Wonders for the Dead

Let us not mock God with metaphor, 

Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence, 

Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded 

Credulity of earlier ages: 
Let us walk through the door.

From “Seven Stanzas at Easter,” by John Updike. 

Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

Psalm 88:10–12

Imagine the scene: Jesus is talking in the bustling temple of Jerusalem. A crowd closely presses in, eager to hear the young rabbi’s words. However, this same rabbi is also encircled by members of powerful groups—chief priests, Pharisees,¹Though members of these particular groups present are hostile to the teachings of Jesus in this passage, I want to emphasise that nearly two millennia of poor Christian teaching about these Jewish Second Temple sects has completely removed these groups from their context within Second Temple Judaism and their relationship to Jesus specifically. Instead of real political and religious groups, they have been turned into cartoon villains. For more information on the Pharisees in particular, I recommend Aaron Eby’s article “Jesus, a Friend of Pharisees,” and Toby Janicki’s “The God of Living.” and Sadducees—all looking to trap him in his teaching. First, the priests questioned the source of Jesus’ authority.²See Mark 11:27–33. Then the Pharisees tried to ensnare him with political pigeonholing.³See Mark 12:13–17. All of their attempts failed spectacularly, as Jesus deftly deflected their attempts to discredit him. Not to be put off by the failure of their predecessors, the Sadducees stepped forward and offered their question to Jesus in the form of a ridiculous premise, all meant to mock the very concept of resurrection: “If a woman is married seven times and doesn’t bear any children, who will be her husband in the resurrection of the dead?”⁴See Mark 12:18–23. 

While Jesus had responded to other challengers with pointed, intelligent questions that revealed their hypocritical motivations in confronting him, he quickly and directly rebuked the Sadducees: “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?”⁵See Mark 12:24. Then Jesus—presumably because the Sadducees only accepted the Torah as scripture and rejected the prophets and writings as authoritative⁶The prophets and writings are clear about the resurrection of the dead. Samuel records his mother’s testimony in 1 Samuel 2:6. Job clings to resurrection hope in Job 19:25–27. Daniel 12:2, Isaiah 26:19, and Hosea 13:14 are examples of the foretelling of the resurrection of the dead.—offered this argument: “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead but of the living.”⁷See Mark 12:26–27; Exodus 3:6.⁸This statement might be confusing in light of what Paul wrote in Romans 14:9: “To this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.” While Jesus emphasizes that no human is truly and finally dead, and Paul emphasizes Jesus’ triumph over death. 

Why, Jesus argues, would God name himself as presently the God of three forever-dead patriarchs? ⁹In Sanhedrin 90b and 91b of the Babylonian Talmud, the rabbis (also some Romans, heretics, and even Queen Cleopatra) discuss whether certain Torah passages support the resurrection of the dead. Numbers 18:28, Exodus 6:4, Deuteronomy 31:16, Song of Songs 7:10, Deuteronomy 11:21, Deuteronomy 4:4, Numbers 15:31, Psalm 72:16, Deuteronomy 32:39, and Exodus 15:1 are examined in turn. Even if you were to overlook questions of grammar and verb tenses, the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were clear demonstrations and foreshadows of resurrection power. Jesus ended the interaction with the Sadducees by flatly adding, “You are quite wrong.”¹⁰See Mark 12:18–27.

Knowing Neither The Scriptures: Barrenness and Life to the Dead

The exasperation of Jesus in the face of Sadducaic unbelief in the resurrection is entirely justified when just considering the life and line of Abraham. Abraham hoped against hope that his good-as-dead body and the barrenness¹¹The word translated “barrenness” in Romans 4:19 of the English Standard Version is νέκρωσις (nekrōsis). A more literal translation of this word in English would be “deadness.” of his wife’s womb were no obstacle to the promises of a God who calls into existence things that do not exist and gives life to the dead.¹²See Romans 4:17–21. God promised Abraham that he would make him the father of many nations and tested Abraham’s confidence in that pledge through his son Isaac. When Abraham offered up his son as a sacrifice, he believed that God could and would raise Isaac from the dead, and that confidence in God was gloriously vindicated.¹³See Hebrews 11:17–19.

