Pastor's Corner
April 2024

A Good Death

     Last month, I began sharing insights from the book, Death and the Afterlife. We are reading this book in our book club, seeking to find answers to the question of what happens to us during that time between our death and the resurrection. Last month, we started exploring this question from the Buddhist perspective. This month, we shall learn what the Jewish tradition has to teach us about death and what comes after death.
One of the first things that Rabbi Jacob Neusner teaches is that, from the Jewish perspective, death and the afterlife joins together the faith community and the individual. In other words, what happens individually is the embodiment of what happens to the whole community, more specifically, the people of Israel. While we, as Christians, see death as a consequence of sin, Neusner writes, “Death forms the final chapter of life ‘in this world’ and the opening page of life ‘in the world to come.’” From this perspective, death is simply the natural outcome to how God created life. This does not mean, of course, that death is the end of the story. After death comes the resurrection, because, “resurrection represents God’s victory over death, the final act of creation.”  
Resurrection, like most of Judaism, is only understood in the context of the people as a whole. The belief is that when the time is right, the Messiah will come and will raise God’s people, Israel, to life. Yet, the coming of the Messiah is dependent upon the people of Israel and their faithfulness to the Torah, or God’s law. As Neusner writes, “The Messiah will come to Israel when Israel freely gives what God passionately desires but cannot coerce, which is Israel’s love for God expressed through Israel’s humble acceptance of the Torah.” The faithfulness of the whole community is needed for the coming of the Messiah. To this end, each person within the community seeks faithfulness to God’s law, not just to save themselves, but to be part of the salvation of the whole community. This brings us back to the question of what happens between death and resurrection.
It turns out that there is a three step process between death and the resurrection for God’s people. Again, keep in mind that this is for God’s people, Israel. Neusner does not discuss what happens to non-Israelites, also known as Gentiles. This process begins right after death. Step one, they are judged. Step two, they are rewarded or penalized for their life on earth by being sent to either the Garden of Eden or Gehenna (this word is where we get our word hell). Step three, when the Messiah comes, all God’s people (Israel) will be raised from the dead.
One other aspect of death and the afterlife that Neusner highlights is the understanding that we are to seek a good death. A good death simply means that one’s focus is towards God, be being focused on God’s Torah at the moment of death. Think about how often we, as Christians, will sit at the bedside of a loved one who is dying, and read passages from Scripture, like Psalm 23, or John 14, where Jesus speaks of preparing a place for us. We have a similar approach to helping people have a good death.
Reading about life and death from the Jewish perspective helps to illuminate the gospel stories and the interactions that Jesus had with the religious leaders of his day. It also helps to understand why the resurrection of Jesus was so hard for the disciples to accept until they actually witnessed Jesus raised from the dead.
From the Pastor.....