FEATURED MEMBER ARTICLE: On Grappling with Death by Trout

[JB]

This article is in honor of my friend Laura (Storico), who was more of a blessing to me than many of you realize. I had intense sadness upon hearing that she had passed away. Laura. I miss you greatly. Someday, I will see you again.

I proceed thus to the article:

Marley was dead, to begin with. That’s how the work “A Christmas Carol” begins. As soon as one sees that, one sees a finality. One wonders who this Marley was. What difference did he make? Why is it important to me to know about his death? What kind of person was he?

We all wonder that with death. Death does seem to bring a finality to it and Christians are no exception. We look at the death of a loved one and think about the times together. This side of Heaven, we won’t hear their voice again or see their face or tell that joke together. They’ll never come over to the house again to watch a movie or discuss a favorite book with us or attend a worship service with us.

We get angry and sad as well. We want to scream at the world as it goes on its way. “Don’t you care that someone has died?” To which, we can imagine the world saying, “People die every day.” The answer though is “Yeah, but this one is different.” Of course it is. The degree we mourn is proportional to how close we were to them. Of course, we all mourn in our own way, but nevertheless, we do mourn.

We feel like there must be something wrong with the world. This is not the way things are supposed to be. People aren’t supposed to die like this. They aren’t supposed to leave us. You should be able to wake up every day and see that your friend is still there. You should not have to worry about how much time you’ll have left. You should be able to plan ahead to things like a career and marriage and having children.

Something’s wrong with the world.

This could be that inner yearning in us. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God has placed eternity in our hearts. We all seem to desire immortality in some way. If we don’t have children to carry on our legacy, we write books or paint art or do something that will leave behind a reminder to the world that we were here.

If you’re familiar with the argument from desire, it could be considered an argument for God’s existence. We all think something has gone wrong with the world when a loved one dies. We all want to scream out that death should not be the end of it all.

This is why in so many movies and stories and video games, you can find death as an enemy. Who are we fighting? Death. The Grim Reaper has always been a frightening figure. The simple realization that your time has come is enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine.

The same view was held in the ancient world as well. For the ancients, death was the end. Once you were dead, you were dead, and you would not be coming back. When Patroclus or any other warrior dies in Homer, no one makes plans to bring them back. The clutch of Hades is final.

Thus, Paul speaks about the reign of death from Adam to Moses.(Romans 5:14) The Jews saw hope in the Law, but later Paul reveals how even the Law brought about death. The Law awakened him to the nature of sin and realizing what sin was, he desired it. Once he knew what coveting was and not to do it, the desire to covet came.

He tells us then in 1 Cor. 15 that the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. (Verse 56) However, we must be sure when we read this passage that we read the verses before that one. In this passage, Paul takes the greatest enemy of mankind, and mocks it.

Why?

Paul does not deny that we mourn. He admits that we mourn, but we do not mourn like those who have no hope. (1 Thess. 4:13) We are mourning for ourselves instead. We mourn that we do not get to see this person again this side of the afterlife. We mourn for the times we lost.

There is nothing wrong in doing this either. It is good and proper. The Christian attitude to death is not to be “Let us celebrate that one has died!” We can celebrate that they are with the Lord, but death is sad either way. We have suffered loss and it is not Christian to deny that we have. There is a difference between affirming that what our emotions tell us is true and affirming that we have emotions. They are a part of us and we are not to be stoics. Christ certainly wasn’t one.

But why do we not mourn like the rest that have no hope? Consider that also and let it sink in. Some had no hope. He’s obviously speaking about the pagans. Why did they have no hope? Because they saw no escape from death. They saw no way it could be reversed.

The Christian though knows the answer. Christ has come and Christ took on that enemy of death and won. Christ was the one death had no power over. When the deep magic from the dawn of time was used on Christ, he answered with the deeper magic from the dawn of time.

Now Christians know the truth. The finality of death is not the end. Instead, it is the door to the new beginning. It is the stable door that leads to a new world. It is not the Grim Reaper coming to take us to a nightmare, but actually taking us to a place far better.

Heaven is not wishful thinking or pie in the sky. That would only be so if it was not real. If it is real though, it is a topic we must think about. The pure in heart will see God. Who else would want to? The thought of seeing God should quicken our souls with life everyday. One day, we shall not see through the glass darkly. (1 Cor. 13:12)

That is the Christian hope. Death is simply a bump in the road. It is a temporary separator. It does not eliminate the friendship. It only puts it on a hold for a time. It does not say good-bye forever. It merely says “Good-bye for now.” We will see our loved ones again.

It is because of this that Paul mocks death. In 1 Cor. 15:55, we read “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Imagine you’re a soldier in the army powerfully built. You’re walking home one day and a mugger is a few feet away from you and pulls a gun on you. He’s a small guy though hiding behind a gun, but that gun has power. One shot and you could be a goner.

Imagine though that you could somehow see into that gun though and realize that it had no bullets. Would you be scared then? Not at all. You’d take that guy and turn him into a pretzel. He has no sting. He might look tough, but that is all it is. It’s a look.

This is what’s going on in Philippians 1. Paul is saying he wins every way. If death comes and takes him, that’s fine. He gets to go and be with Christ! If death doesn’t take him, that’s fine! He gets to spend that time leading more people to Christ.

The reality of the resurrection changes everything. Death has begun to work backwards. Paul tells us in Romans 8 that this can only lead to the restoration of all things, not just to the Edenic level though, but even better. This will be a new cosmos that we could never imagine. This is what keeps us going.

Christian apologist and resurrection scholar Gary Habermas writes about the time his first wife Debbie died. It was at that time that his students came to him and said “At times like this, aren’t you glad about the resurrection?” He then said that he would smile for two reasons. The first was that his students were trying to cheer him up with his own teaching. The second was that it worked. (Lee Strobel, Case for Christ pp. 241-242.)

The more this teaching sinks into us, the stronger we’ll be. We can have joy knowing that death has been conquered. There is no longer anything to fear. When our time comes, we won’t find a cold, dark hand awaiting us. We will find the hand of Christ who has been there before and telling death, “This one’s mine.”

Sadly, there are still some who have not accepted the good news and still live like death is the end. If the finality of death is the cornerstone one wants to make of their worldview, then they will make it such, but if the resurrection is true, everything is different, and we should want above all to see if it is true if there’s even a chance. (I believe it is incredibly likely of course that it’s true.)

All of death is working backwards. What we end with is all of life. We end with a world where God’s presence is manifest everywhere and uniting us to our loved ones forever and ever. With such a thought, we can also look at death and ask where it’s sting is and where it’s victory is.

So thus, let us mourn, but not like those who have no hope. We have hope. Let us live accordingly.

[LostSheep]

Dang, you can't amen this article?

[mossrose]

Thank you, Trouty.

:huggy:

[gharfish]

This is excellent.

[{Tim}]

That's awesome.

[JonLanceBarker]

awesome.