Psalm 116:1-9, 12-15; Luke 23:26-45; Matthew 27:46-56
"Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Psalm 116:15) is a
beautiful reminder that death is the "gate through which the righteous
enter" into the presence of God (Psalm 118:20). To die in Christ is the
goal of our Faith. We actually look forward to death as our release from the
sorrows and suffering of this world. As Christians, we are not afraid of death.
But dying may be another story.
Much of
our fear and concern about dying is based in what is unknown to us. We don't
know what it will be like to go through the process of dying. We have
reservations about the pain, suffering, and helplessness that we see others
experience in their dying. We don't want to burden others. We don't want to be
incapable of caring for ourselves, restricted from doing the things that we
want to do, or lose our faculties. If given the choice, we'd choose a quick and
painless death over a prolonged process of dying. But that's not an option for
us. In reality, we are dying right now and we have already died.
We are
dying now because our world is fallen. All creation is in a state of dying a
death that is so slow that it is easy to convince ourselves that we are not
dying. When we live as though we are not dying we tend to lose our perspective
on life. Eventually, when the reality of our dying becomes evident, that
perspective is restored. Our prayers of dying renew our understanding of the
life that we have because of the death we've already died.
The
death we've died is a spiritual death. It is a real death for us that gives us
hope and insight as we progress through the physical dying that we are now
experiencing. Our spiritual death is also connected to physical dying because
it took place when we were joined to the death of Jesus. We died a real death
with Him when we were buried with Him in Baptism. Joined to Christ like this,
we look to His dying on the Cross to learn from Him how to die. We learn that
He did not choose a quick and painless death but entered our fallen world,
became like us, and took on our sins to experience the full process of dying.
His prayers of dying become most intense as He hanged on the Cross where He won
the ultimate renewal for us in His precious death.
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