Hello Death

“so death passed upon all men…” (Romans 5:12)

“..there shall be no more death.” (Rev. 22:4)

Hello Death:

You are the one we want to avoid. Some of us have become experts at

never allowing you to into the foyer of our mind, much less into the inner

sanctuary where our deepest thoughts reside. But it is a rather silly

exercise, isn’t it? So, I decided to just face facts, invite you over and have a

long-awaited talk with you. I have much to say, so I ask you to be patient

with me.

Let’s begin there. Your patience is quite admirable. We all could learn from

your ability to wait your turn. Of course, you do have the advantage of

knowing that time is on your side. It is just a matter of time before you are

able to capture your next victim and bring them into your domain. We have

a magnetic force within us that draws each of us slowly and surely to the

grave. We don’t feel its power very much when we are young. As children

and teenagers, we live by a personal fable and operate on such egotism

that we think we are invincible. Nonetheless, you are no respecter of

persons. Our population yields to you from the cradle of the youngest to the

hospital bed of the eldest. Just because a young person thinks they are a

long way from your grasp, you can snatch them at any time you gain

permission from the Creator of all things. You proved it when you struck

down all of Job’s children in one day. Then, as we get older, the magnetic

force field gets stronger and stronger and moves us faster and faster to the

grave. We can feel your chilly presence begin to overshadow us long

before we witness our final sunset on this earth.

We have an appointment with you, set by God (Heb. 9:27). Solomon

chimed in and told us there is a time to die (Ecc. 3:2). As we look over the

landscape of history, the evidence of your carnage is always on display.

The numbers are quiet numbing; we can’t comprehend just how far-

reaching your domain rests. I’m impressed with the numbers: 7,708 die

every day in the United States which comes to, on average, 321 an hour, or

about 5 people every minute. If we stretch the numbers out to include the

whole world, it is even more impressive: about 150,000 people die every

day – about 105 every minute. You do stay busy! No vacation time. No 15-

minute coffee break. No time to sleep. As they say, ‘no rest for the weary.’

Those are just numbers to us and honestly, we can’t digest them. We might

as well be reading the box score from last night’s baseball game. It only

really strikes us when it hits home, when you pay a personal visit to our

family, friends, and co-workers. We might sit up and notice if someone

famous dies. You certainly got everyone’s attention with your work on

Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy. The entire country stopped when

2,977 people died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Funny,

though, we barely blink when we read about 790 homicides in Chicago last

year. It is old news now to the general population because it is so common;

there you are, every weekend, doing your work.

Let me back up for a moment and talk about your first kill. Do you

remember it? It has always interested me. Cain killed his brother Abel.

Evidently there was an argument, a loss of temper, a stroke of jealousy and

envy. We don’t have a lot of details of the actual perpetration of the murder,

or even Adam and Eve’s reaction. It must have been devastating to them.

Any parent can relate to the horror it must have been for them to have one

of their sons kill another one. It was messy. It was the birth of Death in the

reality of humanity. That is followed by a long drum beat of a death march

beginning with Adam and his descendants. It took many years for you to

hone your craft, but eventually you got it down to a science. Your sword is

brought to bear on us now when we are about 70 years old rather than 900

years old when you were just an apprentice. We would crown you an

expert these days for you have moved from taking about a thousand years

to kill someone (Methuselah) to now when you manage 2 every second! I

must reluctantly admit – that’s impressive!

God never intended for you to have such a place in creation. God’s will

from the beginning was a tree of life. If a person ate of that fruit, he or she

would live forever (Gen. 3:21). Lingering there in the Garden too was the

tree of death. God doesn’t call it that for He labeled it the tree of knowledge

of good and evil. Then God said to the first couple: “in the day thou eatest

thereof, thou shalt surely die.” And you are introduced as a player on the

stage of life. The story is well-known: Adam and Eve ate of the tree and, by

doing so, laid out a welcome mat for you to take center stage. They

immediately felt the effects of their decision, but it wasn’t until you raised

your hand against Abel (using Cain as your instrument), that they felt the

full force of your power.

