Silence
Why do human beings have an innate animosity toward death? Why do we dislike the thought of getting old and the physical and mental changes it can bring? Why does the thought of a life-threatening disease frighten us?
Humans were not created for death. We were created as eternal beings, and had sin not entered the world, our bodies would not experience death or decay. They are a direct result of a world contaminated by sin, and we are wired to dislike it.
This week’s article is a song called “Silence”, and it chronicles the torture and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. Lest we focus completely on the physical torture that he endured, the more difficult part for Christ is that he had to become sin. After living a life devoid of sin in complete harmony with God the Father, he took on every sin ever committed in the past, present and future. We cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to take on all of the shame, guilt, decay, and oppression of every sin in the world throughout time. It is incomprehensible.
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (NIV)
Jesus didn’t have to do it. Jesus chose to give up paradise and live a life of poverty and scorn. He chose to be betrayed by one of his inner circle. He chose not to defend himself against the lies and false accusations. He chose to be tortured and die. He did it all because he loves you!
The story doesn’t end with the horrors of the crucifixion, because Jesus defeated sin and death. Everyone who chooses Jesus Christ can have the assurance that when death overtakes them or when Jesus calls his church home that we will no longer be plagued by disease, decay or death. We will not be disembodied spirits floating around in the clouds, playing harps. We will be given real, but perfect, bodies and minds, and we will be doing real things that give us complete satisfaction.
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 5:1-5 (NLT)
Both of my parents have left this earth and gone home to be with Christ. Both lived long lives, and I have to admit that it was difficult watching them struggle in their later years. My mother, always so actively serving others, could no longer care for herself at all and lived in a state of chronic pain and need. My father, one of the most capable, intelligent and witty men I knew, was confined to a wheelchair and could no longer remember even basic things. I think that I mourned the loss of who they once were more than I mourned their passing, because once they went home, all of that illness, pain, confusion, and loss went away. Once they went home, they were not only made whole again, but they were perfect! I can picture them laughing, conversing, singing, and dancing with their Savior, and I rejoice in that knowledge!
Personally, I’m not fond of the process of aging or the thought of dying. I don’t like waking up with aches and pains from the activities of the previous day. I don’t like looking in the mirror and seeing the signs of aging. Woody Allen once said, “I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens,” and although I don’t agree with him on too many things, I can agree with that statement! I am not wired to like any of this, but I can have peace in all of it because I know how the story ends. One day, be it through death or the rapture of the church, I will have a perfected body and mind. And until then, every day of aging is another day that I can tell the story of my amazing Savior who loved me enough to take my sin on himself on that cross. That is a reason to rejoice!
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NLT)
Jesus, I cannot even begin to imagine what it took for you to make the choices you did and to suffer as you did. I cannot even comprehend the love that you have for me that drove you to the cross. I can only thank you through my worship and with my life. Help me to focus less on the day to day challenges and trials I face and more on the needs of a dying world for a Savior. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for saving me. Amen.
Songs of Victory
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society®
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Royalty-free images from Videoblocks.com
