Death Yields No Comfort

Suffering is part of the human condition.  There's a phrase about life - "no one gets out alive." Well, that's true. We all die. At some point this thing called life ends for all of us. A dash between two dates, our days are numbered. In the time we spend on this earth, one common experience we all share regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation is suffering. Whether physically or emotionally, we all suffer at some point in our lives. Our level of suffering may not be equal, but the experience of suffering is fundamentally the same in that it is universally understood. 

Recently one of my best friend's father passed away. He had experienced a  litany of health issues during the latter years of his life. At the end, he developed leukemia, which later metastasized into stage four cancer that eventually took his life. While no man can know the heart of another, based on what I know about my friend and his family, I would have to say his father was a non-believer. Certainly faith is the key element that separates believers from non-belivers. Perhaps that is no more evident than at death. We all grieve when someone we know and love dies; we all mourn our common loss. Believers, though, tend to process death differently. Our eternal hope is in Christ, and while those we love may no longer be in our midst, we rejoice that they are with Jesus. And we take comfort that their suffering is over. 

For non-believers, though, death yields no comfort. Oh, many falsely believe it does. We've all heard the well-intended comments when someone's suffering has ended in their demise. "He's in a better place" or "at least she's not in pain anymore," or something similar. While these comments are meant to provide comfort during a time suffering, for non-believers they simply are not true. The suffering has not ended. In fact, one could argue it hasn't even begun. For non-believers, death is not the end of the physical life on earth and any associated suffering and the beginning of an enternal one in Heaven as it is for believers. It is quite literally the beginning of eternal suffering. How ironic the perspective of non-believers is when it comes to death. Many view it as a panacea, an end to earthly suffering and misery. Their understanding of anguish is, unfortunately, limited to this world.

How then are we, as believers, to react to the passing of non-believers? Should we whip out our Bible and begin an impromptu sermon on Heaven and Hell and the need for salvation and a call to repentance? Or perhaps we should be bold and blunt and proclaim the eternal plight of the deceased amid fire and brimstone? From a kinder and gentler perspective, maybe we should keep silent and pray to ourselves lest we offend and alienate our friends and family members who lack faith. I pondered this issue, as I do whenever someone who seemingly is a non-believer, passes away. Like many, I suppose, I long for the opportunity to have a serious discussion about faith with the deceased's survivors. I hope it presents itself, but it rarely does. After all, non-believers don't typically discuss religious issues and bring them up in conversation. Some use the term 'prayer' as a gesture of goodwill and support but not as indication of belief - "we'll keep you in our prayers."

The more seemingly non-believers pass away, the more I am bothered by my silence. Rooted in the fear of offending and alienating a friend or family member, my silence is born out of timidity and not wanting to ruin an otherwise fruitful relationship. The more I thought about that, the angrier I became - at myself! I began to question - really question - what Christianity was all about. If we refrain from sharing the Gospel, we render ourselves ineffective and disobedient to Christ's charge at the Great Commission. Now, you might be saying to yourself, "Well, that's okay, take the time now and share the good news." And I agree. We should take the time now to share God's Word. But, and this is the crux of my frustration, what about the deceased? You see, before they left this world, before taking a final breath, before their last heartbeat, there was time! Time that was wasted, frittered away, not taken advantage of and used to its fullest. 

There's a phrase "he who hesitates loses." I'm not sure of its origin or intended application, but it is certainly true when it comes to Christianity and salvation. As believers, we must never hesitate to share God's word, especially when we know (seemingly) non-believers are approaching the door to eternity. Imagine possessing an antidote to a terrible, debilitating, and deadly disease. Now imagine a friend, colleague, or family member contracts the disease. Would you hesitate? Would you keep it to yourself out of fear of not being believed? What would you say at the funeral? "If only I had been there.." Ridiculous, right? In that situation we'd make every effort to save that person. We'd stand our ground and argue our point. We would not falter. We wouldn't back down. Refusing to give up until the final breath, we would do whatever we could to convince others of the truth, to accept what we were saying as genuine, and provide the antidote and save the life of another from certain eternal death.  

Well, my fiends, we do have an antidote, we do have a cure, as it were, for eternal damnation. We know Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Christ charged his disciples to go into all the world and make disciples, i.e. believers, out of everyone. If we are his disciples, that is our charge as well. One could hardly imagine Jesus keeping quiet about the good news lest he offend someone and letting them perish. In fact, the opposite is true. He didn't keep quiet and offended many with the truth. So why do we do keep quiet? Why do we hesitate? Why do we say nothing but the obligatory, "I'm so sorry to hear that" or "I'm sorry for your loss" without taking the time to share the Gospel? Is it perhaps because we take solace in our salvation and silently pass judgment on non-believers, passively relinquishing their fate to God's will? After all, salvation is God's business, right? Wrong! It was his business until his son died on the cross and made it our business.