EighthDayTheology

[Worldview miniseries 3/3]

A while ago I started writing a three-part miniseries on worldview, but never got around to finishing the last episode. I’ve posted the first two again [1/3 on Daoism] and [2/3 on Confucius], and here’s the third and final instalment…

There’s no topic to squelch a conversation quite like death.

If this isn’t a universal truth, it’s certainly true in both my home and host cultures.

But, arguably, there’s also no topic more important than death. It’s a challenge everyone must face, sooner or later. And though it’s the most universal of experiences, each one of us comes to it as a newbie. There are no ‘death experts’.

To some extent, the prospect of death overshadows our lives, and affects how we live them, whether it’s the amount of time, money and effort we invest into staying healthy, reducing risks and preparing wills, or a particular hope or fear that governs our behaviour.

So although we avoid talking about it, or even thinking about it, nothing gets to the heart of a particular culture’s worldview like how people deal with death. And vitally, what comes after.

Buddhism(s)

In my part of South-East Asia, Buddhism is where people turn for their answers about death.

As the most famous origin story tells it, the first Buddha was a privileged Indian prince (like Confucius and Lao Tzu, he lived around 5 centuries BC). Upon venturing out into the world, he encountered the most severe forms of human suffering, and realised all his royal pleasures were only a temporary mask for pain. He tried extreme ascetisicm, nearly starving himself, but that didn’t help. Eventually, he ate, sat down under a tree, and began to meditate. Then came his enlightenment.

His great insight was that life is suffering. It’s the pleasures of life and our craving after them which cause suffering. By following his eight-fold path, and living a life of moderation, we can deal with pain and suffering by learning to let go of the loves which make loss painful.

Growing up, I was taught that Buddhists are basically atheists. Here in South-East Asia, nothing could be further from the truth.

Temples are filled with the smoke of incense, mingling with the smell of burning paper, as people burn paper offerings. Offerings of fruit, biscuits, flowers and other items are sold on trays on the streets surrounding a temple, and piled up on altars around huge statues. You might hear someone chanting half-understood words to the rhythm of a drum and gong. You’ll definitely see people bowing before the statues, hands pressed together, praying for blessing.

Different temples gain a reputation for gaining luck with different life issues, like relationships and love, healing, or business.

I’ve learned there are different types of Buddhism. The form practiced here by the vast majority of people has much less to do with enlightenment, and much more to do with rituals, temple, and beliefs about the afterlife.

The underworld, judgment, and (maybe) reincarnation

In my experience, the details of what happens when people die get very foggy very quickly. But as far as I can work out, from lots of conversations with lots of people, and quite a bit of reading, the general consensus goes something like this…

• When people die, their souls descend to the underworld
• They are punished for all the wrongs they have done in their life
• Their needs are met by their still-living family, who burn paper offerings to provide for them in the afterlife
• Spirits return to the family altar especially on festival days, and the first and fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, to eat and drink the food provided on the altar
• After some time, they may be reincarnated for another life. Depending on their record, this might be as someone of lesser circumstances, or even an animal

I don’t claim for a moment that these beliefs represent all Buddhists everywhere. But they do describe what most people believe and do in my corner of South East Asia.

You can see how these beliefs, combined with the expectation of filial piety demanded by Confucius, produces a strong obligation to make offerings to the spirits of your ancestors, and do all you can to help them.

Buddhism’s ethical enforcer: karma

Buddhism has a spiritual score-keeping system, which acts as the carrot and stick to ensure the rituals are adhered to. Karma can be boosted by good deeds, especially visiting the temple. If your karma is bad, the retribution will be worse in the afterlife. The link between action and consequence is inevitable.

One of my friends said, “Not all of us follow Buddhism, but karma is always on our mind.”

What really strikes me is the uncertainty of it all. My friends here are caught in a maze of karma, and they never know if they’ve done enough. Many people aren’t even sure whether they really believe in the afterlife and reincarnation, but they need to try to earn good karma just in case. The spirits aren’t out to help you, the offerings are more to try to appease them and buy some temporary favour. Only one thing is sure – the underworld is a murky place of judgment. It’s not going to be pleasant.

Escaping karma

The good news about Jesus Christ is like a rescue helicopter, winching us out of the foggy maze of karma’s retribution, into the clear blue sky of grace.

In life, however hard we try to rid ourselves of desire, experience teaches us that we are made for living and loving. Holding pleasures loosely to dull their loss can’t help. Nor can trying to earn our way to good merit. We can’t escape the maze by ourselves.

The good news of Christ’s gospel is that we are not trapped in karma’s endless cycle of judgment and reincarnation. Every person lives once and then faces judgment (Heb 9:27). The bad news is that no-one can perform enough good deeds to cancel out their own debt of rebellion against God, which is sin. Sin doesn’t just bring about punishment as an impersonal consequence – we deserve punishment under God’s wrath (Rom 2:5-6). God is just. Sin can’t be swept under the carpet.

Mercifully, God does not work by karma. He doesn’t give us what we deserve. Instead, he saves everyone who follows Jesus, in an abundance of grace. God’s speciality is reconciling rebels back to himself. If you believe in Jesus, someone else has already died on your behalf.

The way this God chose to reveal himself most explicitly to the world was to send his own Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:2), as a demonstration of his great love for us (1 John 4:10). The joy and heart of Jesus’s mission is to seek and save the lost – those who were most unclean, most undeserving, least looking for him (Luke 19:10).

And the salvation on offer is to be able to stand before the Creator of the universe, and his Son the King of Righteousness, as a beloved, adopted child, safe from judgment, forgiven and free. Our glorious inheritance is the gift of eternal life with the God who is our life, and finding that he is infinitely happy to have saved us, and to lavish his love on us for ever.

This salvation isn’t only a future hope. When we receive it by faith, it breaks into the present, and floods us with assurance of salvation as God sends his Spirit to live within us. The Holy Spirit bears witness that we are God’s children, and begins to transform us to be like Jesus.

Suggestions for how to pray

How might we begin to pray for people whose lives are full of Buddhist rituals, but who have no certainty?

• Thank God for his amazing grace – that he freely chose to love you and send his Son to suffer all your judgment, so you can enjoy all his reward
• Thank God that he has made himself known, in the person of Jesus Christ
• Pray that he will shine the light of his gospel of grace into the fog of Buddhist ritual
• Pray that he would reveal the reality of what comes after death – hell and deserved judgment for those who remain in their sin; heaven and eternal life for those who have faith in Jesus and follow him
• Pray that he would strengthen the church in South-East Asia to boldly and joyfully declare the grace of God
• Pray for many to find fullness of life through the forgiveness of their sins, and to receive the Spirit of sonship

If you’re a Westerner reading this, what surprises you about how people see death here? Does it make you reflect on how you view death? How your friends and family view death? What is your hope in life and death? Do you need to do anything differently as a result?

This concludes my miniseries on a South-East Asian worldview. There’s so much more that could be said. And I know there’s so much more for me to learn from my friends here. But I also know this – Jesus Christ is fulfilment of all the longings of every culture. The more deeply we delve into any worldview, the more riches we’ll discover in the Bible of how God speaks directly to the hopes and fears we see expresed. And there are people waiting to hear his words, expressed in their own language. Is he calling you to play a part in carrying that message?