6 minute read
If a man dies will he live again?
Moderator, Dr Richard Murray, offers a reflection for Easter.
One of my favourite pieces of classical music is Spring from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. For me, it’s as if the composer is gazing upon the newly emerged daffodils and crocuses; he’s smelling the perfume of the camellia, he’s listening to the birds sing as they build their nests and all the time he’s enjoying warm spring sunshine. After the death of winter, creation comes back to life again and the joyful, hopeful and optimistic music of Spring perfectly fits the occasion.
In Job chapter 14, Job is studying a tree stump that appeared to be dead, yet the stump has sprouted shoots and budded. He describes it like this: “Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.” In other words, so much for it being dead! That which was dead has come back to life again with a life force that could not be kept down.
Job then follows this discovery with a question in the same chapter about human beings: “If a man dies, will he live again?” and the answer seems obvious. Of course he doesn’t live again, for human beings do not come back from the dead. People frequently say to me at funerals, “No one’s ever come back from the other side to tell us what it’s like,” but is that really the case? For if there’s no resurrection of the dead, as many modern people seem to believe, are we really saying we are no different to the animal and plant kingdoms? Would that not be depressing? Or is there an alternative that is joyful and hopeful and optimistic?
Certainly by chapter 19 of his book, Job has moved on somewhat for he is able to say: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another.” I love the way Job has come to a place of faithful trust that God raises the dead and will enable his people to stand before him and see him in new bodies. Job’s heart is yearning within him to experience that day.…God raises the dead and will enable his people to stand before him…
…God raises the dead and will enable his people to stand before him…
Then when we turn to the New Testament (Mark 12), we encounter sceptics called Sadducees who had no time for any talk about resurrection and who said there was no life after death. They had a trick question for Jesus on life after death, but Jesus took them to Exodus 3 and the record of Moses meeting with God at the burning bush. In a masterful reply Jesus pointed out that God didn’t say he was the God of Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob but that he is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. In other words, despite the three men being dead, they were very much alive in the presence of God. So there is life after death despite what the Sadducees claimed (John Stott famously said that because Sadducees didn’t believe in life after death that’s why they were sad-u-see!).
Life after death is also found in the book of Psalms, particularly Psalm 16, quoted about Jesus in Acts chapter 2: “I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.”
…we have the assurance from all four gospels that Jesus was not abandoned to the grave…for God raised him to life.
Recently, I was out for a walk down a country road and someone had illegally dumped the carcass of a cow. It was the stench of death that alerted me to its presence and on closer inspection the bones were clearly visible and there was no question of life after death. However, we have the assurance from all four gospels that Jesus was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body suffer decay, for God raised him to life. In addition, we have the testimony of a crowd of more than 500 and the apostle Paul who said, “…last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born” (1 Corinthians 15:8).
To those who say to me that no one has ever come back from the dead to tell us about the other side, I always point out Jesus has come back from the dead and is the first to be raised to everlasting life.
As we enjoy the delights of spring and the signs of life after death, let us principally remember the Lord Jesus Christ raised from the dead. The human race, in collaboration with the devil, had done its worst in terms of plotting to kill God once and for all in the death of Jesus. But to quote C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity: “The man came to life again”, because in him was a life force that could not be kept down.
May you know that life force in your heart and soul through repentance of sin and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And may the assurance of God’s Spirit give you hope of life after death. The Shorter Catechism says: “The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ – do rest in their graves, till the resurrection.”
If that isn’t joyful and hopeful and optimistic, then I don’t know what is!
