With the Covid-19 pandemic raging around us, minds are focused by the increasing numbers of deaths caused by this coronavirus, on the importance of staying alive. By either avoiding infection, or by recovering. Death and life. Life and death. There is a general panic about dying of the coronavirus, especially in an intensive care unit, using machines to stay alive a little longer, but alone and isolated from loved ones.
In a couple of weeks we will be celebrating Easter. If Easter is about anything, it is about life and death; death and life. Everytime we celebrate the Lord's last supper with his disciples, we are in fact celebrating Easter, as we focus on the death of Jesus, using symbols of life. "I am the bread of Life," said Jesus. "Life is in the blood" is stated in both the old and the new covenants and is symbolised in the wine. Bread and wine only give us life, when the grain and grape are crushed. We who believe, are convinced that it is by His death we are granted life.
Last Easter Sunday I attended a baptism. Those baptised included and elderly lady in a wheel chair, another senior man who had been told he wouldn't live many more months, and a 12 year old boy. Baptism is a symbol of death and life, life and death.
Death is inevitable here on earth. When huge numbers of people die in a short time, as in this pandemic, death seems to come closer. Enormous efforts are made to prolong life. And it is a common idea in the world today that eventually mankind will "defeat" death. That we shall be able to prolong life indefinitely. The fallacy here is that death is not defeated by avoiding it, by puting it off until later. Death can only be defeated by dying, then breaking out of its clutches, by destroying its power to hold us. That Jesus did just this is the message of Easter. And if death itself is defeated, then the power to defeat its instruments - violence, incarceration, hatred, self-loathing, deception, and many others - is also available to us on a daily basis.
The intersection of life and death is at the very core of Christianity, as taught by Jesus Himself. It is not simply about ensuring that, if I have faith in Jesus' sacrificial death for me, I will enjoy "life after death." It is that every day, while we live, we can only have true LIFE, if we DIE to ourselves. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." If we want to know the power of Jesus' resurrection in our own lives, we must identify in daily life with Jesus' death. We need to live out our baptism, dying to the selfish nature, and burying it, making room thereby for Jesus to live in and through us.
Jesus also said "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it."
This past week a verse came up that suddenly received a special meaning. It is Psalm 116: 15 "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants." (NIV). When one digs into commentaries on this verse, the usual angle is that God puts great value on the lives of his people, and is deeply moved by their death; or that, from God's perspective, the death of his people is precious, because they now join him in his heavenly kingdom.
It struck me that the verse could also apply to the delight God has in his people, when, on a daily basis, they die to themselves and live for him. We become, if possible, more precious because of our imitation of Christ, His beloved Son. For then He can say of them "these are my people in whom I am well pleased." Just as He did of Jesus when he rose out of the water of his baptism - when he identified with us, first symbolically then actually, in our death.
Over the next month or two, as we are bombarded with news of Covid-19 deaths, and as we celebrate Easter, let us try to get a new angle on the entanglement of death and life. We who have Christ, have hope and assurance. But we should not therefore treat death lightly - we must practise it daily, being "living sacrifces" for Jesus' glory, for it is only through this death to ourselves, that we can live now in Christ. Covid-19 presents innumerable opportunities for us to practise a sacrificial life for others, providing support, hope, encouragement and comfort.
In a couple of weeks we will be celebrating Easter. If Easter is about anything, it is about life and death; death and life. Everytime we celebrate the Lord's last supper with his disciples, we are in fact celebrating Easter, as we focus on the death of Jesus, using symbols of life. "I am the bread of Life," said Jesus. "Life is in the blood" is stated in both the old and the new covenants and is symbolised in the wine. Bread and wine only give us life, when the grain and grape are crushed. We who believe, are convinced that it is by His death we are granted life.
Last Easter Sunday I attended a baptism. Those baptised included and elderly lady in a wheel chair, another senior man who had been told he wouldn't live many more months, and a 12 year old boy. Baptism is a symbol of death and life, life and death.
Death is inevitable here on earth. When huge numbers of people die in a short time, as in this pandemic, death seems to come closer. Enormous efforts are made to prolong life. And it is a common idea in the world today that eventually mankind will "defeat" death. That we shall be able to prolong life indefinitely. The fallacy here is that death is not defeated by avoiding it, by puting it off until later. Death can only be defeated by dying, then breaking out of its clutches, by destroying its power to hold us. That Jesus did just this is the message of Easter. And if death itself is defeated, then the power to defeat its instruments - violence, incarceration, hatred, self-loathing, deception, and many others - is also available to us on a daily basis.
The intersection of life and death is at the very core of Christianity, as taught by Jesus Himself. It is not simply about ensuring that, if I have faith in Jesus' sacrificial death for me, I will enjoy "life after death." It is that every day, while we live, we can only have true LIFE, if we DIE to ourselves. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." If we want to know the power of Jesus' resurrection in our own lives, we must identify in daily life with Jesus' death. We need to live out our baptism, dying to the selfish nature, and burying it, making room thereby for Jesus to live in and through us.
Jesus also said "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it."
This past week a verse came up that suddenly received a special meaning. It is Psalm 116: 15 "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants." (NIV). When one digs into commentaries on this verse, the usual angle is that God puts great value on the lives of his people, and is deeply moved by their death; or that, from God's perspective, the death of his people is precious, because they now join him in his heavenly kingdom.
It struck me that the verse could also apply to the delight God has in his people, when, on a daily basis, they die to themselves and live for him. We become, if possible, more precious because of our imitation of Christ, His beloved Son. For then He can say of them "these are my people in whom I am well pleased." Just as He did of Jesus when he rose out of the water of his baptism - when he identified with us, first symbolically then actually, in our death.
Over the next month or two, as we are bombarded with news of Covid-19 deaths, and as we celebrate Easter, let us try to get a new angle on the entanglement of death and life. We who have Christ, have hope and assurance. But we should not therefore treat death lightly - we must practise it daily, being "living sacrifces" for Jesus' glory, for it is only through this death to ourselves, that we can live now in Christ. Covid-19 presents innumerable opportunities for us to practise a sacrificial life for others, providing support, hope, encouragement and comfort.
