Death: Undesirable but Unavoidable

What a morbid title for a blog! But face the facts, it’s true. I mean, who wants to die? No one I’ve ever met desires death. Now, I realize there may be some who are terminally ill or in tremendous physical pain and they have thought long and hard about leaving this world.  Granted, this may be true of some, but they make up the minority of the global population. We are fixed on living, not dying. As humans, we think of any way possible to extend life, not ways to cut it short. Death is, to say the least, undesirable.

But death is also unavoidable–we’ll all die at some point in time. From the moment we’re born, our bodies are growing towards death. Even our peak levels of youthful fitness are fleeting; ask the retired professional athlete who’s added an extra fifty pounds because his body can no longer hold up under the strain of high-level physical activity. I’m not being defeatest or pessimistic; it’s simply a proven medical fact that everybody dies. Rich, poor, tall, short, young, old–people of all ways and walks of life die everyday.

Why the downer? What’s up with such a negative bog? I’ve simply stood by more caskets than I’ve wanted to lately. I preached the funeral of a good friend a month ago; Aaron’s (one of the youth at church) dad passed away two weeks ago; one of my daughter’s softball teammates’ father died Sunday and on the way into funeral home for his visitation yesterday, I received a call that my cousin died in a motorcycle accident. Along with that, I got an email from a good friend from high school who is concerned about death as he serves in the military. Needless to say, death has been on my mind.

 I’ve come to two concrete conclusions: one, death is undesirable and unavoidable; two, there is only one answer to death. Hebrews 9:27 states, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” The judgment is that of all mankind by Jesus Christ. He will judge each individual who has ever lived according to all that we have ever said or done. He will judge whether or not we have accepted Him as Savior of our lives. Those who have trusted in Him by faith will spend eternity with Him in heaven, while those who have rejected Him will spend eternity in hell. I don’t write this with any joy or glee–it’s a stark reality but a reality nonetheless. But Scripture describes how the Christian can approach death, as undesirable and unavoidable as it may be, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

You may say something like, “I don’t believe in Jesus, so death is no big deal to me.” or “When I die, that’s it.” These are not unusual responses, but that doesn’t make them right. Let me give you an old wager (Pascal’s to be exact) and then be done: If you’re right and Jesus isn’t the answer to death, then by rejecting Him, you’ve lost nothing. But if I’m right, and Jesus is the answer to death and you reject Him, you’ve lost everything. Think about it a little and remember to pray for people all over this country today who’ve been effected by the undesirable, unavoidable pain of death.