“Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?'”
“Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.'” John 11:21-26; 12:23-25
The crowds and disciples in Jesus’s day knew death in its horror and consequence. It punctured with stark pain and cruel finality. But this man Jesus was always about something greater, farther, beyond. While His friends grappled with the direness and haunt of last breaths, He was fixed on eternal sight and display of glory. His own impending death on the cross would bring everlasting life, so He taught and illustrated this magnificent truth in earthly ways they could understand. (John 12:32)
Death comes to all. This is Eden’s cruel reality. Certainly we must grapple with immediacies, contingencies, and emotions at the devastation, but the Lord’s presence in our midst brings a supernatural element into the rawness we experience. We wrangle against death with lots of ifs and only ifs, subconsciously thinking we can play a part in determining and delaying and managing even ifs. All the while, Christ lifts its horror and sting with divine benediction. (1 Corinthians 15:53-57)
Jesus came to earth to proclaim and exemplify that even if we die, and actually if we die believing, we will live. The curse from the garden was borne by the Christ who put eternal death to death. The life of which He spoke and which He imparts is dimensionally and qualitatively different from what mortals can grasp, yet He offers it freely and often, inviting us to partake. What will it take for us to face death in light of these lofty truths? (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:22-24; 1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9)
There are types of death we are to welcome and apply daily for the righteous good of our Christian walk. Death to self and to impulses of the flesh are mandatory for living free in Christ. Resolve and faith in the Spirit’s strength enable us to put to death our old self and crucify besetting sin. Even physical death becomes the substance of great hope when we are fixed in the Lord. To live here below is to live for Christ, but to die is to be in His presence forever, a gain we cannot yet comprehend. (Romans 6:5-11; Philippians 1:21; Colossians 3:5-10)
What qualms are we dealing with surrounding death? What might we learn of Jesus if we brought every if to Him to answer and redeem?
Lord, teach me the grace and goodness of death as You have ordered, and to look beyond to the glorious eternal life You promise.
As the rain and snow 