And, like a refrain that repeats in a song, Isaac married a barren woman who had no power in and of herself to bear and bring into being the promises of God. But her brother’s blessing of, “Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands,”¹⁴See Genesis 24:60. and the faithful intercession of her husband that God would intervene,¹⁵See Genesis 25:21. were ultimately justified when the Lord opened her womb, and Rebekah received twice what she had asked for: twins.¹⁶See Genesis 25:24. 

The younger son, Jacob, like his father and his father’s father, married a woman who, after years of disgraceful childlessness, begged him, “Give me children, or I will die!”¹⁷See Genesis 30:1. The Lord, who is more than powerful enough to keep his promises from generation to generation, again miraculously brought life to what was lifeless and birthed multitudes through divine intervention. And time would fail me in the recounting of Noah, of Joseph, and of Israel’s great exodus, all testified to in the Torah, and all clearly demonstrating the power of God over death and life. 

Nor the Power of God: The Resurrection and the Life

The same power of God testified to in the Torah saturated the earthly ministry of Jesus, of which the Sadducees must have heard reports. Before he was a living testimony of resurrection,¹⁸See Matthew 28:9, Luke 24:36–49, John 20:26–28. Jesus himself raised people from the dead to demonstrate God’s endorsement of his ministry. Perhaps the most detailed and prominent account of this miracle is that of Lazarus.¹⁹The image at the top of this article, The Raising of Lazarus or Resurrection of Lazarus by Henry Ossawa Tanner, depicts the dramatic moment of Lazarus coming out of his grave. Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) was an African-American painter born in Pittsburg, Pennslyvania, to a father who was a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal church and a mother who escaped slavery on the Underground Railroad. He later moved to Paris and attained international acclaim for his paintings. Tanner travelled extensively in the Middle East, and his Biblical paintings are filled with genuinely Jewish-looking characters and realistic Middle Eastern scenery. Some of his other famous works include The Annunciation and Nicodemus Visiting Christ.

Lazarus, a dear friend of Jesus, had been dead and buried for four days by the time Jesus reached his house in Bethany. Martha, one of the deceased’s sisters, ran out to meet Jesus and lamented that he had not reached Bethany sooner. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus took this opportunity to comfort her with the resurrection: “Your brother will rise again.” 

Martha, who had been discipled by Jesus and had placed her hope in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, gave a theologically correct answer: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus doesn’t contradict her but answers her in a stunning statement about his identity, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Martha agrees with this declaration and says, “I believe you are the Messiah.” When Jesus went out to weep at Lazarus’ tomb, he prayed that God would confirm Jesus’ sending into the world with the sign that Jesus was about to perform. Then Jesus cried, “Lazarus, come out!” 

Then the man who had died came out.²⁰See John 11:17–26, 38–44.

You Are Quite Wrong

What is surprising about the miraculous resurrections recounted during and after Jesus’ ministry—Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter,²¹See Luke 8:52–56. various saints in Jerusalem,²²See Matthew 27:50–53. Tabitha,²³See Acts 9:36–43. and Eutychus²⁴See Acts 20:7–12.—is that they are temporary signs pointing to a future fullness. Everyone who experienced these miraculous resurrections died again after being raised. What is unique about the resurrection of Jesus is that he was the firstfruits²⁵See 1 Corinthians 15:20. of the ultimate, permanent, and final resurrection, of which the prophets constantly spoke. The apostles also taught clearly and unanimously about the unbreakable link between the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ and the final resurrection of all humans. 

This resurrection of the dead is so central to human existence that Paul argues in his letter to the church in Corinth that if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Jesus’ resurrection is pointless. In turn, if Jesus did not resurrect literally from the dead, then all the apostles should be counted as liars, and their teachings summarily dismissed,²⁶See 1 Corinthians 15:12–19. as they bore witness constantly to the truth of Jesus’ physical appearance after his public and brutal death.²⁷See Matthew 28:1–10; Mark 16:1–13; Luke 24:1–35; John 20:1–16; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. The only fair-minded response to either an anaemic, eternal, ethereal existence or a permanent death is pure, hopeless nihilism: “Eat, drink, for tomorrow we die.”²⁸See 1 Corinthians 15:32; Isaiah 22:13.

