FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
OP / ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
I do not know your emotions, but I have a haunting feeling that if you are as I am, you might be saying you are sick and tired of the news of death all about us.
More than ever, you are hoping that the end of the curse of death will come sooner than later. So when I read that there are up to 1.12 million deaths in the United States and 6.85 million worldwide due to Covid, I began some serious contemplation. Added to the above, when I see the record of 11,000 deaths from the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on January 7, 2023, my heart is filled with grief.
I will not record the deaths from the accidents on the highways, the deaths from guns, the deaths from wars around the world, and the deaths from all of the other named and unnamed conditions stalking the world. Suffice it to say that there is not a family today that I know of that is not acquainted with death.
I have gone to enough funerals in person, on zoom, and other platforms. I have talked to enough friends who came down with Covid because they attended a funeral. While writing this reflection, a friend of mine, whose husband I prayed with yesterday, is battling in a hospital because she contracted Covid at the last funeral she attended. I am also dealing with members of my family who have a loved one to be buried.
It is amazing how even those who do not want to speak of death are forced to confront death. It’s incredible the changes that come about in one’s life when one experiences a separation by death. I cannot describe all the feelings, for each one feels death differently, but fear, loneliness, emptiness, the need to swallow, and ambivalence are the most common. Some of us do not know what to say and keep silent. But on the other hand, some people have to say something and will give all kinds of foolish rationalizations.
Interestingly, when I attend a funeral and listen to those seeking to comfort the bereaved, I see how they spew out lousy theology. Some individuals are considered great intellectuals and should be astute in their speech, but they continue to repeat what they hear in the common culture that the dead are not dead; their immortal soul is in heaven somewhere, listening to those talking about them and how they are giving protection to the family.
In addition, the speakers continue the misinformation that their loved ones will be returning in a dream and, at some time, will speak with those alive. Of course, such pronouncements are contrary to the Biblical idea that “the dead does not know anything and have no reward with the living.” (see Ecclesiastes 9:5)
In some parts of the world, the idea is pushed that a person has several life cycles, coming at one point as a person, then depending on their Karma, they will come back as dog or lizard or so on. The ideas on death worldwide are so varied that I do not intend to present them all here. I will stick with the Biblical idea that death is the end of this life and that we are to look forward to a resurrection life in which death will be put to death forever.
The Serpent has been putting together a lot of false theories on death since the beginning of time to prove God wrong from the day that God laid before Adam death as the consequence of disobedience. Here is what God said, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16, 17 NKJV)
In bringing his temptation to Eve, the Serpent said, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4, 5 NKJV)
When Eve got into a dialogue with the Serpent, the Serpent sought to change what God said about death as the consequence of disobedience As the curse of death came upon Eve and Adam, they knew that what God said was right. The one who sins will die (cf. Ezekiel 18:20).
Although we might fix the language we use about death, speak the best theory of death as we can and take the Greek philosophy of immortalizing the soul and pretend that it is biblical, all the efforts we might make to sanitize death will not resolve the question of death. Death is death. And we’d better face it. We will grieve about it. We might go to a repass to ease the pain, but nothing will stop the horror of death, except God, who will end it (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:26).
The curse of death will be gone forever, and I rejoice. I love how the Bible states the end of death; “There will be no more death.” (Revelation 21:4).
As you read this reflection, I trust it can bring you hope and comfort.
