Saturday's Devotion

Saturday, January 17, 2004

It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.
(1 Corinthians 15.44 NRSV)

The story's told about a couple who lived on a beautiful piece of ground in an isolated area. In the process of time, he died. Before he died, he expressed his strong desire to be buried upon their own property. His new widow made the necessary arrangements. She sent a funeral home crew to dig the grave on their property. She shortly received a telephone call which went like this: "We cannot dig this grave like you have it laid out," one of the crewmen said. "Why not?" she asked. "We always dig graves facing East and West, and you have laid this one out North to South," he explained. "Why do you always dig them East and West?" the widow asked. "I'm not sure," answered the crewmen. "It has something to do with the Lord returning from the East and when everybody stands up, they'll be facing him." There was silence for a time and then came this reply from the practical widow, "Dig it like I laid it out, and when he stands up he can turn around!"
We don't know very much about the after-life. The Scriptures give us just of glimpse of things eternal. It may surprise you, though, to know that, as Christians, we technically don t believe in immortality; we believe in resurrection. Let me take a moment and explain the difference.
The ancient Greeks believed that each human being possesses an immortal soul. At death that immortal soul flits off to be with God. That is immortality. It is a concept borrowed from the Greeks.
The Jewish idea of humanity's destiny, on the other hand, is not that we possess a soul but that we ARE a soul. And when we die we really die. Completely. Dead. But here is the good news--after we are dead God can choose to give us the gift of new life and resurrect us from the dead. But it is not just a part of us that is raised, we are raised in our entirety. That is why we have in the Apostles' Creed that quaint little statement, "I believe in the resurrection of the body." It is not just a part of us that is raised to new life--this vacuous soul. We are raised completely--body, mind and soul. But how is that possible? we ask. Our bodies decay. What happens to those whose bodies perish in terrible accidents, fires, etc.? Paul answers that in I Corinthians 15, by saying that God gives us a new body--for we must have a body in this understanding of resurrection--but it is a spiritual body.
Dear God, thank you for the new body I have in Christ. Amen.
Ron Newhouse

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