With the testimony of scripture—the Torah, the prophets, the psalmists, the apostles²⁹See Luke 14:13,14; Luke 20:35, 36; John 5:29; John 6:39; Acts 4:33; Acts 17:18; Acts 26:22, 23; 2 Corinthians 5:1–4; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; Hebrews 6:1–2; Revelation 20:4–6.—called into question, with the promises and power of God doubted, with the literal heart of our hope on the line, we must never yield to a cynical, airy, philosophical, Sadducaic treatment of the resurrection. The stakes could not be higher. Either Jesus is fully and physically alive, and so will we be, or he is dead, and nothing matters. There is no in-between. Any attempt to combine a meaningful life with a resurrection-less existence has already been addressed by Jesus—he who lives, and was dead, and behold is alive forevermore³⁰See Revelation 1:18.—and his answer is terrifyingly and wonderfully simple: 

“You are quite wrong.”

Footnotes

• 1
  Though members of these particular groups present are hostile to the teachings of Jesus in this passage, I want to emphasise that nearly two millennia of poor Christian teaching about these Jewish Second Temple sects has completely removed these groups from their context within Second Temple Judaism and their relationship to Jesus specifically. Instead of real political and religious groups, they have been turned into cartoon villains. For more information on the Pharisees in particular, I recommend Aaron Eby’s article “Jesus, a Friend of Pharisees,” and Toby Janicki’s “The God of Living.”
• 2
  See Mark 11:27–33.
• 3
  See Mark 12:13–17.
• 4
  See Mark 12:18–23.
• 5
  See Mark 12:24.
• 6
  The prophets and writings are clear about the resurrection of the dead. Samuel records his mother’s testimony in 1 Samuel 2:6. Job clings to resurrection hope in Job 19:25–27. Daniel 12:2, Isaiah 26:19, and Hosea 13:14 are examples of the foretelling of the resurrection of the dead.
• 7
  See Mark 12:26–27; Exodus 3:6.
• 8
  This statement might be confusing in light of what Paul wrote in Romans 14:9: “To this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.” While Jesus emphasizes that no human is truly and finally dead, and Paul emphasizes Jesus’ triumph over death.
• 9
  In Sanhedrin 90b and 91b of the Babylonian Talmud, the rabbis (also some Romans, heretics, and even Queen Cleopatra) discuss whether certain Torah passages support the resurrection of the dead. Numbers 18:28, Exodus 6:4, Deuteronomy 31:16, Song of Songs 7:10, Deuteronomy 11:21, Deuteronomy 4:4, Numbers 15:31, Psalm 72:16, Deuteronomy 32:39, and Exodus 15:1 are examined in turn.
• 10
  See Mark 12:18–27.
• 11
  The word translated “barrenness” in Romans 4:19 of the English Standard Version is νέκρωσις (nekrōsis). A more literal translation of this word in English would be “deadness.”
• 12
  See Romans 4:17–21.
• 13
  See Hebrews 11:17–19.
• 14
  See Genesis 24:60.
• 15
  See Genesis 25:21.
• 16
  See Genesis 25:24.
• 17
  See Genesis 30:1.
• 18
  See Matthew 28:9, Luke 24:36–49, John 20:26–28.
• 19
  The image at the top of this article, The Raising of Lazarus or Resurrection of Lazarus by Henry Ossawa Tanner, depicts the dramatic moment of Lazarus coming out of his grave. Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) was an African-American painter born in Pittsburg, Pennslyvania, to a father who was a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal church and a mother who escaped slavery on the Underground Railroad. He later moved to Paris and attained international acclaim for his paintings. Tanner travelled extensively in the Middle East, and his Biblical paintings are filled with genuinely Jewish-looking characters and realistic Middle Eastern scenery. Some of his other famous works include The Annunciation and Nicodemus Visiting Christ.
• 20
  See John 11:17–26, 38–44.
• 21
  See Luke 8:52–56.
• 22
  See Matthew 27:50–53.
• 23
  See Acts 9:36–43.
• 24
  See Acts 20:7–12.
• 25
  See 1 Corinthians 15:20.
• 26
  See 1 Corinthians 15:12–19.
• 27
  See Matthew 28:1–10; Mark 16:1–13; Luke 24:1–35; John 20:1–16; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8.
• 28
  See 1 Corinthians 15:32; Isaiah 22:13.
• 29
  See Luke 14:13,14; Luke 20:35, 36; John 5:29; John 6:39; Acts 4:33; Acts 17:18; Acts 26:22, 23; 2 Corinthians 5:1–4; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; Hebrews 6:1–2; Revelation 20:4–6.
• 30
  See Revelation 1:18.