Mark 8:31 – [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
In this last year, suddenly, the world was gripped with the crippling fear of death. The part that’s interesting to me is like, this is not new revelation. We all knew we were going to die at some point. You’re born on one day and buried on another day, and in the middle is your life, but those are the two guaranteed bookends.
This past year, so much effort was put forth by the citizens of planet earth to deal with the death problem. It literally changed our entire lives – we closed schools and businesses, had elections, started sending out money, changed policies, ramped up research, gave out CDC guidelines, and crippled entire parts of the economy.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for extending our lives and living healthier. I think it’s a great idea to buckle your seatbelt and drink more water while we’re at it.
But at the end of the day, the wage for sin is death (Romans 6:23), we all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and we all taste death.
We can delay death, but we cannot defeat death apart from Jesus Christ. We can have a vaccine, wear a mask, social distance, and still die.
As Christians, we should look at death differently. It’s not that we don’t consider death the end of our earthly life or get sad when we lose loved ones, but as Paul says in Philippians 1:21, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Two verses later, he says “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”
No one in Heaven right now is looking down and saying, “I really miss Detroit”. There’s not even anyone saying, “I really miss Paradise Valley.” They are now, currently, in the true Paradise Valley called Heaven where there’s no more crying, death, sin, or pain.
Wouldn’t it be great if this life was as bad as it would ever be? Wouldn’t it be great if, after this life, there was a reward for all we’ve gone through in this life?
For the Christian, death is not the finish line, it’s the starting line.
Thank God that He knows the future and ask Him what He would have for you today, letting Him worry about tomorrow.