Facing death with hope

A mortician shared this thought four weeks ago: “Confronting death is hard, but it matters, because pretending it didn’t happen doesn’t change the truth.”

Are you equipped to confront death? You might not be as prepared as you think. I’m not talking about life insurance or picking your coffin. I’m talking about grief. We have done much as a society to distance ourselves from the reality of death. The cremation rate in this country is over 60%. This means the majority of grieving people never see a body. They confront the thought in their mind, but do not confront the finality of death. And this is a problem. At best, it leads our minds to false hopes. At worst, it leads us into denial.

God told Adam when sin entered the world, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). From that day mankind had a new reality: one day, we will die. We will be forced to grieve. There is no way to sanitize it. In our grief we search desperately for hope. The question is: where will you find hope?

I would like to share the hope that is found in Christ, specifically His resurrection. The apostle Paul writes, “Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Thess. 4:13). Isn’t calling death ‘sleep’ avoiding its finality? No! Death does separate us from those we love. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. We must take time to weep also. But the Bible tells us that death is not the final word in eternity. Calling it sleep points to the hope that we will awake again!

Through Christ, we have the assurance that death is not the end of life. For those who have been made righteous by the washing of water in baptism, even though we die a physical death on earth we still live eternally in Christ. And He has promised to return so that all the righteous will be where He is also. There is a great and wonderful comfort to be found in the promise of life given to us in Jesus Christ!

Death is a painful reality. Know that the Scriptures can help you face death with hope. If you want, I’d love to share that hope with you.