Digging Deeper: In the Ground
Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.
Luke 7:11-17 (ESV)
IN THE GROUND
The patio was muggy, and the air smelled bitter from cigarette smoke. A line formed around the coffee pot where people conversed. It was before cell phones, at least the kind you constantly checked, so conversation was normal, and big questions tended to come up at this place. The sort about God and life and meaning.
I distinctly remember one sitting under the awning in some recliners. An attorney much older than me struggled with the concept of finding a higher power. He was smart, as far as I could tell, but he had the strangest idea for his higher power.
“Mine is a light bulb,” he said when asked.
At the time, I didn’t have a personal relationship with God, but I knew what God was. But a light bulb? My roommate asked him a follow-up: Where do you think we go when we die? And even though it was close to thirty years ago, I still remember every word of his response.
He lowered his hardback book, looked over the rims of his thick glasses, and said:
“In the ground.”
While I admire his bravery, that thought did and does trouble me. There are so many thoughts about death that emerge from it. They’re the questions we’ll wrestle with this week.
- Where do we go when we die?
- Is there something about us that survives when our bodies don’t?
- If we’re raised again, what exactly are we raised as?
- If everything eventually dies, does anything we do now really matter?
- And what happens when these questions stop being philosophical and death comes for someone we love?
And finally, who has the correct answer? Is it the Buddhist who says there is no permanent self and seeks liberation from the cycle of rebirth? Is it the Muslim who expects resurrection and judgment before God? Or maybe the atheistic answer is the correct one: that all that happens is we end up in the ground.
I think for us as Christians, we do have something to feel a little more confident in. In Luke 7, Jesus walks up to a funeral procession, touches the bier, and tells a dead man to get up. And he does. Jesus didn’t just offer an opinion about death; He demonstrated authority over it.
And ultimately, we lean on the answer of someone who not only raised others from the dead but experienced death Himself and came back to tell us about it.
Ask Yourself:
- What do you believe happens after we die, and where did that belief come from?
- When death comes to mind, do you sit with it or change the subject?
Curt Bowen is a husband, father, and group leader who loves engaging in apologetics, theology, and good BBQ. A thrill-seeker at heart, he enjoys roller coasters and has an appreciation for snakes—just not the conversational type.