The Lie of Death, the Death of a Lie

I originally wrote a post with this title that was about a lady that was dying. It was a hard time for the family and they requested that I take it down. I honoured that request.

However, I still feel that a lot of what I had to say in that blog is applicable to many people. I am not gonna reference the same lady again but I still want to talk about the topic.

The topic is death.

I am writing an essay at the moment about euthanasia and the ethical issues surrounding it. It is a say essay to write; reflecting on the pain and dying of people doesn't exactly put you in the best mood.

But I also think that we as a Western nation do not talk about death enough. We are afraid of it and so try to control it. We buy things to make our skin look younger to trick ourselves into thinking that we are putting off the inevitable. Those of us rich enough get our body's cryo-genically frozen in the hope that one day we will live again. We use death itself to control death, committing suicide or euthanasia to dictate when we die rather than leaving it up to chance.

We are deathly afraid of death.

The thing is, we were never meant to die. We were never meant to face the fear of our bodies failing, of pain and dementia, of losing children and loved ones. Death came into the world because we invited it. Because we thought that we could control our own lives, and in the process destroyed them. 

Death is a force that destroys Gods creation. The price of humanity choosing to live outside of God is death. It is an unstoppable force that touches all of us and destroys all we hold dear. It lies to us and tells us that it is forever, that there is nothing after this life, that this life itself is meaningless.

Death is a lie.

The fear of death is so strong because we have lost faith in the one that is in control. We want to control our lives and believe that we are autonomous and so when faced with a force that is outside of our control, we panic. We don't want to think of ourselves feeding worms, but when we have asked God to stay out of our lives for so long, that is the only image we are left with.

And God knows this.

God knows that we fear that which we cannot control. God knows that we face the end with shaking and crying. And God wanted to save us from this. So Jesus put himself through it.

Jesus is God. Jesus died. This means that God chose to die, in an horrific and bloody way. God faced the fear of death with us. But something incredible happened. Jesus rose back out of his gave! God faced the lie of death and came out the winner.

Jesus put to death death.

Through his actions he showed us that death is not the end, that there is life after it. We follow a God who we know will give us life after death because Jesus went through it first. Death cannot be final in the face of God's love and power. The lie of the permanence of death is over.

So now we can face death without fear because it is not the end.

I know people who have died. I have watched two people die in pain from illness. One was a believer, the other was not. One went knowing that her pain would soon be over, the other went in fear of what lay beyond.

Do not underestimate the amount of influence that your view of death can have on your life. It tells you the worth of your life now. It tells you what awaits you after. It leads you to fear getting older and leads to things like YOLO (you only live once) and FOMO (fear of missing out) mentalities that promote selfish living and stupidity.

You need not fear death, you can experience the freedom that comes with knowing where you are going. 

And if you are a believer and afraid of age and death, then look at where your hope is found, why you are scared, and know that your God has already put to death the lie of death.