THAT PUZZLING PASSAGE
1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18
The story is told of the man who tried to take it with him;
the successful entrepreneur who wanted to show all the people who told him all
his life: “You can’t take it with you!” that he could. His reply: “I have made
deals with money, made myself comfortable with money, helped others with money,
and have built my fortune with money. It may come in handy in Heaven when I go!” (He hadn’t read his Bible very closely.) So
in his will, the man left instructions that secretly (so no potential grave robbers
would find out) instructed him to be buried with bricks of gold. Upon his
death, his extra heavy casket was lowered into the ground with some bricks of
gold included. By grace or by chance,, the man actually found himself outside the Pearly Gates
with gold bricks stacked neatly around him. He waited until the person before
him was judged and he was next. St.
Peter took one look at him and what was around him and laughed. The man was
flustered and a little irritated. “What’s so funny?” he asked. St. Peter
pointed to all the roads of heaven each made of pure gold brick. “Pavement!” he
exclaimed. You brought pavement to
Heaven!”
There are stories and legends that surround Heaven and how it
may look. If you take Revelation 22 literally, you could use a computer program
and draw Heaven. Careful here! How we read Revelation really matters: do you read
it literally or symbolically? It matters. Do you think Christ will be angry
when he comes again, as Premillenial authors such as Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey
believe? Or, like Postmillenial theologians, do you join me in believing that
Christ will come again in gladness to meet his followers and, with great
sadness, leave behind those who even then don’t follow him? And what about your
hope concerning death; do you believe, as I do, that Christians will personally
meet Christ at their earthly death, and that he will gently escort them to the
other side? These discussions are not
new; Christians have talked about them 50 years ago, 500 years ago and even in
50 A.D. when the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Thessalonians. New
Testament expert Leon Morris writes that “The Thessalonians had welcomed the teachings that they had received [from Paul].
But with the passage of time and the march of events, questions arose in their
minds. The one which occupied [their] attention [most was] ‘What becomes of
believers who die before the second coming?’… We get the impression that the
Thessalonians had understood Paul to mean that the Parousia [Second Coming of
Christ] would take place within their lifetime. They had become perplexed when
some of their number died. Did this mean they had lost their share in the
events associated with that great day?
What a calamity to be robbed of that great triumph by [dying too soon!] [FIRST
AND SECOND THESSALONIANS, Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1959, pp. 136-137.] Paul begins like this: “We,” (which puts him
together with other apostles and Christ) “We would not have you ignorant.” He
is gentle with his wording because he is talking with alarmed new followers of
The Way. This is believed to be the earliest letter in the New Testament, written
around 50 A.D. Paul does not refer to the Christians who have passed away as “dead,”
even though they have certainly died, but as “those who have fallen asleep.” It
was a comfort for those who believed in life beyond life as it is for us today.
He comforts believers with those words and says that others live as though they
“have no hope.” There were some in Paul’s day who believed that the soul was
immortal, but not that there was a glorious new life beyond this life, one that
was so much better than the pavement pounding and dusty pathways of life on
earth. Paul moved ahead with the comfort
of a pastor or a caring chaplain, declaring gently that “Through Jesus, God
will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” As one person put it “The
meaning of it probably is that it is through what Jesus has done that
Christians ‘sleep’ only, and do not undergo the horrors of death [as the final
act of life.] … What worried the Thessalonians was not whether their friends
would rise, but whether they would have any share in the great events
associated with [The Second Coming of Christ].” [Morris, pp. 140-141.] So his
wording, again, was to reassure them: those who survive until he comes again will have no advantage over those who
already died in the faith. He is not
trying to say that those who die first will lie in their graves until he comes;
he is describing what has already begun
to happen and will continue to happen: the dead in Christ rise first WHEN THEY
DIE, and then believers who are alive when Christ returns will meet them in the
clouds, and all will have a reunion with their Lord and be together again. We
will always be with our Lord; on
earth through the power of his Spirit; in transit by the strong hands of the
Good Shepherd; in Heaven with the risen and glorified Christ. “COMFORT ONE
ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS.” And through years of misunderstanding, people have fretted:
does our soul stay in the grave? No. Do people who die before Christ returns
miss out on that glorious event? No. Do we literally meet in the air or is it
somewhere else as we pass from the earthly to the heavenly realm? Probably the latter. As Paul sought to formulate Christian
theology, he did a wonderful job, but we weren’t around to pepper him with
questions. Take what you have learned;
then as enlightened Christian who have learned that Biblical writers had to use
limited human language to describe the limitless wonders of Heaven, know that
as you read 1 Thessalonians 4 or Revelation
22, you can be comforted by their human attempts to describe the
mysteries of our Holy God. The New Testament is not written to satisfy human
curiosity, but to teach the Christian life. And that is as it should be. So: be ready,
and be prepared: we know not when Jesus will return. But above all, for
those who call him Lord and live the Christian life, be not afraid.
Now prepare yourself to receive spiritual food for your
journey ahead. Amen.
Jeffrey A. Sumner