The season of Resurrection: Part 2

WEDNESDAY, April 3
First Corinthians 15:51-57
 
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.


Today’s reading begins with a radical statement: “We shall not all sleep.” Saint Paul is using the word “sleep” to mean “death.” In other words, what Paul is saying is, “We will not all die.”
That is a wild departure from our typical reckoning of things. We tend to live and behave as if death is the unavoidable “end” of life, that it is something everyone must endure. And because of this depressing belief, we tend to try and distract ourselves from it until it is staring us directly in the face. 
In times past, people actually built their homes with two front doors so that when a member of the family died they could hold the wake at the home. Guests would arrive, enter one front door, make a loop around the body of the deceased, and exit through the other front door. Their entire life as a family was lived acknowledging the reality of death. 
Today death is pushed to the periphery. It is sequestered away in hospitals, nursing homes, and funeral homes. It is as if we know what is coming, but we want to pretend that it is not. Whether we run from it or confront it, death is the one enemy we cannot conquer, the one fact we cannot overcome.
Yet Paul firmly asserts that we will not all die. Death is not the ultimate end. It is not the goal. It is not the demon from which  to run and hide. The actual, ultimate, inescapable reality is this: Jesus Christ is coming! Jesus will return, raise the dead, judge between the sheep and the goats, and give everlasting life to all believers.
I get the impression from this passage that Saint Paul lived his life, not expecting death, but expecting Jesus around every corner. He might not die, but Jesus will return and transform his lowly body into an immortal one.  
  Now, by the grace of God, we can live with that eager expectation too. “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” (I Thessalonians 5:4-11)
We, too, should live as if Jesus were just around the corner. It should not surprise us to hear that last trumpet, to walk outside and see Jesus descending with a cry of command. (I Thessalonians 4:16) In fact, it should delight us. It should not just be expected, but eagerly anticipated. The return of Jesus means our resurrection (or transformation!) and our victory. “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 15:57)
To put it another way, Christians should not live as if we were packing up our things and getting ready to go home. Victory is not attained on some ethereal heavenly plane of existence. Victory is given to the believer here when Jesus returns and overcomes every evil, including death. We should not be packing to leave, but putting down roots to better love and serve the world around us.
There is an apocryphal saying of Martin Luther. Supposedly, when asked what he would do if he knew the world was going to end tomorrow, the reformer replied, “Plant an apple tree today.” I do not know if Luther really said that, but I like the point either way. The Christian does not live his life hiding from death, nor sitting around hoping that Jesus will take us out of this world. Rather, the Christian eagerly awaits the victory that is given by Christ alone at His inevitable return.
You might die. You might not. But Jesus will return, the dead will be raised, and we will all be changed from mortal to immortal, from weakness to strength. That is the ultimate reality. That you can take to the bank. You can live life eagerly expecting it around every corner.