Preparing for Death
Written by Jared Burkholder | Pastor of Outreach and Connections
I'm actually not an expert on dying inasmuch as I'm still mostly alive. Moreover, the number of people interested in the musings of a 37-year-old on death could fit in a thimble. In one of my first hospital visits as a pastor, I was pulled aside by a family member and asked if there were any older pastors available. So, understand that I'm writing today not as someone well-versed in death or even (hopefully) close to having to wrestle with my own mortality. But as a human, a family member, and a pastor, I have sat with many grappling with the immanency of their own passing or the recent pain of losing someone else. All of us are impacted by death: we actively fight against it and stridently seek to prepare for it, all while intensely dreading its painful certainty.
In many ways, we work hard to keep death out of sight—both mentally and physically. Unlike generations past, we outsource the care of the elderly, relegate the dying to hospice, and quickly call the undertaker to remove the dead and restore them to the appearance of eternal youthfulness. But there isn't enough Centrum Silver on the planet to stem the tide of death. As many have said before, humanity has a 100% mortality rate.
As we watch the footage of the Middle East this week, the horrors of dead children, parents, aunts, and uncles, we remember that death is always near. So, how do we prepare for dying? How do we prepare for something that is certain but whose timing is unknown? How do we acknowledge the pain death brings while still clinging to hope beyond the grave?
“Sometimes, Christians are guilty of glossing over hard realities with simplistic answers. The Scriptures do not do that.”
Most poignantly, perhaps, is Jesus' own reaction to the death of Lazarus. In John 11, we see Jesus mournful and angry at the presence of death and its impact on those he loves. Yet the force of this emotion is overwhelmed by the greater power of resurrection. And in that, we find a roadmap for thinking about our own death: the pain of loss paired with the hope of new life.
A familiar but seminal text for thinking rightly about death comes in 1 Corinthians 15:53-56:
[53] For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. [54] When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
"Death is swallowed up in victory."
[55] "O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?"
[56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice first that death stings. A key to facing death well requires a recognition of the loss that death brings. Sometimes, before we can experience the fullness of the remedy, we must first acknowledge the depth of the problem.
The healing balm of Gospel hope is best applied after the wound of mortality is exposed in its fullness.
Death brings an end to both the good and the bad of our earthly existence.
The things that have rooted us, identified us, and connected us end, at times, abruptly. As Solomon recognizes in the book of Ecclesiastes, our wealth is given to another, our accomplishments fade, and our possessions decay. The relationships that have been the connective tissue of our lives vanish. And for some, this process comes not in an instant but in the slow shrinking of one's world until only a speck of breath remains. For some, loss and decay happen in real time as their strength and vitality give way while their life continues.
Not encouraging thoughts! But it's when we acknowledge the presence of death when we acknowledge what death robs us of — that we can better step back and see what death cannot touch.
So, while death stings, Jesus heals.
“While death means the end of our earthly experience of relationships, the end of owning earthly possessions, the end of breath and life itself—it paves the way for eternal communion unstained by sin, eternal wealth untarnished by rust, and eternal life untouched by decay.”
Preparing for death doesn't mean glossing over the pain and fear of death. It means leaning into it, believing that the remedy of Gospel hope vastly surpasses the sting of temporal loss. So Paul offers in 1 Corinthians 15:56-57
[56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The sting of death comes entirely in sin's ability to ruin things. But Jesus has overcome sin and overcome death so that the promise and certainty of the Christian is not the fear of death but the guarantee of life. And this guarantee offers security not of bank accounts, homes, accomplishments, and friends—but the hope of Jesus Christ himself.
It's the words he speaks back in John 11:
I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
So, how do we face death? We face it with the promise that the resurrection life of Jesus Christ speaks a better, truer, more eternal word than the sting of death. We don't have to run from death, even the painful parts, because we know that something far sweeter stands on just the other side of the grave. There, Jesus himself waits to receive his own. Forever.
1 Corinthians 15:58
[58] Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.