Heaven: Is it an Opiate?
Hebrews 11:13-16, 35-40; 12:1-3
January 5, 2025
Three years ago, Lori was diagnosed with a terminal condition. Since then, she’s been thinking about what happens after her death. It’s led me to reading books and pondering along with her about what heaven might be like.
This month, I’m preaching four sermons on heaven. I’m going to be looking at the Bible and seeing what it says about heaven. I’ll also be sharing information from the current research being done on Near Death Experiences. That’s as close as we can get to a scientific study of the afterlife.
Let’s start out by getting some of your thoughts about heaven. Before I share my thoughts over the next four weeks, let me hear what you think. What do you think heaven is like?
As we start this topic of heaven, I’d like for us to ponder today a second question: Is heaven an opiate?
Karl Marx famously describes religion as the “opiate of the masses.” He argues that religion is a tool that defends the interests of the dominant, wealthy classes to the detriment of the rest of us. He points to the religious belief that says we should focus our efforts on heaven and the next life instead of caring about this world and making this world a better place. Marx sees heaven as an opiate. It drugs us into accepting inequality and evil and violence in this world in exchange for a better world to come.
What do you think? Is heaven an opiate?
I believe many people have used heaven as an opiate over the years. People have used it numb us into ignoring the problems of this world. They have discouraged us from challenging the injustices we find around us by turning our full attention to the joys of heaven. Heaven is used to encourage us to escape from taking responsibility for this world. Heaven can be used as an escape.
In addition, too much religion has used heaven and hell as motivators to keep us conformed to the authority of the church. If you do what we say, we will reward you with heaven. If you choose a different path, we will make sure you burn in hell. Most recently, this has been used to attack LGBTQ persons telling them that they will burn in hell for living in opposition to the teachings of their church. Heaven can be used as a harmful hammer.
The other thing I find with the use of heaven is that it is over-emphasized. I think of playing the piano. If you played just one note over and over and over again, it would not be much music. Some people pound on the heaven key over and over and over again. They are all consumed by the heavenly drug. It takes over everything. That’s what an opiate does eventually. It becomes an obsession, an addiction. Heaven can be used as an opiate, this obsessive addiction that blocks us from experiencing the rich fullness of life and love.
Let’s look at our Scripture today for a different view of heaven. The author of Hebrews does not see heaven as an opiate or an escape or a harmful hammer. Instead, we find the author seeing heaven as an incentive to do the right thing, to make a difference, to sacrifice for the greater good.
This section of Hebrews highlights the great faith of God’s people over the years. People like Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. The author talks about their acts of faith. God shared with them promises and they trusted that God would faithfully give them those promises. They faithfully sacrificed for the sake of a future reward.
The author of Hebrews emphasizes that most of these biblical characters never saw their full reward in this life. Instead, their reward came after this world, in heaven. They faithfully served God in this world, but they were rewarded in the world to come.
In other words, heaven is an incentive and motivator for making a difference in this world. It’s not an escape or an opiate.
The author of Hebrews mentions many who made tremendous sacrifices in this world for the sake of God and out of love for people. Verse 35 says, “Many of these people were tortured, but they refused to be released. They were sure they would get a better reward when the dead are raised to life.”
In verse 39 the author says, “All of them pleased God because of their faith. But still they died without being given what had been promised. This was because God had something better in store for us.”
The author says that the faithfulness of these people can be a wonderful example for all of us. They are that large crowd of witnesses in heaven who encourage us to faithfully complete our race. Heaven is full of people who are cheering for us to make a difference in this world.
Heaven is an incentive and motivator, not an escape or an opiate.
I came across a story that highlights the way that heaven can be an incentive and motivator.
In 1952 Florence Chadwick steps into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to the shore of mainland California. She’d already been the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways.
The weather is foggy and chilly. Florence can hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swims for 15 hours.
Eventually Florence grows tired. She calls out, “I’m done. I can’t go any further.”
Her mother, in the boat beside her, tells her, “You’re so close honey. Don’t give up now.”
Florence swims just a little, but then says, “That’s it.”
Her mother says, “Don’t stop now. You’re almost there.”
