Nerd alert: I subscribe to Biblical Archaeology Review. I love it. Every month there’s new information about what’s been dug up and how we can learn from it. In this month’s edition there were a number of articles that dealt with death; more specifically with the afterlife. Some of what we know about those who went before us can be found in the way they buried their dead. One of the articles reports that vessels in tombs recently discovered “had traces of beeswax, animal fat, olive oil, resin, even vanilla.” What this tells us is that people buried their dead with supplies for the afterlife. They believed it was important to be prepared for what comes next. Several of this week’s texts also address the idea of the afterlife. And yet, the one in Matthew 25:31-46 has a little different perspective on it. It’s the famous passage about the sheep and the goats. In Jesus’ telling of it, the king will sit on his throne in eternity, but rather than welcoming them with the words “congratulations you made it, now let’s use some of that beeswax buried next to you”, he says something a bit more surprising. He says in effect, blessed are you if you spent less time preparing for the afterlife and more time caring for, paying attention to and loving those who were in your sphere of influence each and every day that you were alive. “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Jesus is reminding us that we should be more interested in how we live now rather than what comes after we’re gone. The gospel is not, as theologian Brian McLaren says, “an evacuation plan for heaven.” Matthew also seems to be telling us that heaven isn’t something we should aspire to in the future as much as it is something we create on earth in the present.
Dan Dalke, was a friend and colleague who developed cancer at the age of 37. Toward the end of his life, he gave me a gift. It was a book called The Precious Present. It was a message to remind me how blessed I am to be alive and that I should enjoy and appreciate every moment of it. I think what both Jesus and Dan were saying is that we should spend less time worrying about the future (including the afterlife) and more time being preciously present to those in our midst. May we be fully present to those in our classrooms, offices and homes this week, bringing heaven that much closer to earth.
