity of the claims. As Paul states, this is the only evidence for the possibility of life after death. If it is not true, then no religion has any real hope, and Christianity is only a major fraud.

“Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” (I Corinthians 15:12-18)

Every possibility of an after life is dependent on Christ’s resurrection. Because we have proof of it, we can be sure of our own as a result of faith in him as the propitiation for our sins. If we were not assured of this, we would be most miserable, unsure of the end, and ultimately losing all after years of hoping for something better.

“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (I Corinthians 15:16-22)

Because we know that Christ was resurrected, and that we have placed our faith in him, we will join the dead who have also believed in the clouds to meet the Lord. Physical death is only a temporary situation for the believer.

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” (I Thessalonians 4:15-18)

The preceding verses, and I Corinthians 15 both mention that some will not die before the resurrection, but will be taken directly into heaven when the last trump sounds. This is commonly called the rapture, and occurs shortly before the world we know comes under God’s judgment. A natural human cannot enter heave, so both those who die, and those who are alive at that time will be modified in a way that enables them to survive in that new life, where they will never die again. Sin and death will no longer affect those who are changed.

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” (I Corinthians 15:50-54)