Book Review: Surpised by Hope by N. T. Wright (Part II)

Perhaps I'm just young and impressionable, but I see Surprised by Hope as perhaps the most important book (other than the Bible...kind of...I'll get to that) for Christians to read today. We have a fundamentally awful idea about what salvation and heaven and Jesus and His resurrection are all about.

I ran into this recently while helping with the drama at my church's VBS. We came to the story about Jesus' resurrection and asked some questions at the end, supplied by the book. I asked, "Why was Jesus risen from the dead." The kids - as young as 5, as old as 12 - fairly quickly responded, "So we can go to heaven when we die." If I were to ask most adult Christians the same thing (such as these children's parents or Sunday school teachers), they would respond the same way.

But this is logical non-sequitor. Please explain to me how it follows that because Jesus was risen from the dead we now go to heaven when we die. Paul in his letters tells us that Jesus was a firstfruit, a precursor. So wouldn't you suppose that if Jesus was raised from the dead that we too will be raised from the dead?

Well of course, of course, you may answer. That's what heaven is all about. Huh? Since when did heaven contain human bodies. Are they snatched away once a person is put into a grave or once the casket is sealed shut?

Now neither N. T. Wright nor I are out to disprove the existence to heaven or to say that we don't go there when we die. What we are trying to say is that's not the point. To quote Wright,

...the normal Western Christian view [is] that salvation is about 'my relationship with God' in the present and about 'going home to God and finding peace' in the future...Those of us who have know this tradition all our lives...will recognize [t]his summary as being what most Christians believe and, indeed, what most non-Christians assume Christians believe. And, to make the point once more as forcibly as I can, this belief is simply not what the New Testment teaches.

 I fear that putting such mind-altering stuff into a brief book review might push you away more than pique your interest. For anyone to tell you that Christianity is not about your relationship with God and going to heaven and staying there when you die might just lead you to label that person a heretic. And understandably so. We have been taught all our lives these ideas about having a personal relatinoship with Jesus, escaping earth, going to our mansions prepared for us in heaven. We sing (or write) songs about heaven being our home. "We are citizens of heaven," we may quote from Paul in Phil. 3:20.

And yet we're completely missing the point. So what is the point?