That We Might Go At Last To Heaven?
There Is A Green Hill Far Away is a typical Mrs CF Alexander song: catchy tune, sentimental lyrics, and horrible theology. That it has become a part of Easter in many churches is a typical irony - who says God doesn't have a sense of humour?
I've just come back from a Good Friday family service up at St Andrew's Church, in Caversham Heights, where we sang this song, as well as the Graham Kendrick song Come and See. Graham Kendrick songs tend toward strong lyrics, powerful tunes and good solid theology - I don't know what happened with the final verse of this one: "Man of heav'n, born to earth \ to restore us to your heav'n". This completely undermines the final line: "By your resurrection power we shall rise" - making it sound like the guff in the Left Behind series. Don't get me wrong: it was a good service, which did a fine job of opening up the Good Friday story; but songs like this just add to the confusion that already exists around the idea of resurrection - Jesus' or ours.
Then we got back home to find a beautifully printed leaflet put through our door from another local church, inviting us to their Easter Day service. It is very attractively presented, and if we didn't have our own home church to go to I would be tempted. But then they go and spoil it all with their explanation of the meaning of Jesus' resurrection:-
The resurrection means that Christ is still ALIVE. This means that we can have a LIVING relationship and interaction with him! If he has this kind of power, surely we can trust him when he says that he will raise Christians back to life, to live with him in heaven?
This from a supposedly Bible-believing church - no wonder people are confused! It's not even as if the Bible is particularly obscure or unclear on the subject; yet somehow two thousand years of tradition have badly muddied the waters.
The Bible tells us that on that first Easter Sunday Jesus was physically raised from the dead - his body was raised and, in the process, transformed. But it was still a material body: he could touch and be touched; he could eat and talk. The Bible also tells us that those who have life in Jesus will be physically raised when Jesus returns - if they have died they will be raised from the dead in transformed bodies; if they have not died then their bodies will simply be transformed in situ, so to speak.
This is all nicely summarised in chapter 15 of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, although you have to do a bit of unpicking because the Corinthians' worries then were rather different from our concerns today. You also have to be careful not to get thrown by the terminology of 'natural' bodies and 'spiritual' bodies - psychikos and pneumatikos in the original. I've thrown in the Greek words for two reasons: firstly to make it clear that these do not correspond to material and non-material bodies - psychikos comes from the same root as psychology or psychic; and secondly to point out the 'ikos' on the end of both. An 'ikos' word describes how something is powered or driven. Electric toothbrushes are not made of electricty, they are driven by electricity; in contrast to manual toothbrushes which are hand-powered. Similarly, when Paul talks about 'natural' bodies he means those driven by the natural impulses of people belonging to a mixed-up, messed-up society; as opposed to 'spiritual' bodies which will be driven by the spirit of God. Either way they are physical, material bodies ... although resurrection bodies will be changed.
And these transformed bodies will have a transformed world to live and work in. The book of Revelation describes it, in chapter 21:-
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."
Mrs Alexander got it the wrong way around: it's not about us going to heaven; heaven is going to come to us. All because of what Jesus did, one Friday in the Judean springtime.
Happy Easter Phil, I hope you have a joyous, relaxing and faith filled one.
To me, Heaven on Earth happens when we each find the Christ within us (the
Spirit) and manifests it on Earth. For me, the Easter Story is one of
example, where Christ is telling us there is life after death in Spirit.
That the Spirit is everlasting. To me, most of the New Testatment have
more to do with interpretations of Christ rather than Christ speaking on
these things. I don't think you can go wrong with the Golden Rule.
Thanks, guys. I hope your Easters are going well.