1 Corinthians 15:12-28, 51-58
Introduction
Do you remember the first time that you encountered the concept of death? I was about ten years old and the first person that I had been close to died. It was my grandmother. She had been sick for some time and had been living the last few years of her life in a nursing home. We visited her there regularly and I just assumed life would continue like that forever. But then after a bad fall, she ended up in a hospital, and not long after, my mother told me that she had died. The whole experience of the family gathering at the funeral home for visitation was a new and bizarre experience. Many of the grandchildren stayed in a downstairs lounge while the adults stayed in the room with the casket. Many of the family would touch grandma on her hand as she laid there but I could not bring myself to. What was your first experience of death like?
Death is what unites us. As Paul has been talking to the Corinthians about all of their disunity, he could have taken the route that not of their personal preferences matter because they were all going to die anyway. But that is not what Paul did, at least not exactly.
We have seen that there was a certain group among the Corinthians that felt that they were superior to all the rest. They understood the way things were to be done, they were the ones who were truly gifted by the Holy Spirit. In fact, it seems as if they believed that they had reached the pinnacle of spiritual experience, that they had achieved the highest level that existed. This fuelled their pride and created even greater divisions within the church. Paul is going to dismantle that pride by looking at the final destiny of the Christian, the goal toward which all our lives are heading. It was in that that there would be hope for the Corinthian church and ultimately, it is in the final destiny that we find our hope.
The Resurrection From the Dead
Before we get too far into where Paul was going, we are going to have to address some misunderstandings that have been introduced about what happens to Christians after death.
If someone asked what Christians believe, a common response might be: “If we believe in Jesus, when we die, our spirits will go to be with Jesus for all eternity.” That is the kind of message that is shared at many funerals, but it is not quite correct. This may shock you.
The idea that we are meant to be pure spirits and that we are trapped in this physical prisons that we will be forever freed from at death is not a biblical teaching. The early Christians, including Jesus and the apostles, believed in the same kind of afterlife as the Jews and that was the resurrection of the dead. They all believed that there would be a time in the future, usually connected with the Day of the Lord, that the dead would be raised and be given new bodies and would live, most likely in a transformed earth.
But what about heaven? That has been the hope for most of us? What Paul taught was that the resurrection of the dead would take place when Jesus returned. While Paul, like us, did not know when that would happen, he knew that there was a period of time between when many Christians died and the resurrection when Jesus returned. In a couple of places, Paul talks about what happens when we die, most clearly in “absent from the body, present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8) But Paul. Like Jesus, did not see that as our final state. God’s plan for us was not for us to be disembodied spirits, existing like wisps of smoke. Human beings were created with bodies and we are meant to have bodies for our eternal existence. But what will those bodies be like?
That brings us to Paul’s argument. This group of Corinthians think that they have already reached the highest state and Paul wants to get them to see that our resurrection is far higher than any spiritual gift we may enjoy right now. But how can Paul convince them that a resurrection is coming? The answer is the one we should expect: Jesus.
What was the significance of the resurrection of Jesus? It was not just to tack on a happy ending to an otherwise sad story about the cross. The resurrection of Jesus is the first part of the resurrection that is to come. Paul describes the resurrection of Jesus as the first fruits of the resurrection. Just as a farmer will see the first fruit or vegetable as the proof that the a larger harvest is coming, so it is with Jesus. If Jesus rose from the dead, which the Corinthians definitely believed, then we too shall experience the resurrection. You cannot deny the future resurrection without denying the resurrection of Jesus, since both are part of the same event.
Paul’s point to the Corinthians is that those who think that they are at the top spiritually, are misguided. The ultimate spiritual experience is not something we do in this life, including how we lead in church, but the moment that our bodies are transformed into a resurrection body like Jesus and that is something that is the final outcome of every follower of Jesus.
Resurrection in the Church
This is all very theological and it may or may not be interesting for some. While Paul was a theologian, he was also a pastor and his theological teaching was meant to be pastoral to both the Corinthians and us.
The first thing we learn is that we are all equal when it comes to the resurrection. There is no indication of first, second, and third class Christians when it comes to the resurrection. Those who are dead already when Jesus returns will be raised first and then those who are alive will have their bodies transformed. We are all equal in the eyes of Christ, we are all members of the body of Christ, and all will be welcomed by Jesus at his return. It is when we neglect this that we allow our preferences and private hopes to bring division. We all have the same final destiny in the resurrection.
That does not mean that what happens in this life does not matter. While the resurrection is something new, it is also in continuity with what happened before. Think about Jesus as the prototype of the resurrection. His resurrection body was a transformed version of his earthly body. The tomb was empty, there was not a discarded human body after Easter Sunday. The most noticeable continuity was the fact that his resurrection body still had the marks from the resurrection. How we live right now, as individuals and as a church matters. The resurrection is not a wiping away of all that happened before, it is a redemption and transformation of it. The resurrection does not mean that what happens now is meaningless, it actually means that it is meaningful.
Finally, the resurrection of the dead is an anchor for our life as followers of Jesus. After demonstrating that death has been defeated, Paul tells the Corinthians to stand firm. Christianity is based on more than a philosophy or theory. It is based on an event in history, the resurrection of Jesus, that promises a hope for the future, our own resurrection. “Know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58) Have you ever felt like what you do as a Christian or as a church is in vain? It is normal to feel that but the resurrection promises us something different. The resurrection means that none of what we are doing for the kingdom is in vain. This is the solid foundation on which everything else is built.
Conclusion
Paul has been building toward a very specific goal. In 1 Corinthians, Paul has been addressing a real church that was struggling in numerous ways, but most specifically with unity. The individual factions may have thought of themselves as doing the best for the church, but they were actually causing damage. Paul had warned them earlier:
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) The “you” here is plural and the temple that Paul is referring to is the church.
Paul has demonstrated that the church is not just a human organization, it is the body of Christ, with all of the members as equally important and valuable parts, all interconnected, none better than others. Even our worship is meant to reflect the love that is to be our defining feature. What Paul says here about the resurrection caps it off. All followers of Jesus are moving in the same direction: a resurrection that has been promised and guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus. An event based in a past historical event that points toward a hope for all of us.
This is not just for the Corinthians, this is for all of us. There are going to be disagreements and conflicts among us. That is what happens when you have a church made up of human beings. But we can have unity in all of our diversity as long as we focus on the big picture. It is when we think of the current experience as the only truth that we get distracted. We are part of a bigger story and it is in that resurrection story that we can have hope both for today and for tomorrow,
