SAUCIER — Here and hereafter

Meandering through the museum, we found funerary art from ancient Egypt.

The wealthy deceased were mummified and often placed in a richly adorned wooden coffin. A stone sarcophagus would further protect the body for its journey.

There was artwork found in tombs — etchings, pictures and statues of the deceased, sometimes with family or servants.

There were ornate pitchers and plates for the food needed to nourish the ka, the vital force or life essence that would live on after death.

By the Middle Kingdom, some 4,000 years ago, access to the afterlife was available to everyone, though the ka of the deceased poor, apparently ate little better than they did in life.

Belief in an afterlife was nothing new. A burial site in Russia provided evidence that 30 millennia ago, bodies were being buried with grave goods, items meant to help the departed make his or her way beyond death.

Gradually, the idea of judgement became a part of the concept of the afterlife. No doubt, some felt, since there is so little justice in this life, there must be in the next.

The Greeks had their just rewards. Elysium was for the righteous who enjoyed an eternal spring day while the evil ones endured customized torture in Tartarus, the deepest realm of Hades.

By the time Jesus came along, Jews — at least the Pharisees — believed in the immortality of the soul, resurrection of the body and an individual judgement.

All this may beg the question, what difference does the resurrection of Jesus make?

For some, it may confirm the Pharisees’ inclination, but with a new route — the Way, the Truth and the Life — through judgement to heaven.

But those post-resurrection appearances seem to focus on this life, not the next.

“Do not be afraid,” he tells the wailing women who had gone to the tomb.

“Peace be with you,” he tells his disciples huddled in a locked room.

Forgive one another, love one another, feed one another.

And, like the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, we will know him in the breaking of the bread, in a community not just of belief, but of care.

What the Risen One offers, after eons of death and funeral rites, is hope.

“And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.”

It is not hope “for” or hope “in” anything specific.

It is simply living in the hope of Christ and trusting that all will be well.