Subduing All Things

I recently watched Greyhound, the 2020 film starring Tom Hanks. A work of historical fiction, the movie follows US Navy commander Ernie Krause, who has the unenviable mission of guarding an Allied convoy making their way from the United States to Liverpool, England in February of 1942. The convoy consists of 37 ships transporting vital supplies and troops. At the time, Adolf Hitler was the master of Europe. Only the island nation of Great Britain had not succumbed to his forces.

Krause captains the USS Keeling, a destroyer with the radio call sign “Greyhound.” He also commands three additional warships tasked with protecting the Allied convoy from prowling German U-boats. They must traverse the dreaded “Black Pit” – the mid-Atlantic Ocean where they will have no air cover.

At one point, the Greyhound engages in battle with a U-boat which has been forced to the surface. Although the Greyhound destroys the German submarine, the enemy deck gun scores a hit, killing three US servicemen.

The harsh demands of war require that the bodies of the dead are buried at sea. Thus, Captain Krause assembles all hands to conduct a brief memorial service for their slain shipmates. Although Greyhound is full of riveting action, the burial stands out as the movie’s best scene. At this solemn moment, Captain Krause recites the Navy’s traditional epitaph, taken from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer:

“We therefore commit the earthly remains [of these men] to the deep, looking for the general resurrection on the last day and the life of the world to come through our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose second coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the sea shall give up her dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in him shall be changed and made like unto his glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.”

As I took in this wonderful scene, it struck me that this kind of language is hardly familiar to the modern ear, even for many regular church goers. That’s unfortunate, because the images are richly Biblical. Let’s take a moment to ponder them.

The words of the epitaph are drawn from various parts of the New Testament, including the final judgment scene in Revelation 20 and Paul’s magnificent discussion of the general resurrection and the final establishment of God’s kingdom in I Corinthians 15.

Also utilized is a key passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, where the apostle reminds his readers: “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (NIV)

The Naval epitaph is based on the older King James Version, which speaks of Jesus’ power “by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself.”

It’s easy to misunderstand this passage, especially the reference to our citizenship in heaven. Many Christians take this to mean that the creation is merely a temporary and alien place of residence for us, whereas our true & eternal home is “in heaven.” When they read this passage, it conjures up images of the Lord Jesus gathering up his people so that he can transport them to some otherworldly destination.

In truth, the Apostle Paul is making precisely the opposite point. What is temporary and foreign to us is the present state of the world. God created humans in his very own image so that we might govern the world according to his wisdom. But because of human rebellion, God’s handiwork has been infected by evil, injustice, violence and death.

This tragic dynamic was never more apparent than during World War II, when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers sought to seize power over the world through military conquest. Thanks in part to another Tom Hanks film, Saving Private Ryan, many Americans are well acquainted with the D-day invasion whereby Allied forces stormed the beaches of northern France on June 6, 1944.

Far fewer are familiar with the battle of the Atlantic. This was a prolonged struggle to transport millions of soldiers and vast amounts war material across the Atlantic Ocean. Those treacherous seas were infested by German U boats intent on undermining the Allied war effort by preventing personnel and supplies from reaching England. Over the course of the war, German submarines sank roughly 2,700 merchant ships. An estimated 80,000 Allied sailors and merchant seamen perished.

Driven by Hitler’s malice, German armies rampaged across Europe and into Asia. His invasion of the USSR resulted in the estimated deaths of an astonishing 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians. (For comparison, the United States suffered 418,000 deaths, virtually all military.)

Adolf Hitler promoted a cult of German racial superiority which led him to commit mass murder on an industrial scale. He slaughtered over 6 million Jews, many in the gas chambers of extermination camps like Auschwitz, located in German occupied Poland.

The entire story of the Bible promises that God will not allow such horrible realities to persist forever. Eventually, “the kingdom of the world” will become “the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.”

The present worldly kingdom is characterized by sin and death. But Paul’s point is precisely not that Christians are hoping to be evacuated from the creation. Rather, we’re anticipating the glorious moment when Jesus comes from heaven to earth in order to set all things right again: “And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…”

By virtue of his death and resurrection, Jesus has already been enthroned as God’s Messiah, the anointed king over all creation. But there will a future day when Jesus will be fully and finally acknowledged as the world’s true Lord. When that happens, all that stands against him will be swept away by his righteous judgment.

When Paul speaks of our citizenship in heaven, he’s not suggesting that our true home is someplace else. “Heaven” is Paul’s way of talking about the sphere of God’s sovereignty. He’s referring to the fact that Christians have given their full allegiance & loyalty to King Jesus and his kingdom.

Paul assures us that there will come a grand moment when Jesus subdues all those evil forces which presently ruin the world – especially tyrants like Adolf Hitler who perpetrate massive injustice. In other words, the rule of heaven is coming to earth, just as we pray: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Death itself is the darkest and most powerful enemy of God’s good and lovely world. But it’s a foe which has already been decisively defeated by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. And the same mighty power which raised Jesus from the dead will be applied on the day of his return in order to rescue God’s people from the grave.

Our present “lowly” bodies are susceptible to sin, sickness, injury and death. The bodies of those buried by Captain Ernie Krause were committed to the cold, dark waters of the North Atlantic Ocean where they would undergo certain decay and corruption. But the Apostle Paul is just as certain that God will raise his people (those who “sleep in him”) to new life. Our lowly bodies will be transformed so that they will be like the glorious resurrection body of Jesus himself.

Too many people (Christians included) erroneously believe that after death we shall leave our bodies behind and exist only as an immaterial soul. This idea has more in common with Greek philosophy than the Bible. Consistent with the OT scriptures, the Apostle Paul insists that the creation is good and will not be abandoned. God is totally committed to redeeming and restoring his world from corruption. Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate sign of that commitment.

Our resurrected bodies will be thoroughly physical but completely animated by the Spirit of God. We will no longer be plagued by the deceptions of sin. Nor shall we fall prey to illness or – like the men on Captain Krause’s ship – to the violence of combat.

Jesus shall subdue all things unto himself. He will establish his rule and reign rule over all the earth forever. No longer will war and conflict mar human existence. Injustice will be replaced by righteousness, and immorality by holiness. Death and misery will be forgotten, overcome by joy and eternal life.