“I Hate Death”
Those words came out of my mouth this week. They startled me somewhat, but I have to admit that they are true.
Death is in front of us all of the time now. And I hate it.
We are tired of it. We are tired of hearing about death, but at the same time strangely attracted to the newest statistics. Death is an annoyance to us so it is easy for us to either keep the thought at arm's length or avoid our own mortality altogether. Now, though, we aren't able to hide from our future reality.
One other reason we are tired of death has little do to with a virus: we all know death is just wrong. Yes. I said it is wrong. Maybe even "unnatural." We know it deep down. We know that death (though “normal” to us) is not natural for us.
Grieving the loss of a cherished companion or being there when someone else grieves upends us in ways "natural" things do not. Relationships (by their nature) are so strong that they were never meant to end. There is not supposed to be a shelf life on loving another person.
The claim of Jesus was that death is unnatural. Yes, even then he was looked at strangely for assuming death has an expiration date because it was so normal for his hearers. The attractiveness of the thought tells us something. We all wish death would die and leave us alone. We all hate death.
When Jesus invites us into his abundant life, it is the type of life that is stronger than death. This type of life is a life where we don’t have to fear death because death does not have the last word in our lives.
Most of all, Jesus didn’t just talk about the dying of death, he lived it. Easter became the celebration that it is because of the hope it gives us: Jesus overcame death by going through it and coming out very much alive!
The heart of what it means to trust in Jesus is to trust that he is the first of many who will overcome death...and the greatest. It is okay to hate death. It will die.