1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NRSV) 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. 15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
In this first New Testament document, Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, a city located in northern Greece, the first question the believers have is about what happens to those who have died. The odd question: “Will WE come into the presence of the Lord before THEY do?”
The Scriptures are by and large silent about what happens in the interim. Except for our Lord proclaiming to the spirits in prison that death had been defeated, in 1 Peter, we do not even get a hint about what happened to our Lord during those three days. Jesus told the thief that He would be with Him in Paradise, but that is the realm of the blessed dead. Jesus told Mary Magdalene on Easter morning that He had not yet returned to the Father, so Paradise is not the equivalent of Heaven in the Bible. The parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus talks about the eternal divide and mainly emphasizes that the Law and the Prophets provide enough information for us to know about God, and that is in a parable. The saints around the throne in Revelation are part of a vision. Their longing is for the end of time. Other than that, all descriptions use the common analogy of sleeping.
No one, Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, the young man at Nain, and none of the others brought back to life ever report a single word about what it “was like.” But we hear all sorts of descriptions and carry all sorts of supposedly comforting ideas about what it “is like” for those who have died. WE WILL BE WITH THE LORD, OUR LORD! Scriptures frequently talk about falling asleep in the Lord, as Jesus describes it about Lazarus. Within short order, we will all be brought into the presence of the Lord, when He returns. Our comfort is that the day of our physical death “celebrates” the removal of the drag of original sin, actual sin, and the consequences we have carried that weigh down our heart, for all eternity. Speculation about the interim helps Satan to change our focus from Christ to us. Paul centers for us the important elements. Those who die in Christ will be summoned to live forever, along with all who are alive. If that is good enough for our Lord to share, it is good enough for us to celebrate. He is risen! We too will rise, with physical bodies, or have our bodies renewed and transformed if we are alive when He comes.
Pastor Tom Trapp, Mission Pastor
Walking the Emmaus Road with the Risen Lord!
(Originally published in Emmaus Footprints, Vol. XIV, Number 10, May 2013)