Florence responds, “Thanks for the encouragement, mom, but I’m stopping.”
The men in the boat pull her out of the water. When Florence gets onboard, she is finally able to see the shore. She realizes she is so close, less than a half mile from the shore.
This is what she says at a news conference the next day: “All I could see was the fog. If I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”
For us, the shore is heaven. If we can see through the fog of this world and picture our eternal home, it will energize us to complete our journey. Heaven can be an incentive and a motivator.
The latest research on Near Death Experiences underlines this truth as well. I’ve recently read two helpful books that summarize the work that’s been done on this. The classic text is the 1975 book by Raymond Moody entitled Life after Life. Moody shared the results of hundreds of interviews he did with people who had technically died, but came back to tell a story.
I also read a more recent book entitled After by Bruce Greyson. This 2021 book is the summary of 4 decades of research into Near Death Experiences. He substantiates the original work that Moody had done earlier.
This is what they say about Near Death Experiences and what heaven might be like. I’m quoting from Raymond Moody:
“Despite the wide variation in the circumstances surrounding close calls with death…it remains true that there is a striking similarity among the accounts of the experiences themselves…. On the basis of these points of likeness, let me now construct a brief ‘complete’ experience which embodies all the common elements in the order in which it is typical for them to occur:
A person is dying. As they reach the point of greatest physical distress, they hear themselves pronounced dead by their doctor. They begin to hear an uncomfortable noise: a loud ringing or buzzing.
At the same time, they feel themselves moving very rapidly through a long, dark tunnel. After this, they suddenly find themselves outside of their own physical body, but still in the immediate physical environment. They see their own body from a distance, as though they are a spectator….
After a while, they notice they still have a body, but one of a very different nature and with very different powers from the physical body they have left behind.
Others come to meet and help them. They glimpse the spirits of relatives and friends who have died. They also experience a loving warm spirit: a being of light. This being of light asks them questions to make them evaluate their life. This being shows them a panoramic, instantaneous playback of the major events of their life. Later, at some point, they approach some type of barrier and determine that they must return and go back to earth….
After the experience, they have trouble trying to tell others what happened. But the experience affects their life profoundly, especially their views about death and its relationship to life.”
This last sentence is one that Bruce Greyson emphasizes in his book: After. He says, “There is one thing about which I am certain, about which the evidence is overwhelming – and that is the effect of Near Death Experiences on people’s attitudes, beliefs and values. If you take only one thing from this book, I want you to appreciate the transformative power of these experiences to change people’s lives.
When I’ve asked people who have had near death experiences how their near death experiences affected them, the first answer is almost always…it changed their attitude toward death.”
He shared the experience of a lady by the name of Sarah who hemorrhaged at age 23 during childbirth:
This is what Sarah told him: “My experience will be with me always. I was not near death – I was dead, clinically dead, with medical evidence to prove the fact. Since then, dying has often been a source of comfort to me. …I never, even during my worst time have feared dying. This lack of fear, I feel, has enhanced a hundredfold my enjoyment of living.
When I was later diagnosed with cancer, during my surgery and after, I never forgot what it felt like to be dead. My death did not hurt me, but greatly enhanced my life. Knowing that I will be protected and welcomed, that dying is beautiful and completely peaceful, I have no fear. The warmth, the pull, the welcome embrace of those arms in the tunnel are with me always.”
Greyson in his book goes on to say: “Most people who have near death experiences losing fear of death means also losing fear of life – letting go of having to be in control all the time, taking more risks, and enjoying life to the fullest. Over the years, I’ve heard time and again that losing the fear of death often leads to a richer appreciation of life, despite outward circumstances.”
In other words, the research shows that getting a glimpse of heaven can be an incentive and motivator to live differently, to make a difference in this world.
If we can see through the fog of this world and picture our eternal home, it will energize us to complete our journey. Heaven can be an incentive and a motivator.
The third and final question I’d like us to ponder this morning is this one: Knowing that heaven is coming, how will we live differently?
Let’s ponder our answers to that question as we listen to our special music.
Knowing that heaven is coming, how will we live differently?
