BETWEEN the meditations, to which dying frequently invites, and the leading thought which Holy Scripture associates with the grave, there is this striking difference, that with us the tender question of meeting again forces itself into the foreground, and that Scripture always mentions first the “being with Jesus” and the “delighting oneself in the image of God.”
Not that thereby Scripture excludes the possibility of meeting again and of recognition. But nowhere in Scripture does that meeting-again appear in the foreground as the real ground of comfort. There is no direct mention of it in the Old Testament, and nowhere is it emphasized in the Scripture of the New Covenant.
The Old Covenant alludes to a “being gathered to the fathers,” but this was more a national- or tribal-idea, than a personal expectation. Only one might say, that in the parable of the “rich man and Lazarus” the rich, after his death, at once recognizes both Abraham and poor Lazarus. Yet let it be observed, that the knowing of Abraham here is no recognition, and that with the recognition of Lazarus there is mention rather of an aggravation of the rich man’s trouble than of alleviation. The rich man is not in heaven, but in hell. And where we speak of meeting again and recognition, we mean least of all a recognition of the godless, but a meeting again of those, who with us were incorporated in Christ.
The only certainty Scripture offers us with regard to meeting again, is that he who himself dies in the faith, is gathered to the “congregation of just men made perfect,” and that naturally in that “congregation of just men made perfect” we shall also find those, whom here in the hope of eternal life we carried to the grave.
So all “meeting again” depends exclusively upon the tie of faith, which unites us with our dead in Christ. But always in this way; that in the congregation of just men made perfect, not those who went before, but Christ is ever the great center of attraction. and that all meeting again and living together again is made secondary to our relation to God in Christ.
IN this way, however, the “meeting again” is not commonly meant. What is thought regarding this is mostly a continuance in heaven of the relation of blood or of friendship, which here on earth bound us to our beloved dead.
And with respect to this Jesus asks: “Do ye not err, because ye know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God?” (Matt. 22, 29).
There was mention of a woman who had died, who had been married several times, and now the question arose: If the earthly tie of love is continued in the hereafter, whose wife shall she be?
And Jesus cuts off this idea altogether. Of such a meeting again and such living together again the Scriptures know nothing. And he who nevertheless thinks of it in this way, misses an eye for that wondrous power of God, whereby for the life hereafter He called an ordinance into being, which is altogether distinct from life here on earth.
If on earth the marriage-tie is the strongest of all ties, so that in his chorus Vondel could truthfully sing: “Where in the world is truer faithfulness found than between man and wife? The tie that binds the heart of mother to the child, brought forth in pain and sorrow, fed at her breast with milk, long carried under her heart, unites the blood. But stronger still is the tie of the couple, that hand in hand, plight troth no more to separate,” and then follows the praise of marriage in song.
But this very strongest of all ties operates only with respect to earthly economy. Not in behalf of heaven. Jesus states it clearly, that after the resurrection this tie does not return: “As touching the resurrection of the dead, when they have risen from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven.”
IS there among the angels of God no mutual acquaintance? Would angels, not knowing one another, thoughtlessly pass one another by? Surely not this. But this is certain, that their mutual relation is not borrowed from the love-tie of marriage, or from the tie between mother and child, or between brothers and sisters, but that their mutual tie and relation exclusively regulates itself after the ministry which they fulfil in the hosts of God.
They have no mutual family-life of their own, so that their religion, their service of God, is added to this mutual life. But this service of God, this fact that they are “servants of the Most Highest,” is all their life. For angels there is no other living together thinkable except in that service of the Lord.
When Jesus says, that, both after dying, and after the resurrection of the dead, the social life of believers shall not bear the character, which it had here and was bound to possess, but that it shall be a social life as of God’s holy angels, one can not infer from this otherwise, than that earthly relationships fall away, and that the soul’s close relation to Christ and in the service of God alone shall determine eternally also our living together.
He therefore who in thinking of his own dying fancies, that his blessedness shall consist in that he shall find back again his home-circle and group of friends, which here was once so great a joy to him, and that the former life, now altogether sanctified, shall be resumed and continued, by the positive teaching of Jesus, is not encouraged herein, but definitely disillusioned.
