Theological Truth: We cannot know exactly what heaven is like, but by imagining what it’s like, we can incorporate heavenly characteristics on earth.
In the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Earlier this year, I came home from church to find an aquarium on our front porch. It was standing on its end, with a carefully taped window screen to serve as a door over the opening. Inside was a giant branch of what I learned later was milkweed, and on the branches, upon closer examination were tiny lime green monarch caterpillars.
Douglass Hopkins , our friend and veterinarian, knowing that Shannon and I were grieving the loss of our dog, George, thought that witnessing the miraculous circle of life might be of some comfort. She was absolutely right! In the weeks that followed, in addition to being obsessed with finding milkweed, we watched with amazement as the tiny green caterpillars grew and grew. Eventually this part of their life cycle transitioned to the next. One by one, their bodies stopped, their antennae shriveled up, they seemed to have died. But then, they transformed into a chrysalis with four or five golden dots on this ridge. Each was like a present, or a flower bud, just waiting to open. Eventually, most (but sadly not all) of the chrysalis began to change color, from lime green to orangish black, again, they seemed to have died. And then it happened: the chrysalis itself came alive, unfurling to reveal a remarkable transformed creature full of color in life. After flapping its wings for a while it effortlessly flew away.
I am certainly not the first person to see in the lifecycle of the monarch butterfly the pattern of resurrection. But, watching it happen before your very eyes changes things. What struck me most was that it was the same creature and yet so impossibly different. Its life never ended but was completely transformed.
Isn’t this what we all want to know? Isn’t this the question lurking in all of our hearts? Is this life all there is, or is there more? It’s what we say in our burial liturgies: “life is changed, not ended.” As people of faith, we place our hope on the Resurrection. Because Jesus was raised, we too will be raised. But what does life after this life look like? Is eternal life just endlessly more of the same life? What is heaven like?
Jesus and the Sadducees are dealing with the same question. The Sadducees question is so intentionally ridiculous that it’s clear their minds are already made up, not because of their lack of faith but perhaps because of their comfortable lives. Most scholars think the Sadducees were an educated, elite subset of the priestly class in Jerusalem, who had cozied up to Roman power. They were leading very comfortable lives. They figured that if everyone just followed the law as devoutly as they did, their lives would be fine too. Just follow the rules, keep your nose clean, say your prayers, and you’ll be as blessed as we are in the here and now. Why look for a future heaven when things are so heavenly now?
Their question isn’t insincere, so much as it is an objection to, or critique of, Jesus’ claim that there is another life, another kingdom – at hand and still to come. He reminds them of God’s word recorded in Genesis, “where [Moses] speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” Their lives have changed, not ended. Job gives voice to this deep truth too when he proclaims in the midst of his suffering, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” Life changes but never ends.
But Jesus and Job also remind us that life after death is different from life now. Jesus says, “in that age and in the resurrection from the dead [people] neither marry nor are given in marriage.” He also makes clear that the life to come is not merely more of the same life here on earth. We “cannot die anymore, because [we] are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.” It’s a continuation of this life, but is also completely changed, as different as that orange and black flying butterfly is to the green crawling creeping caterpillar. The same creature with the same life yet magnificently transformed. Miraculous mystery! Just because we don’t know exactly what it will be like. Does not mean that it doesn’t exist.
We cannot know exactly what heaven is like, but we can imagine some of its characteristics. I’m not talking about streets paved with gold, or harp-playing angels. Think instead of what it feels like to be eternally connected with the Source of all Love. What will be present in that place of ultimate, eternal union? Connection. Belonging. Contentment. Safety. Acceptance. Peace. Justice. Love. Endless perfect love.
The point of having these conversations about the afterlife isn’t to prove it but to live it. We can practice now what we anticipate later. So, which of those things that we expect to enjoy more perfectly in the nearer presence of God can we bring more closely into this world today? Justice, peace, belonging, contentment? If we are looking forward to connection, union, and loving presence eventually, why not seek it and share it now?
This life and the next are connected. The promise of the afterlife is not to merely serve as a panacea for the pain and suffering, disappointments and despair of this life. Rather, it is to help us to envision what is to come so that we can begin to live into it more fully now. Resurrection then becomes more than an unknowable destination. It becomes a transforming reality leading us beyond the limitations of this life and into the next stage where we soar to heights unimaginable.
