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| Michelangelo's Pieta at the St Peter's Cathedral Rome |
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?" 1 Cor 15:55.
This past week a friend from my 1964-69 Raffles Institution cohort died. He was an ardent Christian in his university days and early career but somehow had backslidden in recent years. However he maintained a testimony of a good friend and generous person. The cohort rallied behind him as he lay dying in hospital because we valued this friendship. So many of us went to see him in hospital that there was a waiting list just to get into the ward.
His Christian friends ministered to him, showing love and care and comforting him with singing of hymns and praises at his bedside. He responded positively; his family and we were convinced that like the prodigal son, he returned to God the father.
He died very peacefully and with great dignity.
Chairing the funeral wake, I remarked that while Christians would suffer with dignity the passage of death, at such Christian funeral wakes we celebrate the successes of life. Why? Because death has lost its sting and the grave its victory. It is not that we are somehow immune from and unaffected by the pain of grief and loss when a dear friend or relative dies, instead it means that we have a hope in something eternal that goes beyond life and death and that hope sustains us in difficult time.
In the mourning and weeping there is also comfort and a sense of rejoicing as we recall the testimony of a good Christian life and give God the glory for the examples of dearly departed. That is the victory over the grave, the assertion that by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all Christians have secured victory over death. For Christians, death is not the termination of life but the gateway to life. This dogma has given the early Christians courage to face persecution and martyrdom and this courage has been one of the hallmarks of the Christian witness ever since.
As John Stott put it, "But death holds no horrors for Christian. True, the process of dying can be messy and undignified, and the decay which follows it is not pleasant" (Ref 1). But we are secured when we face death that "..our saviour, Jesus Christ, has destroyed death and has brought life and in immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Tim 1:10).
Indeed, Christians are not afraid of Death. Life and Death are intertwined in the Christian belief and experience. Jesus taught that the mustard seed must die in order that it might produce good fruits. The writer to the Hebrews wrote that Jesus shared in our humanity 'so that by His death, He might break the power of death - that is, the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.' Hebrews 2: 14-15.
The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, wrote a hymn 'Be Still My Soul' taken from a short and serene section of his famous symphony Finlandia.
Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
leave to thy God to order and provide;
in ev'ry change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heav'nly Friend
thro' thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
to guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice, who ruled them while He dwelt below.
Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
and all is darkened in the veil of tears,
then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
from His own fullness all He takes away.
Be still, my soul: the hour is hast'ning on
when we shall be forever with the Lord,
when disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
This is a hymn extolling the dignity of death and the hope beyond the grave.
Lionel
