Until this year, the sure way to kill a conversation or slay a whole dinner party was to raise the topic of death. Unless, of course, it was a horrific public murder. But otherwise, even alluding to death was the social equivalent of deliberately insulting the party host. But, now, death is trending on twitter.
And, it is confronting us. Did you open the Saturday paper, after forgetting to decontaminate it and grieve seeing the mass graves for New York City? Death is trending and the curve is sadly upwards for most of the world.
But the pressing question is, what do we have to say? We can yabber all day about the numbers. But, it is different at the graveside. As someone noted, ‘If you've got nothing to say about death, you've got nothing to say - at all.’
He is right. What do you say to a grieving friend, lover or parent?
Here are some graveside options*:
Get over it. Death is nothing. The universe arose as a meaningless accident. Which means life is an accident and so logically, despite all the vibrancy of life, death is nothing. It is just another accident of the universe as the whole universe winds down to a cosmic death. And since life is nothing, death is nothing. It is deeply inconsistent to grieve and feel pain and even to be worried about death. Get over it.
2. Wait for it. Death is part of a cycle. Life is one huge never-ending cycle. Death flows from life just as water flows in a river. It is inevitable. Therefore, embrace death, or at least, chill. Death is natural and an ordinary part of life. Your grief and anger are unnatural.
3. Snap out of it. Death is nothing. It is an illusion for your life is an illusion. The true reality is spiritual and existence is being connected to that spiritual reality. Your body is just a passing vessel on your path to spiritual reality. To fight death or to grieve the death of a loved one is unnatural. You are out of step with reality.
4. Hate it. Death is an enemy for God intended life. Life is no accident but the goal of the Creator God. He made life to be bursting with meaning, purpose, and love all wrapped in a physical world with physical bodies. Death is a great tragedy and an enemy for it ends life.
The last one is the view of Biblical Christianity. I say Biblical Christianity for across the 2 billion people practising Christianity, there are, sadly, many versions made in the image of the practitioners.
Biblical Christianity sees that death is a great tragedy. The Creator God created life so that life would be good, filled with purpose, meaning and love. This flows from the character of God. He didn’t create a mechanistic universe but one profoundly filled with relationships for he is the God of love and in eternal relationship as Father, Son and Spirit. *
Death is trending. And while the numbers in Australia, are falling, which is wonderful, people are still dying all over the world. And in 100 years the death rate for the current 7 billion people will be 100%. So, what can you say about death? Get over it? Snap out of it? Wait for it?
Hating death is the only option that makes sense to me. It is what I felt when my father died – the loss, the grief, the anger and even the horror of death.
Hating it and fighting is the right response. It is right that hospital staff: nurses, doctors, cleaners, administrators are in a great battle for human life. Death is an enemy. Death is a tragedy. Death is the end of life.
But that is only half the story.
Death is a defeated enemy. Jesus, killed on the cross, burst from his tomb three days later. The cry of Christianity is that in Jesus death has been defeated. Jesus has broken the power of death. For he is stronger than death. He has conquered the grave.
And, if death has been defeated, then death is not the end. There is a future life to come. A future found in Jesus for he is only one who has conquered the grave.
The apostle Paul writing to those who had trusted Jesus said,
'For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed'.
And a touch later,
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”*
In Jesus, life is trending joyfully upward. You should share that at your next dinner party.
*There may be more but I think they are just variations on the theme. If you think I've missed one, please message me.
*Incidentally, this is a key difference between Christianity and Islam. In Islam, Allah exists as a single being and so his essence cannot be love but rather divine will.
* 1 Corinthians 15.