death

We often say that someone “passed away.” Actually, the world passes away. And we are with our Father and with “a great multitude that no one could number” forever (Revelation 7:9).

This week we’ve focused on ways to experience God’s victory over temptation, doubt, and discouragement. Let’s close by discussing the reality—and the consequent opportunity—of death.

Pastor Michael Phillips of the T.D. Jakes Foundation told the congregation at Jakes’ Potter’s House church in Dallas that he lost his faith after his father died.

Distraction is the primary way that Westerners tend to cope with the prospect of death, and it takes many forms. A five-hundred-billion dollar beauty industry glamorizes youth and promises immortality. A thriving commercial economy allows us to pursue our dreams to the extent that was impossible for most people throughout human history. We may have a God-shaped hole in our hearts, but the sheer variety of stuff available keeps us occupied in trying to fill it. And, when death finally comes, we can outsource it to the professionals: care homes, hospice workers, and morticians.

Once again, the world needs what only Christianity offers: the promise of resurrection, a Guide to lead us past the gates of death, a world beyond this one in which all that is sad is made untrue, and a hope that cannot be shaken by the circumstances of this world.

I am not an expert on the afterlife, but I am a student, not only because I am a Christian and a pastor, but also because my son, Christopher, died in 2008. I have thought deeply about what happens when we leave this life and enter the next one. Here is what has brought endless comfort to me: There is a Heaven, and Jesus has made a way for us all to go there.

Today, let’s think about this pressing subject not for nonbelievers but for Christ-followers. After nearly forty years of pastoral ministry, I can testify that Christians can also be fearful of death. While we know that Jesus is our Savior and that our eternal life is guaranteed by his grace (cf. John 3:16; John 11:26), we can nonetheless fear death for several reasons.

Deaths of despair have been on the rise for years and are disproportionately concentrated among white, rural Americans without college degrees.

While millions have died of this horrible disease, many millions more are grieving their deaths. In addition, a third of COVID-19 survivors have “long-haul” symptoms. To all who suffer, God promises his presence and empathy (cf. John 11:35). Jesus feels all we feel and suffers as we suffer. Theologian Jürgen Moltmann famously described our Savior as the “crucified God.”

Instead of today's opinion that a quick death would be best, the 15th-century theological work called The Art of Dying asserts that Christians should define a “good death” as one in which people had been reconciled with their loved ones and to the God in whose presence they would soon stand.