What Happens to Us (and Others) When We Die?
A sermon preached by the Revd Dr Trevor Jamison at Saint Columba’s United Reformed Church, North Shields, August 18th 2024
Psalm 121; John 14:2-6, 18-19, 27; 2 Corinthians 4:13-16
We regret that owing to a technical fault, the livestream of this service is not available.
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid,’ says Jesus (14:27) to his disciples, but it is difficult not to be so. Death is a universal phenomenon, though it’s one that none of us has experienced for ourselves; everyone dies someday, but not one of us assembled here has ever done so.
Many people fear death. The television presenter, Stacey Dooley, for example, is terrified by the prospect, so much so that she has made a documentary about funerals and bereavement to help herself get over her fears. People who don’t fear death itself, perhaps fear the prospect of the struggle that often precedes it, or they are saddened by the thought of what they will lose in terms of the things they enjoy in this life and the relationships that are important to them.
Unsurprisingly then there’s a reluctance to talk about death or the things associated with it. That even extends to funerals, which increasingly are described solely as celebrations of life, downplaying or sometimes trying to ignore the reality that someone has died, and that people are sad about that fact.
Christians display different attitudes to death. In one of his letters Saint Paul describes death as, ‘the last enemy to be destroyed.’ (1 Corinthians 15:26) Yet in today’s reading Paul talks about our mortal lives as, ‘this slight momentary affliction [which] is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond measure.’ (4:17)
Taken to extremes that could turn into trying to deny reality. I remember two (very Evangelical) URC church members complaining bitterly to me about the funeral service for a friend, held at another church. The congregation had been both forbidden to grieve and also instructed to rejoice because the departed was “now in heaven.”
So what worries us about death? These days, I don’t hear many – in fact, any – people in church worrying that after death God might send them to a hell-like place. At worst, they envisage a painless oblivion where they will no longer possess life, though actually many of us are hoping that something better turns out to be the case. There is, though, a lingering concern about the fate of others, particularly those who are dear to us.
In the same Gospel passage where Jesus tells his disciples not to let their hearts be troubled or to be afraid, we also hear him proclaim, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (14:6) What then, we wonder, about our loved ones who do not claim faith in Jesus? What about all those billions of people who are followers of other religions, or choose to follow none at all? That led me to make the title for this sermon, ‘What Happens to Us (and Others) When We Die?’
So what do I think about all of this? Well I believe there is life for us after this one concludes. I think so because Jesus says so. I believe it is something good, and I think it’s for everyone.
And I think I had better say a bit more about why I think and believe all of that!
I believe I know what’s coming because Jesus tells me so.
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.’
How you respond to what Jesus says depends on who you think Jesus is. If your understanding of Jesus is limited to seeing him as a good man or outstanding teacher then he is in the same situation as all of us. He cannot know what is coming for he has not experienced it for himself. No one has ever come back to tell us what death is like.
On the other hand, if you believe that Jesus is from God and is of God – is divine – then what he says matters. If when we look at Jesus we are seeing God in the world then that tells us some things about God. It tells us that God is loving and that God is just, because that is how Jesus was in his life upon earth. That’s important for me in relation to life, and life after death, because it relates to love and justice.
We are all aware of those whose lives on earth are, as the saying goes, ‘nasty, brutish and short.’ There are those who die young. There are those who experience pain and misery for significant periods or even all their lives. If this life is all that there is then that is clearly unjust. A God who allowed that to happen could not be described as loving.
On the other hand, if this life is one small part of an eternal life that continues after death, then such suffering can be evened out or be seen as part of a greater, good existence. So, since knowing Jesus leads me to believe that God is both loving and just, then for me it follows that this imperfect existence, with its unevenly shared suffering, is only one part of larger, better story.
I believe I know what’s coming because Jesus tells me and what’s to come is something good.
‘In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?’
In John’s Gospel, with the prospect of death on the cross looming up before him, Jesus addresses his disciples about their situation, including their future. He makes use of imagery to explain something that cannot currently be seen. He says that being with God, with Jesus, is akin to being the guest in a house or hotel.
Since it is an image the details are not to be taken literally. There is no hotel floating around somewhere “up there”. Rather the imagery is used to give us an idea of what’s to come; to “image-ine” how things will be: there will be a place for you; you will be welcomed; it will be comfortable and enjoyable. That’s what Jesus says, and he uses to the imagery of hospitality to give us a hint of something that will be greater than anything we are able to imagine.
You catch something of that idea in what Saint Paul wrote to Christians in Corinth a couple of thousand years ago. First he affirms the authority of Jesus, as the only one who has been raised to life by the God who will do the same for us: ‘we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus Christ will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence.’ (4:14)
Then Paul goes on to acknowledge the sufferings of this world, but makes sure to compare and contrast them with what is coming:’ for this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure.’ (4:17) That’s not to downplay or suggest that present suffering is insignificant. It says that the present life can only be seen as so in comparison to, or in the context of, the good that is to come. But for whom is such good to come?
I believe I know what’s coming because Jesus tells me, and what’s to come is something good, and that it’s for everyone.
In Jesus’s conversation with his disciples he tells them, ‘I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ (14:3, 4) Most of the disciples respond to that by examining the straps of their sandals. It takes Thomas (the one who is unfairly saddled with the title “doubting Thomas”) to have the courage to say aloud what the others feel, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ (14:5) And this is the occasion for Jesus’s declaration, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (14:6)
And this moves us into “what happens to others when they die” territory. As I said earlier I don’t meet many people who have fears about what God will do with them when they die. I do, however, hear people asking about happens to those who do not hold any Christian faith when they die. That’s a question with personal implications for many people.
How we understand or feel about those words of Jesus about no one coming to the Father except through him depends on how we understand who Jesus was and what he did. They have often been understood as some sort of deal between God and human beings; that God offers us immortality, but only if we acknowledge in words Jesus as Lord and Saviour. This understanding has had a very powerful influence upon our views and hopes concerning the future prospects of others, often including those people who are close to our hearts.
I understand that argument about acknowledging Jesus as the way, truth and life; the way by which we come to God. I believe that we should respond to God, made known to us through Jesus Christ who is our Lord and Saviour. I just don’t think that seeing it in terms of explicit knowledge about, and acknowledgement of the lordship of Jesus does justice to the love of God, or the real hope we can have for others as well as for ourselves.
Look at it this way. God is loving and just. We believe this because Jesus is loving and just. God loves the world, Jesus dies for the world, and Jesus is raised to life. To what extent does all of that depend on you and me? Not a bit of it. As it says in the biblical book we have been discussing in groups over the last few weeks – 1 John – ‘ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us.’ (1 John 4:10) To me, it follows that God’s love will be effective for you – whoever “you” are – regardless of how you have responded to the story of Jesus Christ up to now, or whether you have even ever heard of Jesus Christ at all: Christ died for everyone, and was raised for everyone, becoming the way to the Father – to God – for everyone.
Let’s not worry about the fate and future of others. Let’s let God worry about the fate and future of others; God who is both just and loving.
So finally, what happens to us (and others) when we die?
Something good. Jesus tells us so, which means that God is telling us so. And since God loves all and is just to all then there is hope for all, and for ever. And as for those of us who believe in this God, who do believe in Jesus Christ? Well, all we have to do is respond with appropriate love, thanks and praise, both in this life and in the life which is to come.
And may God, who is as gracious as he is loving and just, gift to us the heart and soul and strength to do just that. Amen.