Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

But your dead will live, Lord;
    their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dust
    wake up and shout for joy—
your dew is like the dew of the morning;
    the earth will give birth to her dead.

• Isaiah 26:19

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

• 1 Thessalonians 4:16

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

• 1 Corinthians 15:42-44

The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

• Revelation 20:13-15

I know that my redeemer lives,
    and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
    with my own eyes—I, and not another.
    How my heart yearns within me!

• Job 19:25-27

Job 19:26-27 ”Job had no hope left for this life, but was confident that ‘after’ he was dead, his Redeemer would vindicate him in the glory of a physical (‘in my flesh’) resurrection in which he would enjoy perfect fellowship with the Redeemer. That Jesus Christ is that Redeemer is the clear message of the gospel. See Luke 2:38; Rom. 3:24; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:12.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

• Apostle’s Creed

The Message

The tradition in the church for centuries was to bury the body, prepared for resurrection.  These days, with the cost of everything skyrocketing, many people have opted for cremation.  Some people have even thought of cremation as a sin, desecrating the body that will be resurrected.

But what of bodies that have been ripped apart by wild animals?  What about bodies blown to pieces in an explosion?  And Bruce Cooper suggested burial at sea to be the most disassociated body.

Think of it.  A body is buried at sea, and it dissolves over time.  The body becomes disassociated ions, not even floating on the sea, but in the sea.  Maybe one of those ions is eaten by a fish and carried over a thousand miles away before that fish is eaten by another fish.  It would not take long before that body was part of the seven seas.

Author’s Rabbit Hole Note:  What are the seven seas?  These days that would include the North and South Atlantic, North and South Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Southern Oceans.  The Southern Ocean being the water around Antarctica.  But during the days of the pirates, it was the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.  There were other combinations based on what that culture had seen in the way of “Seas.”

But Revelation 20 says that the oceans will give up their dead.  God is in the miracle business, and those ions will reform, just as the ash will reform, and regardless of embalming techniques, the bodies in caskets will decompose.  Everyone’s body will be restored.

One of the funniest stories that I have ever heard is Mark Lowry’s Broken Leg story.  After finding everything hilarious that was associated with the wreck, the broken leg, and the trip to the hospital, he gets to the part where they took a bone from a cadaver to piece his leg back together.  “Y’all, I got dead people in my leg.  What if the dead in Christ are risen first?”  Then, he hops around the stage on one leg, because the dead person’s bone is rising.

Don’t worry.  God will even sort those things out.  And our body will be incorruptible.

And now let us sing.

Here is Oh Death sung by MercyMe.  Oh Death, you are dead to me.  I will dance on your grave with the One who buried you.

 

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We believe in You.  We trust You.  With all the things that we have done that have forever injured our bodies, You will make all that right.  My grandfather will have all his fingers.  My father will have two good shoulders.  And You will be there with us.  As Job said, “My heart yearns within me.”
In Thy name we pray,
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.