Today I will be spending a few hours face-to-face with the reality of death. An old friend, a precious woman, one of God’s daughters left this world on Saturday and entered into her inheritance. Yesterday we met the family, talked about Peggy’s sweet soul, her kind disposition, her love of children and how she will be missed. The flowers were pretty, the funeral home was impeccably put together and Peggy herself looked as if she was merely sleeping in her green dress in the casket. Everything was quite serene and that is how Americans prefer death to appear. We would rather it set before our eyes as sleep and push away from our minds that death is merely a doorway into eternal destiny.
“And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. And the people stood beholding…” – Luke 23:33-35 {KJV}
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is more of an accurate reflection of what death is. Though the majority of us will not leave earth through some violent activity, we must recognize that death itself is the eventual payment for us being sinners and living in a sin-cursed world. Prior to sin, there was no death. As best we can tell from Scripture, Eden was about life and peace and joy and love. When Adam and Eve transgressed and defied God, the payment was death – even though the serpent had sworn that it would not be so. The first to die was some unnamed animal which God sacrificed in order to clothe Adam and Eve so that their naked shame (of which they had previously been unaware) could be covered. As sin became active in the experience of human living, the next death we read of was a murder when the oldest son of Adam and Eve killed his younger brother. Death. Ugly, brutal, messy unnecessary death. Its ugly spectre has loomed over us since our beginnings and the statistics are firm: 100 out 100 people living 1,000 years ago are now dead. The same ratio of success holds true for those living 175 years ago. Allow me to flash forward: in 125 years the youngest person reading these words, along with the rest of us, will have died. Death is amazingly proficient.
So what do we think about that which might follow our own death? Most everyone has an opinion on this. Some of us believe God’s truth on the matter and understand that there is an accounting before God Himself and that there are two possible destinies for our eternity, commonly known as Heaven and Hell. Others reject that notion as archaic and have decided that there is nothing after life on earth – a non-consciousness that would be our equivalent of an inky-black silence where we will unknowingly “be”. Creative minds sometimes accept the potential of Heaven from God’s word and they import it into their hope-bag while, not surprisingly, decide to leave the messy potential of Hell completely out. We could go on and on and deal with the issue of reincarnation or living as disembodied spirits and other mystical potentials for life after death. Let me submit to you that I am convinced that I will be conscious, sensitized, lucid and engaged in some realm for all of eternity. By the grace of God and through the offering of Jesus Christ, I shall be forever with God in His paradise. This is not to be thought of in terms of geography (Where?) but, rather, in terms of company (with whom?). Heaven is best reflected in the words of Jesus Christ to the dying criminal on the cross when He told him, “Today you will be with Me…” Being with the Savior is heaven and I don’t particularly care if it is on the gloriously illuminated back end of the Universe or on a cold rock in the Transylvanian Alps – the presence of Jesus is eternal life and everything else is death.
The passage from Luke above tells us in brevity that Jesus was impaled onto rugged timbers via the means of Roman execution. He who is Life submitted to death so that we who are dead might forever drink Life. He was not a martyr, He served that day as the sacrifice. He was not a victim, He was a willing offering. He was not powerless but putting on historical display the highest form of power: Love. He gives His best for the worst and to the worst. He asked the Father to forgive the very ones who had just pounded the iron through His wrists and feet. Then, strangely, Luke tells us that the people stood there and looked at Him. The indication is that the bulk of the gathering didn’t say much as they allowed their senses to soak up the scene. The miracle working Messiah was a battered mess affixed to a cross. They didn’t comprehend what was happening. They were puzzled. They kept looking and watching to see what would happen next. Jesus did not come down. He did not save Himself. The sun darkened, the earth shook and, at around 3 PM on that day God’s Son dismissed His spirit from His body and died.
Death is ugly, mysterious, frightening and preferably left out of our conversations. Death is those things and much more. The one thing that death is not is final. As strange as it may sound, death is never the end. There is a next which follows and I plan to address that later this week. In the meantime, what about you? What awaits you when your last breath is taken in and expired? A sobering opportunity is yours today to think clearly on this and to be wise in what you preach to yourself in way of responding. Much depends on your answer.
I regularly have coffee with some folks who believe in “inky black silence”. I love these people. They are kind and spend most of their time helping people who suffer. They live by principles common to many faiths. Yet, if they don’t accept Christ’s Death and Resurrection, their death’s will lead them straight to Hell.
“Inky black silence” horrifies me. It sounds like a state where there would be no air. Hell horrifies me even more. The idea that these folks will do so much good for such a short period here, but risk eternal horror after death, utterly confounds me. That they will suffer the same fate as an unrepentant murderer IS heartbreaking. But they will.
As all inclusive as I attempt to be on Earth, one day I will find myself eternally separate from them. It breaks my heart. So I continue to ask God to help me show them Christ, to let them ask me what I believe, and be ready to answer.
I am very thankful to my parents who raised me to believe God through the Bible and Prayer. I certainly stormed against it in behaviors, but there was no confusion about the choices in destination. I am so relieved the storming era is over.
For a moment I thought the title “Your next” was the improper use of “your” and should have been “you’re” (you are). But after reading the body of the article I can see that “your” is spot-on. What is our “next” going to be? Will it be with Jesus, in light and peace, or away from Jesus is utter darkness and anguish?