Death Becomes Him - May 2, 2015

Recently my daughter and I were coming home from basketball practice and we were discussing her Mom (my Wife – which may not always be the case these days) and her somewhat oppressive attitude regarding us doing what we should be doing. My daughter seems to have inherited my quirky sense of humor and said “Hey Dad, you know why women live longer than men?” “Sensing a joke, I responded “You tell me Sweetheart”. “It’s because men want to escape” she replied. We both had a good laugh, but I didn’t confess that such a thought had passed through my mind from time to time. To those of us to whom divorce is not an option there is a certain attraction to the time when we won’t have to listen to it anymore.

            I’m sure women have similar feelings. One of my favorite stories involves Ruth Graham and how she responded to an interviewer’s question. The interviewer asked Mrs. Graham if she ever considered divorce. After thinking for a moment, Mrs. Graham is said to have responded “No, I can honestly say I’ve never considered divorce – murder several times, but never divorce.” Now if such a godly woman can have such frustration with such a godly man, I think we can all take a little heart in the midst of the daily confrontations within our marriages. But back to death.

Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

We’ve all heard the saying “the only things sure in life are death and taxes”. The statistics on death are pretty overwhelming: one out of every one persons will die. So why don’t we just cave to the Kevorkian Solution and choose the time of our own death? Why do we struggle against it so? We spend tremendous resources to prolong life and probably just as much to alter our appearance to avoid the appearance of age as our time approaches.

If we’re going to die for sure, why don’t we just accept it, or as Agent Smith told Neo in The Matrix “ Mr. Anderson, that is the sound of inevitability”. Could it be that our struggle against death has a much deeper meaning? The scripture is clear that we were not created for death, but for life. At our core is the God given knowledge that we were created for life - not death. Death is most unnatural of finalities and hence our struggle against it.

Mighty Abba,

We accept your judgment

Of death for sin.

We look forward to the restoration

of our natural state of eternal life

purchased by Christ Jesus.