Luke 23:42-43
New International Version
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.[a]”
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
When a saved Christian dies, do they go directly to heaven, or as some say, stay in the grave... or in some other intermediary?
Or is there variety in what happens?
As far as what Jesus was talking about, Jesus' words effectively mean that the thief would be counted among the righteous. "Paradise" wasn't "heaven" in the modern understanding, but the place of the righteous dead.
Essentially there was one "place" for the dead, She'ol, translated as Hades in the New Testament. We can think of it like this, She'ol was split into two halves, the place of the righteous dead, called Gan-Eden in Hebrew (literally "Garden of Eden") also called Paradeisos ("Paradise") in Greek; the Greek word was borrowed from ancient Avestan,
pairidaēza, meaning "an enclosed garden", and the Greek paradeisos had the same meaning, "garden". And on the other hand there was the place of the wicked dead, Ge-Hinnom, ("Valley of Hinnom") which becomes Gehenna when written in Greek. The Hinnom Valley is a very real terrestrial location, located outside of Old Jerusalem even today. In valley was associated with horrible things in Jewish tradition, as the Hinnom Valley was the center for the cult of Molech in ancient times, worshipers of Molech would offer living human sacrifices, most noteworthy being the sacrifice of infants. Jewish tradition says that worshipers of Molech would take a bronze idol of Molech and burn it until it was red hot, then place a small child upon the open hands, literally cooking the child to death. So in Jewish tradition the Hinnom Valley was emblematic of death, despair, and fire.
So these concepts, Gan-Eden or Paradise, and Ge-Hinnom or Gehenna were the two experiences of death, one for the righteous and one for the wicked. When Jesus says, "You will be with Me in Paradise" He is telling the thief that he would be counted among the righteous, among Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the holy men and women of the past.
In traditional Christian teaching we believe in what is called the Harrowing of Hell (Hades), that is why the Apostles' Creed says "[Christ] descended into hell". In the original Latin it says "descendit ad inferos" or "descended to the lower regions" simply meaning "the place of the dead". What we mean is that Christ descended to the place of the dead, so He entered into She'ol or Hades and conquered it. Liberating the prisoners there, that is, the righteous saints of old.
Which is why one of the most common Christian icons is the Icon of the Anastasis (Resurrection) which depicts the Harrowing of Hell. Christ's descent into the place of the dead, crushing death and the devil beneath the fallen gates of Hades, liberating Adam and Eve from their sarcophagi, with the train of saints on His left and right.
And so, in Christ, death has lost its power, Hades has become impotent.
Thus St. Paul when speaking of this subject, speaks this way,
"So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him." - 2 Corinthians 5:6-9
The words Paul uses are interesting, what is translated as "be away from" and "at home with" are
ekdēmeō and
endēmeō respectively. They can literally mean "emigrate" and "immigrate". That is, to emigrate from the body and immigrate to the Lord.
Now, Paul doesn't really explain what he means here, but the implication that has always been understood historically is that for those whose hope is in Jesus, that between death and resurrection ("away from the body") means being present and at rest with Jesus. So that between death and resurrection we shall be with Christ, in some capacity. And since, of course, we believe and confess that Jesus ascended into the heavens, and is seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, that it is a sensible to say that we "go to heaven" at death. But it's not really about going some
where, but going to
Someone.
And this presence with the Lord, between death and resurrection, is seen as the foretaste, a partial experience, of the final and full reality--when God renews all things, makes all things whole, heals creation, etc. As the blessed hope of the Christian Church is Christ's return and the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting in the Age to Come, that world which shall never end. Right here on Terra Firma.
-CryptoLutheran