Please bear with me in my folly, but I must ask, “How did it feel to be the

primary instrument of the Devil?” He was, after all, given authority over you

(Hebrews 2:14). It must be exhilarating to exercise what, appears on the

surface to have unlimited power. We know that isn’t the case. You can’t

move against anyone without permission from God Almighty, and if He

limits you, then your power to execute your judgment is void (Job 2). Still,

almost always, you get your victim. The Devil has used you quite

effectively; I venture to guess you are the most effective weapon in his

arsenal. He is a murderer from the beginning and the bloodlust that runs

through his veins is always looking for another drink from the fountain of

misery only you can provide.

You remind me of an earthquake that takes place under the ocean, out-of-

sight, and for many years such an earthquake was undetectable. We now

have ways of detecting such an earthquake and predicting a tsunami. Well,

Sir, the things that follow behind you after you create such a seismic shift,

create a tsunami of unrelenting sorrow, inconsolable grief, unavoidable

pain, unyielding woes, and inescapable anguish. As you reap the souls of

men you leave behind: distress and despair, turmoil, and tribulation. This

rehearsal of events that follow you is probably like music to your ears. I

sense a smile on your face as it seems I am offering you accolades, but it

is quiet the opposite. We love Life; we hate Death. Yet, we realize there are

those who hate God and He says, “All they that hate me love death” (Prov.

8:36). You do have your admirers though any thinking person would deem

them spiritually insane.

I regrettably admire one of your qualities: you are ruthless, but relentless.

Your ability to complete your work is almost unmatched. You can work your

craft through bombs or bullets. You have used acts of God such as

earthquakes, tornadoes, floods and famine. You have worked through the

deliberate acts of men and the accidents of misfortune. You manage to use

war, pestilence, or just bide your time and we naturally wear out and wear

down. The song writer said in one line “Death is coming; hell is moving.

Can you bear to let them go?” It makes no difference if you wipe out 4

million in one swope as you did in the China flood of 1931, or if it is some

unfortunate man named John Lewis who in 1999, at the age of 64,

attempted to light a bon fire. He accidently set himself on fire. He then ran

to a river and jumped in to put out the fire, only to drown. Who says you

don’t have a sense of humor? It is certainly dark, but some deaths are

funny – that is, if you don’t know the victim.

Could we talk a moment about the one who got away? According the

Author of Life, two men never died, remember? Oh, I’m sure you do. Elijah

was carried into heaven in a chariot of fire by horses of fire. You can take

some comfort in the fact that Bible predicts you will finally claim him as a

victim (Rev. 11) when he returns with Moses. Granted, you’ll only get to

hold him for 84 hours, or so, but at least you will get your clammy clutches

around his throat. But what about that other guy? Remember him? Enoch,

who lived 365 years (Gen 5), just disappeared. Were you taking a nap?

Were you distracted by deciding it was a good time for a coffee break? I bet

you never made that error twice. I have to wonder though, when Enoch

slipped away because God took him, what did you think?

I could say what I imagine you thought, but I’ll keep this writing safe for

everyone to read! It must be infuriating to think you have a perfect record

except for the one who got away. You even had the pleasure, if we can call

it that, of raising your hand twice against people like Lazarus, and Dorcas,

and Eutychus who were all raised from death, only to die again at a later

date. However, I can’t imagine the fact you got to kill some twice would

possibly balance out the frustration it must be to hear the name Enoch! I

bet he gives you nightmares to this day. Did you go to God and demand an

answer? He gave you that dominion. He announced that every man has an

appointment with Death, but then by His divine right as King, made an

exception to the rule and allowed Enoch to pass without ever coming face-

to-face with you. Sheesh. That must be maddening. We do admit readily

and happily that it is good to see a Giant such as yourself put in his place

from time-to-time. It gives us hope, we too might cash in that promise to

never die.

