No GAA In heaven?

“Imagine there’s no GAA in heaven? I’d have to come back down again!” Was Marty Morrissey joking when he said those words in a recent interview with the Irish Independent? He probably was, but I’m pretty sure he was serious when he said:

“Butterflies appeared in the church during the funeral when my mum died, and that is the most tenuous link to believing that there is life after death, but I want to believe it.”

We naturally want to believe there is something after we die, and when we lose a loved one, we long to see them again.  My own mum died when she was just 46 and for weeks afterwards I would have dreams of seeing her again.  You wake up and for a moment you think it’s true and then you face the grief all over again. 

Is the thought of life after death just something to help us through hard times?  If death is just atoms being rearranged, why does it hurt so much? Is there any more hope than butterflies in the church?

This weekend Christians around the world celebrate an event that points powerfully to life after death.  Although it is denied by many, the truth is, if Jesus Christ had not risen physically from the dead, you and I would never have heard of him.

But how do we know that Jesus rose? Some say Jesus didn’t really die, and he just revived in the tomb. But a Roman Centurion confirmed that Jesus was really dead.

What if the women went to the wrong tomb? Well, not only had they seen where Jesus was buried, and not only did they find an empty tomb, there were angelic messengers pronouncing that they were in the right tomb but Jesus was not there because he had risen!

In the first century women could not be witnesses in court, and so if you were making this up, you would not have women as the first witnesses.  There were more witnesses, over 500 eyewitnesses who saw the risen Jesus.  

Legal journalist Lee Strobel tried to disprove the resurrection but ended up becoming convinced.  He worked out that there’s over 129 hours of eyewitness testimony to the resurrection, he concluded “After listening to 129 straight hours of eyewitness testimony who could possibly walk away unconvinced that Jesus rose from the dead?”

But there’s not only these appearances, there’s also the changed lives of the disciples. They went from hiding in a locked room to publicly testifying that Jesus had risen. None of them profited from this, but rather they suffered and even died for their beliefs.  You wouldn’t die for a lie.

If that’s all true, then this means we can know for certain that there is life after death.  Paul’s life was turned upside down by the risen Jesus and he wrote “for we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.”  (1 Thessalonians 4:14)

I love the way Paul describes death as “falling asleep” because that means we will wake up.  Surely the certainty of the resurrection is better than butterflies in the church. Paul says that Christians still grieve, but we don’t grieve as those without hope, for if our loved one was trusting in Christ, then we will indeed see them again!