More Than Remains

My husband is a floor fanatic. Ol' Hawkeye can spot a dog hair on the carpet at fifty yards in a dense fog. I'm not entirely sure why there'd be fog in our living room, but I digress. There are days when I tiptoe across the basement floor and, moments later, he's coming along behind me, rubbing away the prints left by my bare feet. Sure, it seems a bit extra, but my husband will always have something to do. After all, even the tidiest among us leaves traces of their existence on this earth. The most obvious and, probably, the most involuntary being our entire bodies. We will leave behind the remnant of our physical existence in bones, ashes, and even some remnants prolonged and beating in the chests of others or capturing a few more sunrises in the orbits of someone once a stranger. Evidence of our existence.

I was thinking about the remnants of some of the Bible patriarchs and not so exemplary persons the other day. For instance, Genesis 23:1-4 records the death of Sarah. Abraham purchased land for the purpose of burying his beloved and was later interred there as well. The Cave of Makhpela is considered today to be a sacred place; the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Three generations after Abraham, Joseph demanded a promise from those left behind after his death (Genesis 50:24-26). Though the children of Israel were living in Egypt, when the day came for them to leave, they were to take Joseph's remains with them that he might rest in the land God had promised Abraham.    

And Moses. He died, but Deuteronomy 34:5, 6 give us no coordinates on his grave; we're told that God buried him. A body. A grave. But the where is left for us to wonder. Nevertheless, we can be sure his mortal frame lingered where God put it.

As for the not so exemplary, there's Jezebel. The account of her death is one that tends to linger in memory. She was heartless, to say the least, in her dealings with the people of Israel; orchestrating the death of an innocent man whose only offense was owning a bit of property her husband coveted. Her wickedness was condemned by God through the prophet Elijah and judged with this promise in 1 Kings 21:23:

The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.

It happened (2 Kings 9:30-37), and Jezebel was rendered little more than a tasty carcass for dogs to disperse. 

So, what's the point? you may ask. Why are we ruminating on remains? Well, the thought that came to me as I completed my consideration of corpses, was that Jesus, the greatest, most influential Man who ever walked terra firma didn't leave behind a body, a pile of ashes, a functioning kidney. There is no grave upon which we can place flowers. There is no place where we stood saying Goodbye as we scattered Him to the wind. And from a theological standpoint, that is HUGE! Our God-Man, our Redeemer, our Savior, Jesus was briefly placed in a tomb, raised from death, seen by hundreds, and ascended into heaven. He is alive and seated on His throne today. Deity, authority, sufficiency, omnipotence --the lack of physical remains testifies to these and many more assurances that He is God, once incarnate, Lion and Lamb. But from a human standpoint, what does this mean?       

Simply put, He has given us so much more than a pile of ash or a rotting cadaver. I love that I can go to my Nana's grave and remember her or keep my mother's ashes close and thank God for the time we had together, but Jesus will never be confined to one place. I can speak to Him anywhere I go and, unlike loved ones who have gone before us, He hears, He sees, His Spirit communicates with my spirit. That is the gift of His Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples before His death, It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. (John 16:7) His death and resurrection provides us with the opportunity to receive His Holy Spirit, to carry in us the third Person of the Trinity who comforts, guides, and sanctifies the children of God. And how are we distinguished as children of God? Because we have placed our trust in the One who has left behind no physical remains, but so much more! Salvation and a restored relationship with the God of the universe as our Father is what Jesus has left for us --an inheritance, the Bible calls it. No, there is no grave, no "proof" as some like to argue, but that's the whole point! If He'd left behind a decorative urn or a plot of land among other purchased stones, what of it? He'd be just another human, just another construct of deity or authority. He'd have no more to offer us than the traces of existence we will all leave behind. The proof He is our Savior and King is in His not leaving behind the physical but so much more!