Copyright by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved
Mortality is a dirty word for citizens of the 21st century West. We do not like to think about the fact that death comes to all human beings. In fact we usually do everything in our power to push this reality out of our minds. Our entire culture at times seems to be living in willful ignorance of the brevity of our time in this world. The cult of youth that assails us every time we pick up a magazine or turn on the television reminds us that we are ever trying to look backwards and avoid thinking about the inevitability of death.
This is not much less true in our Christian subculture either. How many sermon series are preached these days about preparing for the inevitable end of our physical lives? I’d venture that many Western believers would consider such a series morbid. It might well be seen as an uncomfortable and unwanted intrusion into the incessant search for complete spiritual fulfillment on this side of Heaven that sometimes passes for authentic spirituality today.
This attitude of avoidance is not present in scripture or, for that matter, in the writings of faithful believers for the majority of Christian history. For most of the Church’s existence the Christian was encouraged to contemplate his or her death and contemplate it regularly. More than one respected saint in the past two thousand years counseled the faithful to put aside a period of time each day to think about dying. This is another idea that brings an immediate sense of discomfort to many of us moderns. Think about dying everyday? How depressing!
The fact is that wrestling with (and ultimately coming to terms with) our mortality is a healthy part of living in reality and understanding our position as fallen creatures, redeemed though we are. Death entered the world through our sin and the truth is we now exist in bodies that are going to die. Barring the imminent return of the Lord we will all breathe our last some day and leave behind everyone and everything we have known during our time here. Reconciling ourselves to this fact is not only a requirement of living in truth; it is also a potentially positive way to further re-orient our lives towards God.
First and foremost it is vital to remember that the One we profess to follow Himself tasted physical death. We are destined to share in that part of His experience whether we like it or not. The hope of resurrection is a wonderful thing, but resurrection requires something to be resurrected from. We are blessed beyond measure to be spared from the spiritual death Jesus tasted on our behalf, but our bodies will know the temporal penalty of our sin. We will all die. It is an aspect of true wisdom to be prepared for the day that happens and part of being prepared for that day is contemplating it.
Secondly we need perspective on what our real priorities should be in our present temporal existence. Such perspective can be provided by meditating on mortality. It is amazing how rapidly people who discover they are terminally ill (and aren’t we all?) find out what really matters to them. Suddenly all their worldly concerns just seem to evaporate. And what invariably is left? Only two things, relationship and legacy; their relationships with God and others and their legacy in the sense of finishing whatever work God gave them to do in this life. Nothing else much matters anymore.
The truth is that, as biblical Christians, we should be able to have much of that perspective now, whether we have 70 years of life ahead of us or 7 months. But this cannot happen without keeping our transience here on Earth consciously in mind, at least from time to time. Such consciousness is not morbid, it is blessed. It is blessed because God always honors our willingness to see things as they are in the light of Who He is. What we physically are is mortal. Who He is is the Redeemer of that part of us which, praise His Name, is not mortal, our eternal souls.