On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. – Isaiah 25:7-8a

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 21, 2020): Isaiah 25

Sigmund Freud argued that “finally there is the painful riddle of death, for which no remedy at all has yet been found, nor probably ever will be.” The mystery of deaths has plagued thinkers since the beginning of thought. What happens after death? Is there anything else? If energy cannot be destroyed, what happens to the energy that is inside us? Does our energy just disappear into some kind of cosmic collective of souls? Are we reincarnated into some other person or animal? Does heaven exist? And if it does, is there a corresponding hell? Are our long-lost loved ones looking down on us from some kind of heavenly viewing stand?

There are as many ideas about these things as there are people. As a child, preachers used to make heaven seem like an endless church service, and, if I am honest, to my young ears that sounded a lot more like hell than heaven. In heaven, they probably included all one hundred and sixteen verses of “Just as I Am,” a song that we seemed to sing forever.

Right now, there are a few people in my life who are walking down the hallway of their final days on this planet. And just thinking that soon I will either be presiding over or attending their funerals is a somber thought. It is not that I do not believe that there is something that will come after, but I also know that their absence will create a void here, in my world and in my life. And while they might be at peace, selfishly, we bear the pain of their absence.

Isaiah doesn’t talk about heaven. He does not speak about what comes after this life has ended. His focus isn’t on ceasing to be here so that we can be there. His focus is on death. On that day, when God comes to reign, he will remove the veil that covers us. He will destroy the mystery that has plagued us and “swallow up death forever.” It isn’t that Freud is wrong, as much as many Christians seem to want to argue that he is. There is no doubt that death is a painful riddle that can overwhelm us. It is also true that no remedy has been found, and no answer to the puzzle will one day present itself, at least, not an answer that comes from us. There can be no answer to the riddle of death, except that God will one day remove it.

Paul picks up this thought of Isaiah in his first letter to the Church at Corinth. 

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 

“Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting” (1 Corinthians 15:51-55) 

Where indeed. Because once the painful riddle has been removed, we no longer need to find the answer.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 26