This past week has been tough. Orlando, Paris, Tel Aviv, and many others have been a constant source of tears, heartache and mourning for the global community I know for me, death has hit home in a different way. Last week, my Grandma passed away at 89 years old. She was an amazing woman who was first and foremost, a Christian. She loved Jesus in so many ways, and in every way she embodied a older generation of Christianity, struggling to adapt to our changing world. She was a two-timed widowed mother of 10 kids, taught science and math, dabbled in interior decorating, worked for the FBI, and picked me up every Thursday so that we could get ice cream and read together. Every Thursday she would image the love of Christ to me as she was there for me, teaching me, and training me up in the way of wisdom. Thursdays with my grandma are shining, happy memories from my childhood that I will remember for ever.
This past week, I have been reflecting on my own finiteness and mortality. I have been reflecting on death as I see it take people away. It seems that death swallows us up into a vast nothingness. You just kind of go. As a christian I believe that there is life after death and that Jesus will return and make all things new as he has promised. But, right now, it seems that evil and death are winning. This hollow and blank expression of death is just coolly staring at me. I feel paralyzed and unproductive in this cosmic battle between God and his adversary. Hope is suffering crushing blow after crushing blow each time I turn on the news or go on Facebook.
Yet, what is the alternative theodicy? What answer does anyone else give to the question of death? Is it just in my head? Is it only natural? Is it even evil?
Death is not natural. We strive against it so hard, and we hope against hope that there is something better, something more real. Why is that? It’s because our hearts are aimed at something far greater than our mortal life. Television, Movies, books, and art creatively display our secret hopes and longings for more than just this world. I think of all the people affected by this past week’s tragedies, and I mourn for them. It pains me to see that this world is so full of death, so full of sin, and seemingly so empty of God. Where is He in these times? Yet, not one of them dismisses this tragedy as pure chance or just another Saturday night. It was evil, and it was evil because it went against our deepest hopes and longings for peace and rest.
In John 6, Jesus ministry reaches a pivotal moment, and many people begin to desert him. “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:66-69). For me this is a crucial statement. Even though there is all of this death around you, and it doesn’t make sense, and the actions of God don’t fit neatly into your pristine theological/philosophical/experiential categories, and your Grandma dies, it doesn’t mean you have to give up your faith. It doesn’t mean that the enemy has won.
Death is but the final enemy to be defeated (1 Corinthians 15:26). We live in a broken world that is in the process of being made whole. As we experience death in all of its forms, we must not lose hope. The resurrected Christ is returning to make right what has been wronged, straighten what has been bent, and fix what is broken. With the death of death comes life with Christ, and it is only with him can all of our hopes and dreams of a better a more real life be fulfilled.
See also Death is Common, But Not Forever
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