For the first ten years after my son died, Mother’s Day was a painful reminder that not all my children were with me. I felt the emptiness of my arms more acutely. The smiles of celebration were abrasive.
It was hard. I know it is hard from other moms too. They will struggle today with the chasm between the living and the dead.
It’s now my 12th Mother’s Day without Azaiah here. But something else has helped me heal.
I have recognized how bad theology deepened my sorrow.
What’s theology have to do with Mother’s Day? In the tradition I came to faith in, little was discussed about life after death. Preachers didn’t preach on what is happening in the spiritual realm. We didn’t discuss how that realm interacts with us. We just didn’t talk about it.
Then I learned that there are Christians who believe and actively participate in the communion of the saints.
So what is that?
The communion of the saints recognizes that the fellowship of Christians is eternal. Death doesn’t break our relationship. Death is a veil that prevents us from seeing but the ties that bind us are stronger than death itself because of the God of the resurrection.
Communion of the Saints In the Bible
In Matthew 17, the apostle recounts the details of the Transfiguration of Christ. This particular day, Jesus took Peter, James and John to a mountain where he gave them a glimpse of his glory. He was literally transfigured into his glorified state. Appearing with him were Moses and Elijah.
Had the three apostles ever met the Old Testament icons of faith? No. They were separated by centuries. Yet, they recognized them both and recognized their part in the kingdom.
Time nor death prevented Peter, James and John from seeing and knowing their predecessors. They were all part of the kingdom of God. They were all part of the same mission. They were all part of what was about to happen.
In Matthew 22, just a short time after that moment on the mountain, Jesus has a conversation with the Sadduceess, a Jewish sect who rejected the resurrection. They wanted to trap Jesus with a silly question, but he shuts it down with this:
But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are clearly dead, right? But Jesus just said they are alive? How does that work?
Luke tells the account of an interaction Abraham had with a rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Abraham is very cognizant. He is aware. He is interacting. He is providing refreshing to the once suffering Lazarus.
Abraham was also well aware of what was happening in the physical realm. He knew the rich man and the rich man knew him. What’s even better is Abraham knew Lazarus and welcomed him into rest.
After recounting all of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, the writer tells us “Therefore, we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…”
Who are those witnesses? He explicitly named a few of them. They are the people who died faithful to the Lord. People like Abraham. They are in the cloud of witnesses cheering us on in the race of the life.
So what if death is more like walking into another room rather than an uncoupling of souls? What if the ties that bound the apostles to Moses and Elijah are real? What if Abraham and Lazarus are in the scripture to show us what relationships look after death? What if we are really surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses that Hebrews 12:1 says? What if death is just a veil?
The great prophet Isaiah said:
And He will destroy on this mountain
The surface of the covering cast over all people,
And the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever,
And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 25:7
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