[Luke 16:22-26 NASB] 22 "Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 "In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 "And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.' 25 "But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and [that] none may cross over from there to us.'
There is most definitely far more than a "hint" of physicality in this story.
- Physical forms are carried, non-corporeal spirits are not.
- Physical eyes are implied
- A physical finger is explicitly stated.
- Physical water is explicitly stated.
- A physical tongue is explicitly stated.
- (Placing water on a tongue with a finger supports the eyes looking up also being physical)
- The agony appears to be real, as does the flame ... which suggests a real body suffering real pain in real fire.
- A great chasm is a physical obstacle that would only stop physical bodies. Spirits are able to cross chasms.
My objection stands, why would Jesus deliberately misrepresent the afterlife if he knew that there was no physical form beyond death?
Somehow I overlooked this post. Sorry about that. I will need to get back to this when I again have more time. But for now I give a partial answer and that is that God uses imagery that is not intended to be understand exactly, but is a concession to our limited perception. For instance we read that hypocritical worshippers are a "stench in the nostrils of God", or God referred to as having ears or eyes, or Jesus saying "I am the door of the sheep".