On our way home, we stopped in Rome. After we saw the Roman Coliseum and the Forum and the Circus Maximus, we took a trip to the outskirts of the city to see the catacombs. In contrast with the Romans, the ancient Christians chose not to burn the bodies of their dead. So under the patronage of a wealthy Christian woman, they buried the bodies of the dead underground. From the moment of Christ’s resurrection, the believers held to the truth that like him, their bodies would be raised to new life.
What happens to believers when we die? Luke tells us that the first Christian martyr, who was being stoned to death, fell asleep. What an unexpectedly beautiful description of so violent an act! Paul gives us the theology of the Christian focus on resurrection in this one great chapter of his first letter to the Corinthian believers. He begins by reminding that the gospel itself is built on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In answer to their question, “What if Christ was not raised as a body,” he answers, “If Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied.”
As a seed, planted in the ground, comes to life and bears fruit, so the people of God will be raised to new life in imperishable, glorious, powerful, spiritual bodies. As we grieved the loss of our member and friend Steve Swenson, who lost so much to paralysis, I was reminded of how powerful is the promise of a new body. All of us who age are painfully aware of the losses we endure. Though I still run four times a week, I can no longer run a mile under six minutes. Our outer bodies eventually age and change and waste away. But we hold on this promise: we will live with Christ not as ethereal spirits flitting around the clouds, but as new bodies living in the city of Jerusalem which has come down to a new earth. This makes every moment of this life meaningful. A day well spent here, as Joni Eareckson Tada says, could result in a thousand years of blessing in heaven. Paul concludes: “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” The Christians in first century Rome believed that. So do I. Do you?
