What is "Home"?

In some ways, this is a follow-up post to yesterday's post. I just watched a powerful video containing a message to ISIS from Christians. While ISIS incites the world to violent conflict with its atrocities, and the world responds with a mission to "degrade and destroy" ISIS, this video speaks the Gospel-truth that not even ISIS warriors are beyond redemption if they will but heed the call of Jesus. Check out the video below:

Who Would Dare to Love ISIS? (A Letter from the People of the Cross)
Posted by International Christian Concern on Sunday, April 19, 2015

While there is certainly plenty to discuss with this video, I actually want to make a few brief observations about one of the comments on the video I saw. In the FB comments, one member posted about ISIS: "They don't realize when they kill a christian the are just sending them home."

Let's think about this statement for a second. Is this really what we mean to say? I think I know what the commenter is trying to get at, but the way the post is written is theologically problematic. What we should actually say here is that although those Christian martyrs were killed, they are now resting in the presence of God. My issue is with saying that killing those Christians has "sent them home."

So, what's wrong with calling heaven "home"? The problem is that such an idea buys into a gnostic/Platonic belief that physicality is evil or temporary and that our ultimate future is a disembodied state called "heaven." As I wrote about yesterday, the ultimate Christian hope is in the resurrection from the dead. Heaven is temporary. One day heaven and earth will be united as one (cf Rev. 21).

You see, if the above video comment is true and those martyrs are now "home," this has several problematic implications:

1. Death's evil is minimized
    If heaven is "home," then what does that make earth? If it's only a place I'm visiting, then shouldn't I try to get "home" as fast as possible. The answer to this is obviously "yes." In fact, the only reason I can see why we should linger longer and not commit suicide or seek to be murdered is we need to get other people to believe in Jesus so they can also live forever in heaven (oh wait, that seems to sum up the driving motivation of evangelicalism). We should also be careful whenever we celebrate the martyrdom of our Christian brothers and sisters. The Bible always maintains that death is an enemy. It is never to be viewed as a kind gateway to our true destiny. Rather, it is an evil obstacle God is working to overcome.

2. God made a mistake in creating the world
   If heaven is "home," then what kind of cruel God do we serve who banished us to an earthly existence? Why create matter at all? How can we call call heaven "home" when God Himself placed us on earth?

3. We dismiss the Bible
   Is there crying in heaven? Most people would say "no" because they have been tricked into believing that heaven is forever and that it is our "home." But I suppose those individuals have never seriously read passages like Rev. 6:9-11. This is a scene from heaven (slain martyrs), and yet it does not seem like a perfect paradise. Instead, the souls of these saints cry out and lament to God. They are waiting for something beyond heaven. They are waiting for judgment and resurrection. They are not truly home yet.

4. We dismiss any theology of judgment day.
    If judgment day is all about deciding who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, how does this square with the popular theology of people going directly to heaven or hell upon their death? If we arrive at "home" immediately upon death, then what does God's future judgment mean for us? Is God just going to say, "Ok, you get to be in heaven...oh, wait, you're already there"? No, Judgment Day is when God sets the world right. Everything the righteous lost through sin and death is restored and redeemed. The world experiences resurrection and recreation. Evil is finally put away for good. It is at this moment when heaven and earth are married that we can finally say we are "home."

Again, I appreciate the sentiments of the commenter, but they are theologically troublesome. If we really want to reach ISIS, we need to have a good grasp on the Gospel Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians preached, and it is a Gospel of resurrection. So to be clear, when ISIS martyrs our brothers and sisters, those fellow disciples of Jesus find peace in the arms of God. But they too, like us still on earth, are awaiting our true home--a resurrected reality where there is no more pain, murder, rape, sin, or death on earth. Maranatha.

If You had been here...

It has now been two weeks since Easter. This is the time of year when I always ponder whether or not we can truly claim to be a people of the resurrection. Each year comes with grandeur and glory. We proclaim "He is risen! He is risen indeed!" among stained glass windows and brilliant sunshine. We sing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" while inhaling lily-infused air. We fill our sanctuary with bells, organ, guitars, cymbals, and strings. And the sermon, well it practically preaches itself. It is impossible to miss the Gospel truth of the Resurrection.

