(This post is an excerpt from An Unorthodox Faith: A New Reformation for a Postmodern World by Kurt Struckmeyer)
In spite of nearly universal Christian belief about a heavenly afterlife, Jesus never proclaimed a message about life after death. It was not as if it was a foreign concept to him; the belief was widespread in the Roman Empire of the first century. The Egyptians believed in a shadowy existence after death and had for thousands of years. Likewise, the Greeks believed that an immortal soul continued after earthly existence ended, as did the Zoroastrians in Persia. From the south, north, and east, these ideas prevailed among the peoples surrounding Palestine. But for Jesus, otherworldliness and a future life in heaven was not a central part of his ministry or mission. His proclamation of the kingdom of God was about a transformed life on this side of the grave. It was all about how we live today, not what happens after we die.
So why is there this widespread belief—shared by most clergy—that the message of Jesus was a message about a heavenly afterlife? Perhaps uncritical acceptance of a centuries-long tradition of doctrines created by ecclesial committees and a fundamental lack of interest in serious biblical scholarship is part of the answer. But being afraid to speak the truth to laity is the major issue. Letting people believe what they want to believe is the easier path to take. After all, clergy stand by their parishioners at the graveside when a loved one dies. Comfort, not challenge, is a requirement of their job. Still, at some point it becomes necessary to tell the truth about what is really in the Bible, if in fact the Bible is to be a foundation of Christian faith. And one thing is sure—a heavenly afterlife was not central to the message of Jesus in the gospel accounts.
One confusion about a heavenly afterlife is the concept of the resurrection of the dead. People often assume that the resurrection spoken of in the New Testament is an immediate transition from the moment of death into a glorious heavenly existence in the presence of God (or Jesus). But it’s not. Biblical resurrection is the idea that the dead will someday return to a renewed life here on earth, not to a heavenly dimension.
In the first century, the idea of the bodily resurrection was a fairly recent innovation in Jewish thought, espoused primarily by the Pharisees—including the Apostle Paul who claimed he was educated as a Pharisee. The Pharisees believed that those who had died as martyrs for their faith would be raised by God to experience new life in an earthly messianic kingdom and would be allowed to enjoy the fruits of their martyrdom in a renewed life as vindicated heroes. Resurrection was an issue of justice for the faithful but was clearly a concept based on wish-fulfillment.
