Facing Death Faithfully

 “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown” (Revelation 2:10b). 

An uncanny cave in New Zealand has an unusual species of glowworms. The inside of this cave expands as if it were some natural ballroom, seemingly so at home in the black, these blessed little worms carry out their dance on the ceiling. By the thousand, these phosphorescent creatures set the cave aglow stealing your breath away. 

But they are not always on Broadway. Actually, they spend most of their lives as larvae. When they finally hatch and get their wings, amazingly enough they have no mouths. They have no way to feed. They only live for - get this - one single day! They get one day to live their dream. They get one day to attract a mate, get married, have children, and then they die. One day.

On the other end of the spectrum of life, a few years ago oceanographers found the oldest living animal at the bottom of the ocean near Iceland. It was a type of deep-sea clam called a quahog. Thanks to the quahog’s shell, which grows by a layer every year, these scientists determined that the animal was 507 years old. In other words, this mollusk was born in 1499, or just seven years after Columbus sailed to America. Ming was happy as a clam, until (true story) scientists at Bangor University in North Wales inadvertently killed Ming when they opened its shell to find out how old it was. Oops. Somebody got fired!

Here’s the deal. A day or 507 years - in both cases, death struck. It’s the same for you and me, for all of us. God’s word declares “all flesh is like grass.” Barring the return of Jesus Christ all our lives will, in the end, end in death. 

Mark Twain wrote of an old spicy grandma, who at weddings would get in the pew behind Twain and his cousins. When the bride and groom were making their vows she’d poke each boy in the ribs and rasp, “You’re next!” She stopped doing this when Twain got in the pew behind her at a funeral. As the minister led the coffin down the aisle Twain poked grandma in the ribs, “You’re next!” You or I may not be next but death will find us. So, for heaven’s sake, really FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE, think this question through. How will I face death faithfully?

DON’T DENY DEATH DEAL WITH IT. Here is a declaration of the gospel, “Christ died for sinners.” So the second word of the gospel has to deal with death. Now, why did it have to be the second word of the gospel? Because you and I have a holy inability. Sin is the reason we die and we are sinners. “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). 

This is why all will die. This is why death is always around us. It’s not like there is a little pocket of people in your world to whom the message Christ died for sinners doesn’t apply. Everyone you know and rub shoulders with will die. So do you talk to them about death? More importantly, do you share Jesus as the resurrection and the life, the only hope in death, with them? Do you think about the brevity of your own life from time to time? Or do you, like most want to live a life of denial, as if we never die?

Left to themselves people don’t want to think about death. It’s interesting that we buy life insurance. But what do you have to do to collect it? Die. It’s actually death insurance. We don’t call it that though, that would be too depressing. One of our most popular cereals is called LIFE. Think they will ever sell a cereal called DEATH (for people who like to wake up very slowly)?

Your loving service to others is to get them to think about death and the brevity of life. Why? Because in the scary times of life or at the loss of a loved one they will. Then they will remember who loved them enough to bring it up. And once again you can share with them Paul’s profound declaration: “’Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’

56 - The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 - But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

THINK HAPPY HOMECOMING WITH DEATH. “Home.” Few words illicit more warm emotions in our hearts than that word. You can have the dream vacation of all vacations, travel wherever your heart desires, stay in only five star lodging, and have the time of your life, but as you pull into your driveway having returned, how will you finish this sentence, “It sure is good to be…?”

Christ’s redemptive work turned death from a hopeless curse to a happy homecoming. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole’” (Galatians 3:13). “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 - For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 - We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).

Heaven is our home not here. Cultivate in your life and others a sense of exile here on earth. “You know, we are not home yet!” Don’t let yourself feel too at home here. Think in ways that make it easier to go away than to stay. Because you deny blessings the Lord gives you in this life? No. But because a “pilgrim mentality” makes it easier to go home when death shows up. 

Chuck Colson used to tell a story of visiting Mississippi’s Parchman Prison: “Most of the death row inmates were in their bunks wrapped in blankets, staring blankly at little black-and-white TV screens, killing time. But in one cell a man was sitting on his bunk, reading. As I approached, he looked up and showed me his book - a manual on Episcopalian liturgy.

John Irving, on death row for more than 15 years, was studying for the priesthood. John told me he was allowed out of his cell one hour each day. The rest of the time, he studied God’s Word.

Seeing John had nothing in his cell but books and a Bible, I thought, God's blessed me, the least I can do is provide something for this brother. “Would you like a TV if I could arrange it?” I asked.

John smiled gratefully. “Thanks,” he said, “but no thanks. You can waste an awful lot of time with those things and start to think this mud heap here is your home.” For the 15 years since a judge placed a number on his days, John has determined not to waste the one commodity he had to give to the Lord - his time, by getting ready for his real home.”

When death comes for you, and it will, wouldn’t it be great for you to say, “You mean I get to go home? I have been away all this time but now, finally, I get to go home!” You can have this perspective in the Risen Christ. In fact, by faith in the forgiver of your sins and lover of your soul, Jesus, you do have it. Now face death faithfully.