Thursday, February 16, 2023

Today’s Scripture Reading 
1 Corinthians 15:35–38, 42–50

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. (NRSV)

Reflection

These verses come from a much wider proclamation that Paul is making in the fifteenth chapter of this letter to the Corinthians about Jesus’ resurrection and what it means for our future. Paul’s sharp dismissal of the initial question may strike us as odd—I find the question “How are the dead raised?” to be perfectly reasonable!—but the point Paul is really trying to emphasize is that we are far too tied to our concept of earthly reality to wrap our minds around what heaven might be like.

Immediately after these verses, Paul uses the word mystery to describe what lies ahead, language that echoes his famous words from a few chapters earlier: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly—but then we shall see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully” (1 Corinthians 13:12). For as bold as Paul might be at times, he is wise enough to recognize the limitations of our knowledge or even our imaginations. We do not truly know what our “spiritual bodies” might be; that knowledge belongs to God alone.

What we do know, Paul emphasizes, is that God will not leave us alone. In Christ’s death and resurrection, “death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54), and because of that we can confidentially claim that “nothing in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). For all that might remain unknown about what is yet to come, we give thanks to God for that steadfast promise!

Prayer
God of life and death, we give thanks that there is nothing that can separate us from you and your love. May that love guide and sustain us, now and forevermore. Amen.

Written by Matt Helms, Associate Pastor for Children and Family Ministry

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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