Thinking about Death

Today, I want to discuss with you the topic of death.   Ironically, death is the most democratic event of life.   It comes to all of us.   I’m going to wear the hat of a prophet and say a prophecy that is going to be 100% accurate: “100 years from now, you will be dead”.   There is a saying that “Nothing is certain but death and taxes”, but actually death is more certain, as taxes can be minimized and/or be avoided altogether.   While billions of dollars are used every year to minimize and avoid taxes by wealthy people and crooks respectively, there is no amount of money or influence that you can use to avoid death.   So if death is such an unavoidable event, ought not each one of us to stop for a moment to consider this event, and what can and will happen after it?

A friend of mine shared with me the other day that he was scared about the thought of death.   He is a Christian, young, healthy, with a promising life.   This made me think that while most of us look jolly and cool on the outside, all of us deep inside have questions about death and the after-life, including myself.

For Christians, the Bible, this book that we supposedly stake our faiths and lives on, presents on one side, a very optimistic outlook on death and, on the other side of non-acceptance of the message, a very pessimistic perspective of death.   

So let us examine briefly some of these views:

Death is an escape / hope -  For many of the slaves that suffered bondage while slavery was legal in the US and other parts of the world, the only hope that they could have was that when life in this world was over, God would take them to heaven and their tears would be wiped out, and God would reward them and compensate them for all the troubles they endured.   Similarly, early Christians who were persecuted and tortured, looked forward to death because it provided the hope and escape from the agony and suffering they were going through in the hand of their tormentors.   It was out of these difficult times, for example, that great African-American spirituals erupted like “Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King... No more crying there, we are going to see the King...  No more dying there, we are going to see the King”.   So are you going through some very tough times?   Are you going through suffering and pain that is difficult to endure?   I want to encourage you by saying that it is all temporary.  In the continuum of eternity, our lives here on earth are but a blip, and that immense difficulty that you are going through is a tiny portion of that blip.   You are going to go through it... you are going to make it... and when it’s all said and done, you will be on the other side, anyways, where God promises in Revelation 21:4 that “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever."

Death is a move - I remember that when I was a kid, 10 years old, my parents bought this very nice apartment house, in the center of the city, with an amazing view of the ocean and the harbor.   I was going to get my own room, finally, and I just couldn’t wait for the move.   But we had to wait until the house was finished with all its details, until all the furniture was brought in, and on top of that, my parents wanted a servant of God (a guest speaker for a revival at our church) to be the first one to stay in our house by himself as an honored guest - I just couldn’t wait until that man of God left the house!    As Jesus was getting ready to part with his disciples he said: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."  (John 14:1-4).   There is a song by the great late Christian artist and evangelist, Keith Green, where he goes: “You know, I look around at the world and I see all the beauty that God made. I see the forest and the trees and all the things. And says in the Bible that He made them is six days and I don't know if they're a literal six days or not. Scientists would say no, some theologians would say yes. But I know that Jesus Christ has been preparing a home for me and for some of you, for two thousand years. And if the world took six days and that home two thousand years, hey man, this is like living in a garbage can compared to what's going on up there.”   So let’s get ready for the move.

Death is a victory event - for thousands of years, throughout human history, the devil and death had almost a free pass, and to an extent, the devil keeps attacking and taking souls to hell, by the millions, every day.   The thing is that hell was created really for the devil and his angels alone (Matthew 25:41), but he wants to take as many humans as he can, to torture there, and to co-exist and participate in the eternal suffering and punishment.  But into the picture came the Son of God, to take the sin of the world, yours and mine, to take our place on the cross, to redeem us from hell and to buy our ticket to heaven.   And all it takes is for us to surrender to Him and receive the ticket by faith.   So death is a victory because a person that was supposed to fall in hell, Jesus rescues and instead takes with Him to heaven: “"Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 15:55-57).  No wonder why many Christian funerals turn into celebration events, where people rejoice on behalf of the brother or sister gone ahead, and instead are used to bring people to Christ.

Death is a graduation - As I have shared a few times with you, now close to 2 years ago, my 6 month old niece went to be with the Lord while she was peacefully asleep in my parents’ house in New York.   While many words were used to comfort the parents, my brother and his wife, I think that the ones that most consoled them were those from my pastor in New York, who said that Rachel (my niece) had graduated early and was already busy at work in heaven.   God took her first because she needed her for more important duties in heaven.    Some people think that when we get to heaven it’s going to be super-boring:  all eternity doing nothing  (yawn~)... but the Bible says for sure that we are going to be worshipping and serving Him (Revelation 22:3).   I don’t know about you but worshipping and serving him takes a lot of work and it is lots of fun, especially when you are doing it together with goofy brothers like Jason and William.    Ask the people who prepared for the last retreat how much fun it was to work together, worship Him together and serve Him and each other together.   Well, heaven is going to be like that and we cannot really imagine with our limited minds how great it will be. “"No eye has seen, no ear has heard,  no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor. 2:9).  It’s like a baby, in her mother’s womb, that cannot fathom at all how life outside mommy’s belly will be like.   How can we, with our limited minds and imperfect vision, imagine the full extent of heaven’s excitement?   We only can trust that it will be awesome!

Death is gain - One of the most famous sayings by the Apostle Paul is: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21)...  He went on to say “If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.” (Phil 1:22-23)   i.e. he was saying, if I remain in this earth, that means fruitful ministry for Christ and more souls will go to heaven, but I am so in love with Jesus, I am so consumed by the wonders of heaven and God’s presence, that I can’t wait to go there.   I so wish that I could gain the eternal perspective that Paul had some day.   Meanwhile, I am still consumed by the temporary materialism of this world, fascinated by the illusive excitement of this earth and deceived by the glitz and drama of our vain lives.    I want to be like Paul some day, so help me God.    

In closing, I want to share one of the most famous quotes in modern Christian history, penned by a young missionary in his twenties that went with his 4 passionate friends to an unreached tribe in Ecuador, and were killed by the tribesmen they were trying to reach.  His name was Jim Elliot and before he went to be with the Lord, at age 28, he wrote these words that now echo in eternity:   “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose”.    The life that we have we cannot keep, no matter how hard we try to maintain control over it.  So Jim Elliot is encouraging us to give it to God anyways, because when we do, we will gain an eternal destiny that we will never lose.