For so far as you had a tie in Christ with your dead, in so far does that tie continue eternally. When you yourself shall be as an angel of God in heaven, everything else falls away.
EVEN at the grave the creature may never rank himself above the Eternal. And where in tenderness our sentiment inclines, to be enticed to this, we must resist this play of emotion.
The attempt, when presently the grave is closed, to picture to ourselves a certain continued fellowship with our beloved dead, leads certainly away from the path of true godliness. This effort is beautiful, when it is a living over again of the past. But it loses the track, when we think of our dead, as looking down upon us and perceiving all we do and all that befalls us. That for them who went from us memory remains active, may be accepted. Otherwise recognition would be unthinkable. But of what after their death takes place on earth, they carry no knowledge. “Though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not, thou, O Lord, art our Father” (Is. 63, 16).
Even the thought, that the looking down upon us on the part of our dead should hold us back from sin, can make no difference here. What is sinful we will shun, not for the sake of our dead, but for the sake of the Lord our God. “Against thee, said David, against Thee only have I sinned” and only what you do not do for God’s sake, has moral weight.
Thus dying truly brings about temporary separation. Remembrance alone remains. But beyond that remembrance the departed know nothing of us. Neither do we know anything of those who went from us, save alone in so far as there is certainty of our relationship in Jesus, and of being associated in the service of our God.
But that we are workers together in the service of God, is not denied us until we meet again.
They above, and we here below, remain united in that service of the Kingdom of our God, even while already now they build a wall of the temple of God, which withdraws them from our eye and us from their eye.
NOT melancholy sentiment therefore, but that together we are in the service of the selfsame King, and together move about the selfsame God as center of all, is the tie that is never broken, continues through death and grave, and in the day of resurrection shall renew the glorious sense of solidarity.
Always on condition, that with this also we leave everything earthly out of count, and of the heavenly never cherish anything else than heavenly thoughts.
Already here on earth we do not always live in the same relation. First there is life together with parents, brothers and sisters. Then a life together with those who are congenial to us at school or in some particular branch of study. After that comes a life together in one’s own family. And furthermore, a life together with those who engage with us in the same line of work or are bound to us by the tie of friendship. Our environment also changes, when we move from one place of residence to another. And without saying that with such changes the former ties die away altogether, yet we know very well, that the later relation frequently becomes altogether different from what it was before.
How small and insignificant, however, are the changes in life upon earth, compared with that appalling change, that takes place, when from the environment of our earthly calling we are transferred to our heavenly surrounding and heavenly service.
Now the dispositions of God as regards our earthly relationships are naturally adapted to the task, which here we have to accomplish. In like manner the dispositions of God as regards our heavenly relationships will be disposed to the service to which the same God will deign to call us in eternity. Something from which follows, that the grouping of persons with respect to a like service above can frequently be an entirely different one, from what it was here on earth. Persons forgotten here can there stand in the fore, he who here stood in the front rank, may there be assigned a subordinate position.
Always as the angels of God, and therefore as the angels of God never asking for anything else, than to be ready for the service of our Lord.
THEREBY upon the “seeing again” and the “recognition” such an altogether different, and a far holier light is thrown.
Then all egoism falls away. Then there is no mention of possessing for ourselves again, those who went from us, nor of setting up the earthly housekeeping with them again in the hereafter.
Then it will rather be, a reverently becoming aware of what place Jesus has prepared for them in the great house of the Father. What new calling is given them. To what other service they have been chosen. And what powers, formerly in hiding, have surprisingly unfolded in them for that holy service. And then delighting oneself therein, by reason of the wondrous counsel of God, which had so ordained it for them. And also in connection with that appointment of God, understand, O, so much of what in their nature, in their natural ability and in their lot in life we had never understood here on earth.
And yes, then once again a bond of love, but one of so entirely a different nature. Here it was, together to build a house for ourselves, but there it shall be the joy and the privilege, together to be permitted to have part in the building of the temple of the glory of our God.
And therefore, even if in the hereafter we are not with our beloved dead called again to the same service, no complaint shall proceed from this nor any melancholy feeling of disappointment, because then on both sides we shall know no higher and no holier happiness, than ourselves to labor and to see one another labor in that place and at that task, which most glorifies our God.
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