Life Personified

Guess you can't escape the news, even if you're not on Facebook--it just gets to you a little slower. I didn't think there would be any real connection of the sermon I listened while cleaning my room today to a real-life occurrence. After listening to the sermon, I read a campus-wide email about a sophomore Taylor student who died at his home last week. I did not know him.

The sermon I listened to was one that was preached Easter Sunday at the church I go to at school, Exit 59. This was mere days after Josh Larkin had passed away at my college. I had listened to half of it sometime in Ireland, but for some reason, I decided to listen to it again while cleaning my room.

 I'm always seeking to understand. I will never stop searching for the answers to those irritating, sometimes unanswerable "why" questions. That's just the way I am! I may become discouraged by lack of satisfactory answers over and over and over. It doesn't matter. If I stop searching, it's time to be worried about me, because something is terribly wrong.

Today I searched peacefully for answers. The pastor of Exit 59, Darren, spoke about the time when Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus, 4 days after he died. Jesus heard about the trouble Lazarus was in, but he waited 2 days before going to Bethany to raise his dear friend. Darren addressed the question of why Jesus waited, but that's not what I want to talk about right now.

I want to talk about Jesus' versatility--his empathy which was flexible to reach both Mary and Martha in their time of need. Both of the sisters met Jesus with the same desperate plea:

 "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died!"

Darren noted that when Martha came to Jesus, He knew that she very much needed a philosophical, logical discussion. Jesus met that need and Martha came out of the amazing conversation with the confidence that Jesus was the Messiah!

When Mary ran to Jesus and fell to her knees in sorrow, Jesus knew immediately how to address her need as well. He empathized with her. He wept. The word used in the original translation meant "to cry painful tears." This was no fake cry. He felt her pain and Jesus Himself was sad.

Jesus told Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life!" Jesus does not just bring life--he is the personification of life itself!

Sometimes I wonder who I'm getting angry at when I'm angry at pain and death. Often, it's not God or humans or even Satan that particularly angers me. I'm literally angry at and devastated by the thing--the circumstance that is happening--and my complete loss of control.

Darren reminded me that Death, just like Life, can be personified. Many authors, filmmakers, and other creative artists have personified death in different ways. The most common of such characters is that of  "The Grim Reaper." Well, however death is personified, I think it quite possible that Christians are literally going to see "death" being thrown into the lake of fire at the end.

Revelation 20:14 says "Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death."

Darren portrayed it this way...it's like a group of people throwing someone into a swimming pool. Four people grab a leg or an arm and just fling him in. Death will have no control. "He" will be physically thrown into the lake of fire, and he will be finished forever. Death himself will die. Darren mentions that he wants to be one of the ones who holds one of Death's legs when they throw him in. Me too!

Just like me and Darren and most every other Christian, Jesus gets angry at Death! We see it in Jesus' response when he visits Mary and Martha. Even though he knows he will raise Lazarus to life that very day, Jesus is angry that death met with Lazarus in the first place!

John 11:33-39:
33 When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them.
They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Then Jesus wept. 36 The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” 37 But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”
38 Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. 39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.

Christ has already won over the second death for us who are Christians. But we have yet to see the end of the first death until Death himself dies. Death is certainly doomed, Christ has seen to that, but we have not seen the end of Death yet. Don't get me wrong. This death business is in no way an equal and opposite power to Christ, the Light of the world. It's no yin-yang, light/dark side of the force parallel. Heavens, no. But that doesn't mean death doesn't live and have power today. We can all attest to that.

As much as we can, let us rest, let us live, let us thrive in the realization of Christ, of Life personified, who has won and will win and will reign and will forever call us, as Christians, His own. Eternal life is now!