But give us two weeks, and we will largely forget all about resurrection. Yes, we still believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, but that is about as far as it goes. We dismiss the idea that the same spirit who raised Jesus is resurrecting our spirits in the here and now. We continue to ignore the truth that our bodies will one day be raised from the ground. But these are crucial truths that fill us with courage to live lives of faith in the midst of fear.

In John 11 we read the incredible story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. As I was reading this story today, I noticed that one statement (or versions of it) is made at least three times to Jesus in the story--"If you had been here, Lazarus wouldn't have died." Both Mary and Martha tell Jesus this (11:21, 32) and the crowd also wonders about this (11:37).

I don't know why this phrase stuck out to me in reading the story. Maybe it's because it echoes our own desires. We are, by nature, people who desire escape. No one likes suffering. And so, when evil does rear its head, we are left questioning God's love. "God, if you love me you will stop this from happening." "God, if you had been here, this would not have happened." Yet, implicit in this reasoning is the concept that God is our butler who must do whatever we think is best. Embedded in this thinking is a belief that we need to avoid pain at all costs.

When it comes to facing the reality of death, Americans take this same tack. Honestly, most American Christians take a very unbiblical approach to death. When confronted with the truth that our bodies are wearing out and will one day die, most of us simply deny that this is any real loss. We have bought into the Platonic idea that, once we die, our souls will fly off to a disembodied "heaven" and dwell there for eternity. It's as if we think, "If God really thought these bodies were a good idea, then he would stop us from dying. But since we die, He must intend for us to leave these bodies behind." I hear echoes of Mary, Martha, and the crowd--"If You had been here, he would not have died."

But Jesus is not afraid of death. He grieves it and weeps over it because death is evil, but He knows it is not the end. Instead, Jesus' message is that God's love is stronger than death and can turn the evil of death into an opportunity to glorify God.

Yes, God could stop our deaths, but death is the reality we created. We have all sinned, and so we all die. But the Gospel is not just about defeating death, it is about using death to defeat itself. It's about God being so powerful and loving that He takes what is broken and dead and breathes new life into it. What evil and death ruin, God takes and transforms into something even better. Our hope is that God is in the process of allowing death to occur to open the possibility of resurrection. We will die one day, but those who follow Jesus will experience a life raised from the death. And through the pain of it all, we will realize the glory, love, and brilliance of our King.

So after Easter, let's hold tight to a strong theology of resurrection--one that not only believes Jesus rose from the dead, but also believes we will be raised one day as well. If we do this, we will stop saying with the crowd, "If you had been here...," but will start saying, "I accept my death, but stand amazed in your power over death and loving willingness to raise this prodigal life." May we be a people who desire to redeem and restore, not to escape. May we be a resurrection people.

I leave you with this song as a reminder of what Jesus means for us post-Easter.

To a Magic Foreign Land

"Christ is risen from the dead,
and he's standing on my bed
Come away, come away to a magic foreign land."

This chorus was made up by one of my friends before he was able to figure out the words to Matt Maher's song, "Christ is Risen." The actual words go as follows:

"Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake,
come and rise up from the grave."

Just a little different from my friend's chorus. However, as I was thinking about it, the revised version seems to echo what many American Christians believe. I don't want to imply that this is necessarily what my friend believes (he was just putting forth nonsense words), but sadly many Christians do believe this way. Instead of realizing the implications of Jesus' resurrection as the first-fruits of out resurrection, many Christians prefer to believe in a gnostic view of the afterlife. They choose to believe that, after death, all that happens is we fly away to heaven and live with God forever. But this is not what the Bible teaches.

The Bible firmly teaches a life after life after death. That's the whole point of the resurrection. We will not exist as disembodied spirits. In the end, when God restores all things, our bodies will be physically raised. This is the hope of Easter--or do we not believe that Jesus was actually raised? As NT Wright puts it in his book, Surprised By Hope, to only hope for a spiritual existence in a world far from earth means that death is victorious. Death still reigns because it has defeated creation and our physical bodies. But the Resurrection of Christ promises that God will redeem His creation. The physical world that He created in the beginning will not be abandoned to death and decay while we rest in some "magic foreign land."

Instead, as Maher's song beautifully points out, the Christ's Resurrection was God's was of trampling over death. Death does not reign, so let us come awake to this fact and live appropriately while we await that glorious day of recreation.