With a View to Death

We've just celebrated the Resurrection, with so many ramifications on life. What about death? How would that change our perspective on death?

We rightly live our lives clinging to hope. The truth is that unpleasant things happen all the time. The truth is that the death rate of human beings is currently nearly 100%. (Only two exceptions in the history of the world.) The truth is that life can be hard. So we cling to hope. Some find it in meaning; some in meaninglessness. Some find it in pleasure -- physical, mental, emotional, social, all sorts -- and others in salvation. But we all desperately want hope.

That being the case, death is something we almost universally avoid. No, I don't mean we avoid dying; I mean the subject. I mean the contemplation of death. I mean the viewing of death. It takes a sick mind for an otherwise normal human being to take pleasure in death. Or so we would think.

Paul saw three options in life. Of the three, his first choice, if he was given it, would be not to die, but to be alive when Christ returned. That last trump, that twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15:52), that meeting in the air (1 Thess 4:17) ... that was Paul's first choice. Of course, that may not happen. His other two options were to live or to die. Oddly, to many of us, first choice of the two was ... to die. Paul believed that "while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord" (2 Cor 5:6), so his preference was "to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord" (2 Cor 5:8). He believed that dying was gain (Php 1:21). Thus, his last preference was to live. And he wasn't opposed to it. "To me," he said, "to live is Christ" (Php 1:21). He believed that he would continue to live as long as it was "more necessary for your sake" (Php 1:24). So, as long as he lived, his ambition was "to be pleasing to Him" (2 Cor 5:9).

My wife and I have attended too many funerals in the past few years. All have been believers; all have been celebrations. But they are somber events because we've lost loved ones. Death is one of the worst fears of human beings. Believers, on the other hand, can have great hope in death. I would argue that, while the process of dying may be rightly terrifying, death itself should not be to those who know Christ. In fact, I would recommend going to funerals of those you have had contact with as often as possible. I think the view of life as short is beneficial to humans with mixed feelings about life and death. It makes us appreciate the people and time we have more if we know it's short. It encourages us to bne more diligent with our obedience and our love. It prevents us from getting too tied down in this world's perspectives and temporal perceptions. It reminds us of death and that the life that follows might improve our hope and our viewpoint on life. I think that gaining a longer view than just the few short years we live on this Earth would be to our benefit. That's my suspicion.