The Other Side

On the Evidence of Life After Death

Photo by eduard on Unsplash

What if you could peak beyond the veil of death without actually experiencing death? If I could document this experience, my thinking goes, I could prove that there is a God. But for just 10 minutes, I would walk as a living man on the Other Side of death, witnessing firsthand the great accounting. I would bring a camera and capture the instant – if time exists for the dead – that a man breathes his last breath and his soul leaves his body. Does it hover for a moment before instantly facing Almighty God, trembling in fear, and gasping in awe? Does the Just Judge beam with pride at some, open wide His arms and lovingly embrace the faithful? Does He weep in anguish at others, shake His head, and regretfully turn them away?

I would quietly move about, capturing the expressions and emotions of the awaiting souls. Does their countenance change when they realize their fate? Do they cry tears of joy or tears of anguish? Do the elect leap into heaven and immediately look for loved ones long past while others beg for the Just Judge to reconsider? Do His eyes convey sadness when He responds, “I never knew you.”

I thankfully cannot visit the Other Side of death. Such a morbid thought experiment is merely a proxy for gaining evidence of life after death. But perhaps to little avail, as the bible already addresses this case, but in two seemingly contradicting accounts. One is a parable, and the other is lived experience that Jesus had. The former account is found only in Luke 16:19-31 and the latter is found only in John 11 and 12. Interestingly, the dead man in both cases is named Lazarus, a curious fact that I suspect is not accidental.

Lazarus and Lazarus

In the former, Lazarus a poor beggar covered with sores, lays outside a rich man’s gate. The unnamed rich man lives in luxury. There is no interaction between the two of them except we are told that the beggar “longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.” They both die. We are given no additional detail about their lives, nor do we read about how much time they spend “being” dead.

The rich man is taken to Hades while Lazarus is taken to Abraham’s side – seemingly heaven. The rich man is in torment. But he can look “up” to Abraham and asks him to send Lazarus to “dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue.” Abraham says this is not possible for a “great chasm has been set in place” which does not allow “anyone [to] cross from there to us.” The following exchange ensues:

“‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

‘He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’” (emphasis added).

In the second account, Jesus raises an actual Lazarus from the dead. This Lazarus lived in Bethany, had two sisters named Mary and Martha, and was a friend of Jesus. He had been dead for four days. When his sister Mary saw Jesus arrive, she fell down at His feet, and pointedly accused Him of being absent. Jesus delayed His arrival by two days after he heard Lazarus was sick. Mary knew He was late. “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” This accusation is one of the few instances in which we see Christ troubled and in emotional distress. And Mary’s distress and sorrow directly affected Jesus and is cause for the shortest verse in the bible. “Jesus wept.”

But Jesus had a plan. Before raising Lazarus from the dead, He prays to the Father. “And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Jesus then tells Lazarus to come forth. A formerly dead man, bound hand and foot with graveclothes, emerges from the tomb, stunning the witnessing Jews.   

Though Jesus performed the act, the risen Lazarus becomes his own spectacle. “A great many of the Jews [came], not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.” The chief priests even plot to put the newly alive Lazarus to death, “because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus” (emphasis added).

Evidence without Love

So, are these two accounts in contradiction? I don’t know. In the former, Abraham says the rich man’s living brothers would not be convinced “even if someone rises from the dead.” Yet that is precisely what happened to Lazarus and “on account of him” many of the Jews believed in Jesus. Perhaps the latter account, given Christ’s direct role in raising Lazarus from the dead, is of greater emphasis. But what if someone today died, rose from the dead, and shared their experience “being” dead? I am persuaded that the experience of the former Lazarus would prevail. But regardless, it would defeat the point of the Gospel. I could have all the evidence and the knowledge in the world, but none of that would matter without love. I am also convinced that debating which account is more “right” is to miss the forest for the trees.

Because Christians already have the greatest evidence for God: It is the existence of sacrificial, selfless love. I know Christ exists because He has loved me to the point of death. This type of love can only be understood as irrational (or better, transcendent, or “not of this world”) because it compels us to do irrational acts like love our enemies, forgive incessantly, and lay down one's life for his friend. It’s the kind of love I can fallibly practice; the kind of love I have witnessed; the kind of love I am a recipient of. But this is a topic to expand on another time. Besides what Christian would want to visit the Other Side of death when all he must do is love selflessly and sacrificially? Surely, it’s more convenient. Or is it?