Heaven and Hell: Transforming Suffering

Sharing a bit of what the Lord is teaching me concerning, transforming suffering and His healing:

In the Hebrew understanding, and in the understanding of the Biblical Christian, ‘hell’ is the absence of other people, solitary confinement in the prison of the self. It is through separation from others that we are separated from God. As it is written,

‘For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.’

and again

‘you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (self-centered nature), so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.’

Can you imagine a persons self-centeredness, their spiritual/physical violence towards others being so arrogantly established and blinded by pride that even after their physical death, the Lord has no compassion on them…the Body and Spirit still retracts even from their very memory? They have lost all image-bearing qualities…their humanity is eternally destroyed. Let us pray, 'God, keep us from the evil one!'

As it is written,

‘I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.’

and again

‘You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.
Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished.
The LORD reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment. ‘

But this is about healing…about transforming suffering…what happens when those we love pass away and we are attacked by grief? Death is a hard thing to deal with. Bereavement forces us in on ourselves. This is why Jesus commands his disciples to mourn with those who mourn. He doesn’t say sugar coat it, pretend its ok, that it’s not painful…death is an enemy.

Now is a good time to talk about the spirit behind the week of ‘shiva’ (means seven- as in days), ‘during which covenant people are visited by neighbors and friends and rarely left alone. This forces us out of ourselves and back into the land of the living. It helps mend the broken bonds of relationship. ‘Shiva’ is a form of reintegration of resurrection (in a metaphorical sense), a radical insistence that it is not in and by ourselves that we are able to restore life, but in the company of others as the Lord himself changes us through the suffering and we find upon the eighth day that our loved one has found a place in the very presence of the King who comes…who was and is and is to come, with Christ…within us and in our midst. We have all been caught up together in the Life. Therefore it is written,

‘we do not mourn as those without hope’

and again

‘Led in with joy and gladness,
they enter the palace of the king.
Your sons will take the place of your fathers;
you will make them princes throughout the land.
I will perpetuate your memory through all generations;
therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.’

and again

‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?’

Proper mourning in Christianity, as in Judaism, is a process of ‘tikkun’, healing the fractures caused by suffering and loss, evil and injustice…healing in the name of Jesus for the glory of our Father.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.