Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last. Luke 23:46
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I find the most intriguing story about Jesus is the passion story, the final days of Jesus' physical life on this planet. Of all the other things in the New Testament that are said about Jesus, the story of his suffering and death affirms Jesus being one of us, a human being. Human beings die and so did Jesus.
Jesus saying, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" is only found in the Gospel of Luke. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark merely say that the at end of Jesus life he cried with a loud voice and gave up his spirit. This final crying out is given meaning in Luke, and Luke's account is what has stuck with me because it offers a possible explanation to what occurs at the moment of one's death.
As a faith-based agnostic, I make no presumptions about will happen when we die. I can only speculate, at best. My faith in God (that Being in which we live and move and have our being) is not based on what will happen when I die, my faith in God is based on the experience of God in the present.
Any thoughts I entertain about an afterlife is simply based on this present life which, in my opinion, suggests the probability of there being more to existence than the physical life I am currently experiencing. What also suggests this probability comes from my personal observation of people who have just died prior to any cosmetic make-over by a mortician.
The one thing that strikes me about someone who has just died is the overwhelming sense of absence; as in, the lights are out and nobody is home. It's this absence of being that brings into question what happened to the life, the energy, that animated this person's physical body at the moment of death.
We tend to treat life as a purely physical phenomenon, that begins at conception and ends at death, but is that accurate? On a purely observational level it would appear to be, but the human experience lends itself to understand there is more to being alive than merely being an animated physical presence. Spirit is the driving force, the energy, the marker that identifies all living matter, including the entire universe.
We do not see spirit; however, we experience its presence and it's absence. It is experience that suggests there is more to the universe, more to the animated physical world than the physical eye can observe. The concept of spirit is frequently related to the personal experience of an acquired feeling.
Feeling, as used here, is the inner experience we obtain through our physical senses; in that, what we see, touch, smell, taste and hear result in forming an immediate inner feeling (good, bad, pleasant, unpleasant, etc.) about those sensations, and I would also add that our inner thoughts and inner conversations result in acquiring feelings. It is those feelings that result in and define our experiences, and it is our experiences that stick with us and shape who we are. It is experience that gives credence to the concept of spirit.
It is the moment of both conception and death that the rational mind struggles with the notion of one's ability to experience as a necessary component of existence. Is conception and death, strictly speaking, experiential on the part of the person conceived or dead or are they merely experiential on the part of an observer; as in the case of conception, the woman who becomes impregnated or in the case of the deceased, the deceased's family and friends?
Was there a me before the me I am? Will there be a me after I die? Is there something that is essentially me or does my existence present a current expression of a fundamental, over-arching existential essence?
To such questions, I can provide no answers beyond the speculative. Instead, I will turn to theology which will not answer these questions, but may give clarity and definition in asking them.
THE SPIRITUAL ESSENCE OF CREATION
The theological proposition presented in the Gospel of John as the Word, the creative utterance, that brought the universe as the essential nature of Jesus is suggestive. Because if this is true about Jesus, then it must be true of us also, because according to the biblical scriptures, we are necessarily the result of this same creative utterance.
The first chapter of John is a summary rewrite of the creation story found in the first chapters of Genesis in which all creation comes into being through the Word. The difficulty with the Gospel of John is that it attempts to make Jesus the one and only incarnated being, a view that is inconsistent with the creation of humankind described in Genesis and with Luke 3:38, "... Adam which was the son of God."
Genesis presents a broader view of the spirit or wind of God as the creative force that brought about the universe. In another post, I suggested and described this spiritual force as the desire to be; that in essence the singularity that became the universe was spirited, activated, animated, released with spirit to take shape; to experience and be experienced.
I defined creation as a kenotic act in which that "Being-in-which-we-live-move-and-have-our-being," commonly known as God, is constantly expending "being" in order to expand "being." It seems to me that this expanding while expending trait of God is imprinted on all that God creates, including us.
As such, when Jesus cried out with his last breath it was his final kenotic act on earth; a complete emptying of his binary self as God incarnate. In Luke's account of this moment, Jesus commends his spirit, his essential self to that Self we all embody; the creative breath, wind, and spirit of the living and life-giving God. If this is true, then the resurrection seems possible, if not probable.
THE PROBABILITY OF RESURRECTION
The apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Church at Corinth writes:
"There are celestial (spiritual) bodies and bodies terrestrial (physical); but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. So also is the resurrection... It (the physical body) is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul (incarnated spirit); the last Adam was made a quickening (life -giving) spirit. [1Corintians 15: 40, 42a, and 45 - KJV]
Paul presents a dichotomous understanding of creation; as there being two separate types of created beings; one physical (by nature thoroughly corrupt) and one spiritual (by nature incorruptible). In this sense, Paul seemingly dismisses, as being dichotomous, the binary elements of the "natural" human as being. A view that is in contrast with the first and second chapters of Genesis and the first chapter of the Gospel of John:
In the first and second chapters of Genesis we find:
" So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. [Genesis 1:27 KJV] And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (an incarnate spirit). [Genesis 2:7 KJV]
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John we find:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And the Word was made flesh... . [John 1:1-2, 14a KJV]
The point is that Genesis and the Gospel of John present creation as being a paradox that one can identify as binary unification; the combination of a necessary (physical) and essential (spiritual) element in order to bring about the living creatures we currently are, the present us.
What these various scriptures suggest to me is that at the moment death is realized, the physical element remains in the present to be absorbed back (decay) to its original elemental states, while the essential element of one's being, the breath, the wind, the spirit that animates the entirety of the universe returns to its essential form, God.
