By David Kobedi
There’s never been a time when we were confronted with the reality of our mortality like we are right now. The Corona virus infection and death rates are increasing; and for many of us this has brought into focus what we deem to be truly important. It is clear for many of us that it is neither our net worth, our achievements nor our greatest experiences. What do they amount to if we are all going to die? These kinds of questions make us yearn for more from life. Now, when your snacks are done, and you have run out of Netflix shows to binge on, do you ever think to yourself: is there more to this life?
No-one captures this question better than Peggy Lee in her 1969 hit. Having experienced pain, pleasure and love she pauses to ask the question: Is that all there is? Her answer is this:
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball…
Is that all there is…
lyrics echo the conclusion that St. Paul reached many years ago. In his first letter to the Church in Corinth he concludes that if this life is all there is: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die (1 Corinthians 15:32). In other words, if the only things that matter in life are what we can touch, see and feel; and if it all ends with death, then the sensible conclusion is to be despondent and surrender to self-indulgence.
There is, however, an alternative. The Christian story offers compelling answers to the question of the meaning of human life in the face of our impending mortality. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, Paul reminds the Christians in Corinth of this story and he challenges them to reflect on how it reshapes their outlook on life. At the climax of this story is a more powerful reality: the crucified Jesus rose from death to life.
In the City of Corinth, like the city of Joburg, “everybody knew dead people didn’t and couldn’t come back to bodily life” (NT Wright 2003: 316). According to their culture and ours, the physical life was the only true reality. And this line of thinking led to a pleasure-seeking, self-indulgent lifestyle. In his 2010 commentary, Brian Rosner points out that “sexual immorality, greed and idolatry” (Rosner 2010: 3) are the three major sins that were a struggle in the church; and unless the church wrestles with the reality of the resurrected Jesus, it will never break its ties to the surrounding culture. To put it more positively, the more we live in the reality of the risen Lord Jesus, the more we will break ties with the patterns of our broken culture; and the more we break away from those patterns, the more we will make sense of our lives; especially in times like these.
So, join me every Tuesday as we explore the theme of the resurrection from 1 Corinthians 15 and how it applies to our lives. Blessings!