000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

Proper 28 [33]/Year B 205
to resist the coming of God to destroy them and replace their rule with
the divine realm (Dan. 12:1b).
Daniel 12:2–3 is the first fully developed reference to the resurrection
of the dead in the Old Testament. Many apocalyptic thinkers thought
either that at death people lost consciousness and all forms of life, or that
the dead went into a kind of holding tank (similar to Sheol) where they
experienced neither joy nor sorrow. In connection with the apocalypse,
God would raise everyone, that is, bring each person back to consciousness
in a body, but one that would not wear out like the present earthly
body. God would raise the righteous to everlasting life in the renewed cosmos
(the realm of God) and the wicked to “shame and everlasting contempt.”
Daniel 12:3 compares the resurrection body of the righteous to
the brightness of stars.
To Daniel and other apocalyptic theologians, the resurrection is not
otherworldly pie in the sky. These theologians were profoundly troubled
by the continuing prosperity of the wicked and the unjust repression of
the righteous. Many of the wicked died without being punished, and their
institutions prospered, while many of the righteous died while suffering
and apparently bereft of the life of blessing that God promised. The apocalyptic
theologians conceived of the resurrection as the means whereby
God would act rightly for the righteous by giving them the life of blessing
they had been denied during the evil age. Of course, God would visit
curse and condemnation upon the wicked.
The apocalyptic thinkers used their vision as a way of helping people
survive difficult circumstances in the present and of affirming that God
can ultimately be trusted to act rightly in the future, even the future
beyond death. Some preachers today do not fully accept the idea that God
will end the present age and inaugurate a new one through an apocalypse,
or raise the dead. Nevertheless a preacher could see the reading from
Daniel as affirming that God is with the community as strengthening
presence in present suffering and can be trusted to be as loving and gracious
in any future life as God is in the present. Such awareness could
empower individuals and congregations to live courageously in the face
of forces ranging from cancer to exploiters who distort and repress.
This lection from Daniel is in the background of Mark 13:1–27
(and parallels) and many other passages in the New Testament (e.g.,
Matt. 28:1–10; Mark 16:1–8; Luke 24:1–43; cf. Matt. 13:36–43; 25:31–46,
esp. 46; Acts 24:10–21, esp. 14; Rom. 6:4–11; 1 Cor. 15:12–47; Rev. 3:5;
7:13–14; 20:5–6).