One can deduce from this theological premise that the resurrection of Jesus is the prototype of a new creation; the "last Adam, is the converse of the first Adam, but instead of bearing the incarnated image (the essence) of God, the resurrected Jesus is a new spiritual creation; the essence of God bearing the experience of humanity.
At best, I can only present this as pure theological speculation, but I am intrigued by its implications.
As a person in the present and a person of faith, I can only hope that at the end of this terrestrial journey I will say with Jesus, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."
Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
THE EXPERIENCE OF SPIRIT
The one thing that strikes me about someone who has just died is the overwhelming sense of absence; as in, the lights are out and nobody is home. It's this absence of being that brings into question what happened to the life, the energy, that animated this person's physical body at the moment of death.
We tend to treat life as a purely physical phenomenon, that begins at conception and ends at death, but is that accurate? On a purely observational level it would appear to be, but the human experience lends itself to understand there is more to being alive than merely being an animated physical presence. Spirit is the driving force, the energy, the marker that identifies all living matter, including the entire universe.
We do not see spirit; however, we experience its presence and it's absence. It is experience that suggests there is more to the universe, more to the animated physical world than the physical eye can observe. The concept of spirit is frequently related to the personal experience of an acquired feeling.
Feeling, as used here, is the inner experience we obtain through our physical senses; in that, what we see, touch, smell, taste and hear result in forming an immediate inner feeling (good, bad, pleasant, unpleasant, etc.) about those sensations, and I would also add that our inner thoughts and inner conversations result in acquiring feelings. It is those feelings that result in and define our experiences, and it is our experiences that stick with us and shape who we are. It is experience that gives credence to the concept of spirit.
It is the moment of both conception and death that the rational mind struggles with the notion of one's ability to experience as a necessary component of existence. Is conception and death, strictly speaking, experiential on the part of the person conceived or dead or are they merely experiential on the part of an observer; as in the case of conception, the woman who becomes impregnated or in the case of the deceased, the deceased's family and friends?
Was there a me before the me I am? Will there be a me after I die? Is there something that is essentially me or does my existence present a current expression of a fundamental, over-arching existential essence?
To such questions, I can provide no answers beyond the speculative. Instead, I will turn to theology which will not answer these questions, but may give clarity and definition in asking them.
THE SPIRITUAL ESSENCE OF CREATION
The theological proposition presented in the Gospel of John as the Word, the creative utterance, that brought the universe as the essential nature of Jesus is suggestive. Because if this is true about Jesus, then it must be true of us also, because according to the biblical scriptures, we are necessarily the result of this same creative utterance.
The first chapter of John is a summary rewrite of the creation story found in the first chapters of Genesis in which all creation comes into being through the Word. The difficulty with the Gospel of John is that it attempts to make Jesus the one and only incarnated being, a view that is inconsistent with the creation of humankind described in Genesis and with Luke 3:38, "... Adam which was the son of God."
Genesis presents a broader view of the spirit or wind of God as the creative force that brought about the universe. In another post, I suggested and described this spiritual force as the desire to be; that in essence the singularity that became the universe was spirited, activated, animated, released with spirit to take shape; to experience and be experienced.
I defined creation as a kenotic act in which that "Being-in-which-we-live-move-and-have-our-being," commonly known as God, is constantly expending "being" in order to expand "being." It seems to me that this expanding while expending trait of God is imprinted on all that God creates, including us.
As such, when Jesus cried out with his last breath it was his final kenotic act on earth; a complete emptying of his binary self as God incarnate. In Luke's account of this moment, Jesus commends his spirit, his essential self to that Self we all embody; the creative breath, wind, and spirit of the living and life-giving God. If this is true, then the resurrection seems possible, if not probable.
THE PROBABILITY OF RESURRECTION
The apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Church at Corinth writes:
"There are celestial (spiritual) bodies and bodies terrestrial (physical); but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. So also is the resurrection... It (the physical body) is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul (incarnated spirit); the last Adam was made a quickening (life -giving) spirit. [1Corintians 15: 40, 42a, and 45 - KJV]
Paul presents a dichotomous understanding of creation; as there being two separate types of created beings; one physical (by nature thoroughly corrupt) and one spiritual (by nature incorruptible). In this sense, Paul seemingly dismisses, as being dichotomous, the binary elements of the "natural" human as being. A view that is in contrast with the first and second chapters of Genesis and the first chapter of the Gospel of John:
In the first and second chapters of Genesis we find:
" So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. [Genesis 1:27 KJV] And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (an incarnate spirit). [Genesis 2:7 KJV]
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John we find:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And the Word was made flesh... . [John 1:1-2, 14a KJV]
The point is that Genesis and the Gospel of John present creation as being a paradox that one can identify as binary unification; the combination of a necessary (physical) and essential (spiritual) element in order to bring about the living creatures we currently are, the present us.
What these various scriptures suggest to me is that at the moment death is realized, the physical element remains in the present to be absorbed back (decay) to its original elemental states, while the essential element of one's being, the breath, the wind, the spirit that animates the entirety of the universe returns to its essential form, God.
One can deduce from this theological premise that the resurrection of Jesus is the prototype of a new creation; the "last Adam, is the converse of the first Adam, but instead of bearing the incarnated image (the essence) of God, the resurrected Jesus is a new spiritual creation; the essence of God bearing the experience of humanity.
At best, I can only present this as pure theological speculation, but I am intrigued by its implications.
As a person in the present and a person of faith, I can only hope that at the end of this terrestrial journey I will say with Jesus, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."
* * * * * * * * * *
Norm
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