 |
| When Doing Battle with Gazing Globe by Lynnette Henderson |
Death for four decades of my life was such a note of finality. Yes, I knew about the resurrection. Yes, I knew that Jesus provided his followers the promise of life after death. And, yes, I believed in that I would be "raised" after I die to live in a place called Heaven.
But, death has a different aspect to it now for me. At the end of four decades my son died an agonizing death from a rare bone cancer. I went through every agonizing moment of his life between diagnosis and his departure along with my wife and daughter. His death immediately affected all three of us, and over time we have all three sought God in very different ways.
But this blog is not about my son's death. It was the starting point to a new aspect about life. It started with the selection of John 14.2,3 to be read at my son's graveside service.
Verse 2
ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τοῦ πατρός μου μοναὶ πολλαί εἰσιν· εἰ δὲ μή, εἶπον ἂν ὑμῖν ὅτι πορεύομαι ἑτοιμάσαι τόπον ὑμῖν
(In my father's compound are many rooms. If not so, then would I have said, "I go to make a place ready for you?")
Verse 3
καὶ ἐὰν πορευθῶ καὶ ἑτοιμάσω τόπον ὑμῖν, πάλιν ἔρχομαι καὶ παραλήμψομαι ὑμᾶς πρὸς ἐμαυτόν, ἵνα ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγὼ καὶ ὑμεῖς ἦτε
(And if I have gone away to make a place ready for you, then I am coming back for you to join me so that where I am, you can be too.)
At the beginning of seeing with new eyes, I read this as a place to go. But, as I have reflected many a time on this passage, I see that Jesus is talking about leaving this place, the Earth, merely going to another place to make some preparations. Death was merely the break point between the two. There is no separation at death, no note of finality, nothing to show a time lapse of dying, going through a Judgment Day, then "making it" to Heaven. There is only mention of Jesus coming again so that we can join him in specially prepared family accommodations. Jesus said it himself, "I came to give you life and an extraordinary place. Life here, life there... no death, merely transition, merely exchange of one environment for another.
That was the start of considering again what Jesus offers his followers. Then I started noticing Jesus' statements about life. It didn't seem that he was talking about the way we lived our lives on Earth to obtain a position in an afterlife. His idea of life was what happens at conception and stops when the body wears out or whose heart stops. But the emphasis was not on what stops, but what is interrupted here on Earth, but continues in a dimension not known or seen by those left behind. When I read for the thousandth time Jesus' conversation with his Twelve one day about a good shepherd, I thought I might have a grasp on Jesus' idea for life.
John 10.17-18
Verse 17
Διὰ τοῦτό με ὁ πατὴρ ἀγαπᾷ ὅτι ἐγὼ τίθημι τὴν ψυχήν μου, ἵνα πάλιν λάβω αὐτήν
(It's for this reason that my father loves me. I lay down my life just to take it back again.)
Verse 18
οὐδεὶς αἴρει αὐτὴν ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ, ἀλλ’ ἐγὼ τίθημι αὐτὴν ἀπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ. ἐξουσίαν ἔχω θεῖναι αὐτήν, καὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔχω πάλιν λαβεῖν αὐτήν· ταύτην τὴν ἐντολὴν ἔλαβον παρὰ τοῦ πατρός μου
(No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down and take it up again. This charge I have obtained from my father.)
When Jesus was on trial before Pilate, Pilate tried to play the life and death card with Jesus where death is so final (John 19.11). Pilate thought Jesus was being too coy and complacent with him for Jesus to be in such dire straits. So, Pilate told Jesus he had the power to stay his execution or command his execution. Jesus replied,
Verse 11
ἀπεκρίθη [αὐτῷ] Ἰησοῦς· οὐκ εἶχες ἐξουσίαν κατ’ ἐμοῦ οὐδεμίαν εἰ μὴ ἦν δεδομένον σοι ἄνωθεν· διὰ τοῦτο ὁ παραδούς μέ σοι μείζονα ἁμαρτίαν ἔχει
(You have no authority over my life except what is given to you from above. So, those who delivered me to you have a greater wrong.)
So, my mind finally saw that following Jesus gives me access to life (not a synonym for lifestyle). The life that comes into us in a mother's womb and that stops at our last heartbeat... unless, of course, we have decided that Jesus is God's son, in which case life does not stop when our heartbeats quit. We simply have a transition from one place where a certain type of life existed to another place, made ready for us when we join Jesus. Life is laid down on a planet in a solar system, taken up again in a dimension elsewhere. Our DNA encodes when our heart will wear out given a certain set of circumstances, much like Pilate's dictate to Jesus. But, I hear the words Jesus spoke to our DNA by extension of his answer to Pilate, "You have no authority over my life."
That added nuance of insight for me has liberated me from thinking that I would die, my life stopped, my lifestyle evaluated, my soul making the lifestyle cut and spirited away to Heaven at some future point in time. My new way of thinking allows me to live freely here, honor God, acknowledge his son and his teaching, and transition to live freely again in another dimension. Death is robbed of its note of finality.
"My soul will dance on the wings of forever."
[Introductory photo of reflection is When Doing Battle with Gazing Globe by Lynnette Henderson and retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnette_henderson/2513227934/. The second work of art Welcome Home is by Danny Hahlbohm and retrieved from http://www.fulcrumgallery.com/Danny-Hahlbohm/Welcome-Home_663673.htm]
[The first song is Say the Word by Hillsong United. The second song is Touch the Sky by Hillsong United]
[The Greek text used for the New Testament references is the Nestle Aland 28th edition]
[Translations from Greek are my own.]
