Purgatory, Parousia, and Getting Lost

By Tracey Dann

Real estate in the afterlife is a lot like real estate here.What are the three most important things?

LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!

Most of us in the wrong location end up Lost.

For those of you unfamiliar with the show, Lost is a primetime drama recounting the warped and uncanny lives of the survivors of Oceanic flight 815. In its fourth season, the usual smoke monster and polar bear laden antics became insufficiently weird for the Lost fan base, so the writers killed off the entire cast. Well, they are only mostly dead, but they’ve been mostly dead all season!

Recent insinuations in the Lost plotlines suggest that the entire cast died in the original plane crash and are now stuck in an inescapable jungle purgatory. It is here that we as Lutherans must take out our theological GPS. Purgatory, like suntanned polar bears or a portable island, is fictional. Purgatory, as a concept, has been around for less than a thousand years. The theory is this: you are stuck in purgatory because your good works on earth were unable to gain you entrance into heaven. Sounds okay so far. After all, we know our good works will not get us into heaven. According to Paul in his letter to the Romans, we are justified by one thing alone: our faith in Christ.

But here is the kicker: you sit there in purgatory, waiting for your friends and relatives to say enough prayers, burn enough incense, and light enough candles to spring you into heaven. There are not enough Pier 1 Imports in the world to buy the candles I would need to cover my sins. In Ephesians 2:8, we are taught, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, (or anyone else) it is the gift of God.” The only acceptable currency in God’s eyes is the blood of Christ, not our works or anyone else’s. Lucky for us, we get a great exchange rate! Like purgatory, the characters on Lost are supremely occupied with what they have to do to get off of the island. In the end, many of them risk their fictional lives, not unlike the people here who risk their eternal lives, by believing they can save themselves.

Will I give up my long standing Wednesday night date with Jack, my stubble-faced prince of melodrama? That is not likely. Lost is, after all, fiction, and it can be used and enjoyed as long as it is put to the test of Scripture. I can enjoy Lost knowing that if I input purgatory into my biblical GPS, I will hear Christ’s voice asking, “Would you like me to resume guidance?” My faith is grounded in the reality of Christ my Savior. The only writer I listen to is Christ, who, according to Hebrews, is the Author and Perfecter of my faith. He is “the Way, and the Truth, and the Life,” and that is so much cooler than an island that can disappear.

Tracey Dann attends Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Smithfield, Rhode Island, and can be reached at tdann1@cox.net.