Our theology of resurrection and eschatology is informed more in the epistles, but if you JUST read the gospels what do you get?
…the significant thing to notice here is this: neither ‘going to heaven when you die’, ‘life after death’, ‘eternal life’, nor even ‘the resurrection of all Christ’s people’, is so much as mention in the four canonical resurrection stories. If Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wanted to tell stories whose import was ‘Jesus is risen, therefore you will be too’, they have done a remarkably bad job of it. Instead, we find a sense of open-ended commission within the present world: ‘Jesus is risen, therefore you have work ahead of you.’
-N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, p.603
Interesting.
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February 1st, 2010 at 6:51 PM
Well….Jesus talks about eternal life in one of the major passages of the New Testament, John 17. To miss that is…astonishing.
Besides which there is that earlier part about “going to prepare a place for you”. While “a place” not clearly identified as heaven, it cannot be this earth, otherwise Jesus would be here in the body among us right now.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:17 AM
True. However, Wright is only talking about the resurrection narrative, not he gospels as a whole. Those passages appear earlier. You might think Jesus would talk about heaven or eschatology after he comes back from the dead, but instead he talks about going and making disciples – earthly action.