Introduction
As I mentioned last week, Paul muddies the waters about whether or not he is talking about an end times resurrection or if he’s talking about being born again (dying every day to sin and rising again in life with Christ).
For the most part I think my responses from last week mostly answered that. The Lutheran both/and goes a long way here. And so, if you are interested in going that way in your preaching, I encourage you to look back at last week’s commentary.
But this week I want to get a little less into the weeds in terms of the cultural context and theology. And more so, I want to talk about the very human reaction that Paul lifts up at the very beginning of this week’s pericope: “Give me the details.”
But How? Give Me the Details!
Paul starts this section out knowing that the Corinthians are going to press him for the details. “35But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.”
We know from Paul’s many references to it throughout the letter, the Corinthians value “knowledge” (see chapter 8 especially). And Paul is anticipating that. But you can tell that Paul is not anticipating a good-natured response with their questions.
From children or youth, we can anticipate questions like “but how?” and “why?” because these are curious minds that want to know more, and they want to satisfy their curiosities. And that curiosity certainly can continue into our adulthood. But there is a difference between healthy skepticism (or curiosity) and being obstinate. And often times in our aging, we begin to get obstinate and defensive. We use questions, not to gain answers or knowledge, but to make the other person feel silly or to make them defensive.
You can hear that frustration in Paul’s reply. He is heading these defensive questions off at the pass and trying to convince the Corinthians to broaden their minds past what they know. Begging them to open themselves up to the possibility that there is life and mystery grander than they can comprehend.
It’s a Mystery
I think we see this with Sundays like Trinity Sunday. It’s funny how so many of us try to craft the most incredible sermon that satisfies all the answers and ties them in a bow. That gets at the nuance of the three in one and one in three. One God in three persons. We go on and on trying to explain every last detail until finally we say, “but in the end it’s a mystery.”
Back in seminary, I had an entire class on the Holy Trinity. For a whole semester, we read books and articles on it. We read through Bible passages that reference each of the persons of God. We had debates, wrote papers, and studied all the perspectives. And as we got to the end of the semester, our professor, Dr. Hoffmeyer, asked, “So, what did you learn?” And one student gave that answer that you just read. “It’s a mystery.”
Now you should know, in seminary, “It’s a mystery” is the equivalent of the Sunday School answer always being Jesus. The answer can always be “it’s a mystery.” How is Jesus present in the bread and wine at communion? It’s a mystery. How is the water made Holy in baptism? It’s a mystery.
So, the classmate answered Dr. Hoffmeyer with the classic answer. “It’s a mystery.” We all let out a collective groan and rolled our eyes at our classmate, knowing it to be the appropriate and clever answer. Dr. Hoffmeyer smiled at us and said, “Good. But do you feel like you know God better?” That stopped us all short. Many of us began to nod slowly.
He continued, “Just because something is a mystery, doesn’t mean it’s worthless to try and learn about it or attempt to understand it. Each time that we try to learn about God, experience God, or connect with God, we better understand our relationship with God. Ultimately, it’s a mystery. But it doesn’t mean that the connection isn’t there.”
This is the new nuance that Paul is trying to get at with his answer to them. He doesn’t just say it’s a dumb question and ignore it. He begins to explain that it’s more complicated than just a “how does it work?” But in his explanation, he actually honors their curiosity. He explains that our physical bodies are perishable. They are finite. They have an expiration date. But through God, and through Jesus who takes on our perishability, we are given resurrection life and enter into imperishability.
Now if you’re anything like me (someone who likes details and someone who certainly would ask some irritating questions of Paul), this may seem like a wild and absurd answer. And yet he does answer their question. Resurrection life is God (through the salvific actions of Jesus Christ) moving us from perishable bodies (earthly bodies) to imperishable ones (heavenly ones). It does not give us a concrete analysis of the anatomy and the physics of it all. But it is an answer to that question. And in the end Paul could probably finish with the words “it’s a mystery.”
Preaching Possibilities
Talking in Circles and Being Curious
From the start of the commentary until now it may seem like I’m talking myself in circles and in fact contradicting myself. And truthfully you might be right. But like Paul I think it’s because there is a nuance here.
Paul is not criticizing the Corinthians for their love of knowledge. He’s criticizing them for holding their love of knowledge above the possibility that there could be more that they do not know. And additionally, that there could be things they will never know. Paul is not criticizing them for asking or having questions. But he is criticizing the type of questions that they’re leading with. Ones that are (as Jesus says to Peter) ‘setting their minds on human things rather than divine things (Mark 8:33 paraphrase).’ Whether about God, Jesus, the resurrection, or our neighbor, Paul is inviting us toward a spirit of curiosity and faith.
And I think this is a word that we need in our society right now.
We are in a season when we seem to be so sure that we know everything in the world and in our country. Our minds are made up about the Church or about our neighbors or about other political opinions or about who we’ve deemed our enemies. We leave no room for learning and all of our questions are geared at making others seem like fools or inferior. Just look at political discourse on social media. Questions are always asked without sincerity, trying to find the next gotcha punch line.
We think that we can intellectually just know the experience of someone by comparing it to our own. Intellectually understanding racism or oppression, violence, or the impacts of war or terrorism. We jump to conclusions. Like the Corinthians who have their presuppositions about the afterlife, we too bring our experiences and impose them on everyone else.
But Paul encourages the Corinthians and the whole Church to have a mind of curiosity. Sometimes it’s okay for us to not have an answer. And sometimes it’s okay that we may never know what it’s like to experience what someone else has gone through. It’s enough for us to just listen and hear that person’s experience. It’s okay that we don’t know exactly how the afterlife will look. It’s enough to know that we have new life here and now as we enter into a life of Christ.
It’s okay that some things remain a mystery. And it’s also okay for us to remain curious, keeping ourselves open to the possibility that there is more to it all than we will ever know.
Thanks be to God.
Micah Krey 
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