A couple of more things I have to talk to you about. (I’m sure I’ll likely think

of others later, but I know you are busy.) You are like a chameleon. I don’t

think the silly arguments as to why we die has any bearing on you; perhaps

you chuckle at our folly. Science may say we die because of a breakdown

in chemicals, or the increased exposure to disease and our inability to fight

it off because of a weakened immune system. You have in your arsenal so

many weapons of warfare we cannot possibly list them all. We see your

handiwork through accidents, malnutrition, neglect, crime and a hundred

other things. Christians accept the fact that we die because of sin.

C.S. Lewis proposed that, outside of Christianity, there are two attitudes

toward you. The Stoic who says it “doesn’t matter” and tries to regard death

with indifference. This attitude is summed up best, I think with Alfred E.

Newman’s motto from the old Mad Magazine: “What? Me worry?” The

other point of view is that is that you are the greatest threat to the survival

of the human species. This view means that people worry about you all the

time. It is an obsession with Death. People think they can exercise

themselves to invincibility. To show your hand, sometimes you will strike

down a long-distance runner, in the best health with a heart attack. I guess

that’s just to show us that we should take you seriously, but you are also

like a court jester.

Christianity takes a completely different view of you, Death. I’m sure we

baffle you with our belief system. One the one hand we recognize you are

our enemy (1 Cor. 15). You are to be taken deadly serious (pardon the

pun). On the other hand, you are our remedy from all that is wrong with us.

You were once Satan’s great weapon against man, but then God swept in

and snatched you of his grasp. Now you are a great weapon of God

against the Devil. Reminds me of the story in the book of Esther where

Haman was hung on own his gallows.

You must realize now that you are God’s medicine for man. Not our end but

the mode of transportation to our future without end. By your work, we are

riveted fast-forward to be set free from all the sin that doth so easily beset

us, to a land where we will never grow old, and we will never face you

again.

And, you know how it happened, right? You witnessed Jesus Christ lay

down His life. No man took it from him. You had no power over Him

because He was sinless. Sin, of course, is the only way your poison can

flow into our system. But when He gave up His life. He rose on the third

day! He warned you! He told everyone that listened that He would come up

from your clutches on the third day. I wish I could know what it was like in

that tomb that day when your forever chains were broken off Him, and he

took up His life again. Did you sweat bullets? Did you get some

indigestion? Did you weep and wail? Did you get mad? For you knew that

once He was set free, the pathway is fixed so that all who believe in Him

are set free.

It is an often-over-looked fact, but Jesus Christ abolished you (2 Tim. 1).

What a remarkable truth! If someone says today that they were cured of

cancer (regardless of the reason: a miracle, medical treatments, etc.) we

rejoice. We still might live in fear that it is only in remission and might

return. But suppose someone could stand up and say, “I have abolished

cancer!” Why, M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston and St. Jude’s in

Memphis would have to turn their attention to working on different

diseases. Cancer abolished? The world would rejoice!

As marvelous as that would be, something greater than abolishing cancer

has happened. Jesus Christ has abolished you! Wiped you out! For the

Christian, we don’t die; we fall asleep. We move from this life to another.

Jesus said, “Whosoever liveth, and believeth in me shall never die (John

11:26).” We know the body dies. All of the original disciples’ bodies died;

however, they went to heaven and live forever. When a person accepts

Jesus Christ by repenting of their sins, believing on Him by faith alone, they

receive everlasting life. Oh, Death! You are banished from us - forever. We

have eternal life, right now!

As for you? You are under a death sentence. Here is the headline: “Death

is on death row.” The Book of Revelation says, “God shall wipe away all

tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death…” (21:4). Lest you

forget, God has pronounced your judgment. For He says, “I will ransom

them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I

will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction…” (Hosea 13:14).

You may terrify some of us, but it is God who terrifies you. So, allow me to

say ahead of time for those who will be alive and remain when Jesus

comes again: “O death, where is thy sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55).

Goodbye, Death! And good riddance!

© Stan Vespie 2023