FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART OP-ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
As I am writing this reflection on the curse of death, the number of reported deaths from the Coronavirus worldwide is 5,632,431. In the United States, the reported deaths are 79,117.
When one thinks about the world’s population with just under 8 billion, the number of deaths might seem to be just a small fraction, but we are talking only of the deaths from Corona. If we add the deaths from cancer, heart attacks, all of the other diseases, and what is called deaths from natural causes (as if there is ever death from natural causes), you will have to say that there is just about no family in the world that does not know death. And, of course, I have forgotten the deaths from drug addiction, suicide, gun violence, wars, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, vehicular accidents, and other unnatural causes that are too numerous to name.
I am making the point that for everyone who has entered planet Earth, death is the one reality that cannot be escaped. A story that I have told many times at funerals is one I heard years ago of a certain man who was so sick of the death news that he was hearing in his local town that he decided to find another location to live. So, he moved out of the city to the country area, which was sparsely populated. The first person he met, he told of his concern and asked, “What is the death rate out here?” Without a breath, the person responded, “The same as in the city, one to a person.”
You got it right; death is one to a person. We all know this as a sobering reality, but it does not make anyone of us feel happy or relaxed. On the contrary, the thought of death brings on anxiety, anguish, anger, despondency, dejection, depression, devastation, and redundant negative emotions that one might not find words to ever express. What we know is that death is “life’s greatest equalizer.” The rich die, and the poor die.
In his reflection on death, the wisest man that ever lived argues that human beings die just like the horse dies, and the dog dies, etc. Of course, he would later argue that there is a difference between the death of the horse and dog and the death of humanity. But here I am taking note of his bigger point that death brings us into sober thinking. It makes us reflect. It makes us poetic.
One thought I read says that death is the only immortal who treats us all alike, whose pity and whose peace and whose refuge are for all. It is credited to Francis Bacon to say, “It is natural to die as to be born,” and to Socrates, “Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.”
Depending on what moment you are confronting, you might find it hard to agree with Socrates that “Death (is) a blessing?” Maybe a blessing if you are sick and aged? But ask the vibrant youth and ask parents who have lost their beautiful little babies, “Is death a blessing or a curse?”
From the long view of all degenerative conditions globally, one might argue that death is a blessing. But we are all subjected to death because death has come to us under the curse of the Fall. For example, we read in Genesis 2:17 what God told Adam regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It states, “in the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die.” Much has been argued whether Adam and Eve died on the day they ate from the tree. The conclusion is that they did not die physically on that day (See Genesis 3).
The Bible is silent about the time of eve’s death, but the record is that Adam lived 930 years, and then he died. The saga of death has been recited throughout the Bible in which we hear such words as the reflection in the book of Job chapter 14:
1“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. 2 He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. 3 And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you? 4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one. 5 Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, 6 look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day. 7 “For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. 8 Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil, 9 yet at the scent of water, it will bud and put out branches like a young plant. 10 But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he? 11 As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up, 12 so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more, he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.
Yes, whether we like to admit it or not, we are all living under the curse of death, and except we accept the reality of the death of Christ and the resurrection life that is offered through Christ, there is no way to extricate ourselves from under the curse. Through his resurrection, Christ has broken the power of death. Christ’s death opened the graves. The power of death is sin. Death entered into the world by sin and is the penalty of sin. Therefore, the death of Christ, who was sinless, enabled Him to bear the penalty of sin for all who accept him. Through Christ’s death, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:55)
The curse of death is to be gone forever. This is why scripture closes with the words, “There will be no more death.” (Revelation 21:4).
