Cancer Blog #18
By Brian Zimmerman
Begun on July 31, 2021
Email: dyingman1@yahoo.com
My Dying Words
Entry #18
January 1, 2022
“Thanks be unto Jesus
Thanks be unto God
He has won the battle
Through the power of the cross!
(repeat)
Where oh death (Where is your victory?)
Where oh death (Where is your sting?)
Where oh death (You are the enemy)
But Jesus is my King!
The saying that is written will be true!
Death is ended, yes!
Death is ended, yes!
Death is swallowed up in victory!”
Lyrics from James Ward song, “Death is Ended”, from album, “Life, Health, and Peace” (my favorite version is the NCF (New City Fellowship church) video from 2005 that is on YouTube. Watch it; it is awesome in its energy and power)
A Positive View of Death, Part 1
Unlikely as it sounds, there is actually one perspective described in the Bible that is a positive view of death. As it should, of course, my discussion of this view begins with Jesus in the gospels.
Going to Sleep
Jesus in His talk with His disciples about the death of their friend, Lazarus, describes Lazarus’ demise not as death: “’Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of asleep‘” (John 11:11). This description of Lazarus’ death confuses the disciples. John continues on in his account to describe their confusion: “Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep” (John 11:13). Jesus introduces a euphemistic phrase to describe death, but it is a euphemism with a point. Jesus is teaching them that death is only a temporary state and that He has the power to overcome it.
Jesus uses this phrase on occasion as reported in another instance where He raises the dead. In Mark 5:39, we read Jesus’ words to mourners at a synagogue leader’s house: “And after entering, He said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child has not died, but is asleep.” Here Jesus is distinguishing I believe between death of unbelievers who have no hope, and the death of His disciples who believe in Him for escape from the permanency of death, the death of a Christian.
Once again, Jesus makes a very pointed statement to emphasis His power over death. Death is not death for those who call on Him. Death, then, is like falling asleep for His disciples, us as Christians, and should not be feared by them (or by us today).
The Death of the First Martyr
Take Stephen’s martyrdom as an example of how this phrase continued to be used by the Christian community. In Acts 7, Luke describes Stephen’s trial before the Council of the Jewish leaders. At the end, the leaders could no longer bear Stephen’s exposition of OT history nor his description of a vision he was having right then, viz., seeing Jesus in heaven standing at God’s right hand. Infuriated with Stephen’s calm statements that convicted them of Jesus’ murder, they summarily hauled him out of the building, and stoned him to death (with the future apostle Paul holding their cloaks while they murdered Stephen). But, Luke doesn’t describe it as death; he instead uses Jesus’ euphemism: “Then falling on his [Stephen’s] knees, he cried out with a loud voice: ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them!’ Having said this, he fell asleep” (vs. 60).
Paul Continues Use of the Euphemism
Paul, too, employs this same euphemism at times in describing death. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 15:17-18, he says, “and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” Once again we see the power of Jesus’s phrase to describe death. Paul uses it to signal that he doesn’t believe that Christ wasn’t raised as some were claiming. Instead, he indicates that he believes Jesus: we who believe in Christ don’t have to fear death; we are only falling into a temporary sleep.
Another Positive Perspective of Death
There is a second strain of this view promoting a positive attitude toward death. Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:1-4: “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our home is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we don’t want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.” Paul here presents a view in which life in this age resembles living in tent or temporary housing, as if our bodies now are only a disposable, paper thin suit that makes us feel naked, and needs to be replaced. With death, then, we begin the process of receiving a permanent home, no longer living in a tent, but in our newly built final dwelling place. Again, death is presented positively, for we have the hope that death will cause us to be released from what now Paul calls a burden, one that is filled with so much pain and sorrow and suffering that it causes us to “groan” (as Paul mentions twice). But, death will be our relief as well as our release, something Paul expects us to look forward to with anticipation.
Next: The consequences of having a positive view of death.