Being Freed from All Maladies

We celebrated a service of death and resurrection at church today.  In other words, we had a funeral.  That is hardly earthshaking news, but what made this one different was that it was for a co-worker.  Our Publications Secretary, Jim Blaine, died unexpectedly a week ago, and this morning, we gathered as friends, family, and colleagues to witness to the Christian faith, to celebrate Jim's life, and to mourn his death but not, to paraphrase the Apostle Paul, as those who have no hope.

Among the scriptures read or alluded to today were Paul's words to the church of Corinth where he most clearly spells out the "sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ" --

Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, 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 will be changed.  For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory."

     "Where, O death, is your victory? 

     "Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15: 51-55)

Paul wisely resorts to the language of mystery to talk about what happens to the Christian believer after physical death has occurred, rooting his understanding of our resurrection in the example of Christ's resurrection, and he speaks of us a very real resurrection of our earthly bodies in which we receive spiritual bodies that are no longer subject to decay or illness or death.  This lies at the very cornerstone of Christianity, appearing in the last articles of both the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds, and in it is our joy, our hope, and our comfort in the face of our enemy, death.

In his sermon "On the Resurrection of the Dead," John Wesley seeks to make it very clear that resurrection is not the mere resuscitation of a dead body.  Following Paul's lead, he proclaims in the strongest words possible that our resurrection selves are something quite different indeed:

The body that we shall have at the resurrection shall be immortal and incorruptible: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." Now, these words, immortal and incorruptible, not only signify that we shall die no more, (for in that sense the damned are immortal and incorruptible) but that we shall be perfectly free from all the bodily evils which sin brought into the world; that our bodies shall not be subject to sickness, or pain, or any other inconveniences we are daily exposed to. This the Scripture calls "the redemption of our bodies," -- the freeing them from all their maladies. Were we to receive them again, subject to all the frailties and miseries which we are forced to wrestle with, I much doubt whether a wise man, were he left to his choice, would willingly take his again; -- whether he would not choose to let his still lie rotting in the grave, rather than to be again chained to such a cumbersome clod of earth. Such a resurrection would be, as a wise Heathen calls it, "a resurrection to another sheep." It would look more like a redemption to death again, than a resurrection to life.

And so today, through tears and laughter, with hearts saddened by the loss of our friend, we celebrate that Jim is no longer subject to the chronic pulmonary and respiratory illnesses that plagued him and ultimately led to his death, and we rejoice that one day, our own pains and sorrows and weaknesses will be lifted from us, as well.  Among other things, we shall be freed from all our maladies and frailties, released into Life that is beyond our comprehension with the One who is the Author of that Life, the Pioneer and Finisher of our faith.  Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift!