The commercials promise eternal youth. Just buy this product, apply it to your face or other body parts, and you can take years off your appearance. Or maybe it’s a pill. Either way, you can turn back the clock. The truth is, as we’ve already discovered, death is inevitable. Yet, there is the promise of something more.
When it comes to the afterlife, there are quite a few options, even for Christians. While reincarnation has become quite popular, it’s not one of the options that Christian tradition has embraced. So, if we leave that option off the table, what are the options?
There are those who look forward to leaving behind their bodies so they can enjoy life as a disembodied immortal soul. Of course, there are still others, even within the Christian community, who believe that when we die, that’s it. Death is the end of the road. The majority of us, however, live somewhere between the two extremes of disembodied soul and death being the final stop. So, if I asked you what you believe about the afterlife, what would you say?
We’ve already spent two Sundays exploring 1 Corinthians 15, which focuses our attention on both the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of all those who belong to him. This morning we hear a third word from Paul, in which he answers the question: “how are the dead raised?” When he asks that question, he rejects both the idea of disembodied souls and death being the endpoint. Resurrection involves a body, but what kind of body should we expect from the resurrection?
We’ve already heard Paul place the resurrection of Jesus at the center of his gospel. There is no good news without the resurrection of Jesus. Then, he reveals that Jesus’ resurrection is the first fruits of those who have died. Therefore, even “as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ” (1 Cor. 15:22).
This is Paul’s message of hope. We can live our lives defined by the promise of resurrection. That promise reinforces the biblical message that God’s material creation is good. That includes us. If this is true, then whatever happens to us after death will have continuity with what exists in the present. But, there are differences!
This takes us back to Paul’s question to us: “with what kind of body do they come?” Is Paul talking about resuscitated corpses? You know, zombies! While there is a lot of interest these days in zombies and the walking dead, I can safely say that’s not what Paul has in mind. Hopefully, that puts your mind at ease, unless you’re looking forward to being numbered among the “walking dead.”
If we’re not talking about resuscitated corpses, then what is Paul talking about? As we read the passage for the day, we hear Paul talking about spiritual bodies and imperishable bodies. He uses several analogies to explain what he has in mind.
His first analogy speaks of the relationship of a seed that gets sown and buried and then rises out of the ground as a plant. He suggests that what is true of the seed is true of our physical bodies. Our bodies have to die and be buried so we can rise again as spiritual bodies. In other words, what we will be, is contained in what we are now. Ultimately, God decides what kind of body the seed will produce.
Whether or not that analogy works for you, Paul wants us to know that there is a relationship between our current physical bodies and the bodies we will receive in the resurrection. Our current bodies are perishable, but the resurrection bodies Paul is talking about here are imperishable.
Paul uses several contrasting images to explain what this involves. He tells us that “what is sown in dishonor” is “raised in glory.” What is sown in weakness, is raised in power. Yes, and what “is sown a physical body” is raised “a spiritual body.”
We know what a physical body is made up of. We are composed of flesh and bones and a lot of water. I can grasp what a physical body is, but what is a spiritual body? Is it nonmaterial or is it material in nature? While it may sound as if Paul is thinking in terms of a nonmaterial body, he is quite clear that whatever the spiritual body is composed of, it has a material essence. There is continuity between what we are and what will be. However, in the resurrection, we put on immortality so that we may share fully in life with God.
Paul doesn’t go into great detail about what these imperishable spiritual bodies entail, but we have hints from the Gospels. The Gospels picture the risen Jesus having a physical form. He eats and drinks. He can be touched. Yet, he can walk through walls and appear and disappear at the drop of a hat. Could this be what Paul has in mind? Whatever Paul has in mind, it seems as if spiritual bodies have a material dimension and yet there is a difference. For one thing, these resurrection bodies are imperishable.
In the creation story in Genesis 2, God takes dust from the earth and creates the first human. Paul draws on that image, suggesting that in our current state, we share our existence with the “man of dust.” But, in the resurrection, we will receive a body like that of the “man from heaven.” That is, Jesus.
This is our hope—that in the resurrection we will “bear the image of the man of heaven.” Because we can’t peer across the divide between this life and the next, we have to take this by faith. We can’t know for sure if there is an afterlife or what it will entail. Scripture gives hints, though Paul is hesitant to go beyond this declaration. But, he does offer this message as a word of hope so that we might live full lives in the presence of God.
While Paul doesn’t refer to the Lord’s Prayer in this letter, there is continuity between his message and the one we find embedded in the prayer we recite each week. When Jesus taught the disciples that prayer, he included an important phrase. He teaches us to pray that God’s will would be done on earth as in heaven. I take that to mean that God would have us embrace heavenly values here on earth. In other words, what is true of heaven, whatever that entails, should influence the way we live now.
We may still inhabit bodies made of dust, but we can live as if we’ve been given spiritual bodies. That is, we can live into the image of the man of heaven. That is, we can live our lives in ways that reflect the way of Jesus. One of Jesus’ commands is that we should love one another as Christ has loved us (Jn 13:34). If we do this, if we live our lives defined by the love God revealed in Jesus through the Holy Spirit, then we will reflect in our lives the way of heaven.
When it comes to our ultimate destiny there are different ways of answering the question: “how are the dead raised?” If we embrace Paul’s message the answer is this, whatever the future holds, we will exchange the perishable for the imperishable.
In a moment we will gather around the Table to share in the meal Jesus instituted on the night before he died on the cross. He told the disciples that he would not “drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Lk 22:18). After his resurrection, Luke records that Jesus met with the disciples and shared a meal with them (Lk 24:41-43). The kingdom of God is already with us. We may not inhabit imperishable bodies, but the future is already with us. Therefore, we are invited to live into the love of God, which is imperishable!
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
First Presbyterian Church
Troy, Michigan
February 20, 2022
Epiphany 7C
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