Triumph over death

I Corinthians 15:54-58
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true:
"Death has been swallowed up in victory" (Hos. 13:14)
"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 2:14-15
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who has the power of death -- that is, the devil -- and free all those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
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When we came this morning, we all entered through a doorway. I would guess that none of us hesitated or had the least anxiety before opening the door and walking through. The reason is simple: We were fairly sure of what we would find on the other side. Most of us have been in this building before. We know what to expect.

It is not always that way with doorways. I remember having dreams as a child that I walked through a door, only to find that I had walked into space -- there was no floor and I was falling. I would wake to find myself still in bed, terrified, my heart racing. Freud would have had fun with that. Much later, when we lived in Egypt I discovered that my dreams were not entirely fantastic: A number of people have fallen to their deaths in Cairo because they walked through elevator doors when there was no elevator to walk into. That, I suppose, is a worst case scenario. There are all sorts of less severe cases where we have reason to hesitate at a doorway because we are afraid of what we will encounter on the other side: The door to the principal's office, the door into the dentists office, the door into the boss's office, the door into the court room.

What is it that makes us pause? Are we afraid of the doorway itself? Of course not, it's what we may find on the other side that we fear.

So it is with dying. It is like a great doorway looming ahead of us. We'll all have to go through it. It will only take a moment to go through the doorway. One moment I'll be alive, the next dead. It may be sudden, or we may have plenty of time to see it coming. But dying itself is just a doorway -- a transition. What matters is what I will find on the other side. Is dying a doorway to oblivion -- to nothingness, so that I cease to be. [It's interesting how terrifying that thought is to me. Why?] Or is it a doorway to nightmarish dreams, as Hamlet feared?

To sleep, perchance to dream, aye, there's the rub. For in the sleep of death what dreams may come must give us pause.

It was not dying that Hamlet feared -- it was what dying might lead to. Shakespeare's instincts were right. Dying is not our enemy any more than falling asleep is our enemy. Our enemy lurks on the other side of doorway, and is named Death with a capital "D".

For a long time I have struggle with this question. If Jesus conquered death, why do we still have to go through with it? I'm not sure that I'm right, but here's what I think now: What Jesus destroyed on the Cross was not the doorway but the terrible beast on the other side. The doorway is still there, we still go through it, but for those who are in Christ Jesus it no longer holds terror because we know what to expect on the other side.

That is why Paul could say so confidently, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain . . . I desire to depart an be with Christ, which is better by far." He knows what to expect on the other side of the doorway. To die is gain! The other side is so fabulous that Paul is almost suicidal in his eagerness to get there.

What is so fabulous about the other side of the doorway? The scripture gives us glimpses. Here are some of the things that we can see through the keyhole of scripture.

1. At the moment of death we will be made perfect. Our struggle with sin will be over. The battle we have been waging every day, every hour since we became Christians will end.

2. At the moment of death all of our pain will be gone. Both physical and emotional pain. It is no surprise that people who are older or suffer deeply often have a more vivid and deeper longing to be with Jesus. Those who are most comfortable, most prosperous in this life have a hard time imagining leaving it. Jesus Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man is helpful here. [Lazarus and the Rich Man in Luke 16:24ff]

3. At the moment of death we will experience incredible peace.
Think about times when you have been on a very long road trip. You've traveling cooped up in a car for 12 hours, getting out only at miserable rest areas and gas stations. What a wonderful feeling it is to arrive home. Home never felt so good. It is delicious to be able to stretch out. Your own bed is deliciously comfortable. Dying will be like entering the door of your real home after a long, uncomfortable road trip. 2 Cor. 5:8 "We are of good courage, I say, and prefer to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord."

4. At the moment of death we will immediately be in the presence of Jesus. Imagine the person you most enjoy spending time with in the world -- the person who is most delightful to be with, who understands you best, who loves you the most. Jesus is more wonderful than that person. He is wiser, stronger, kinder, more interesting. And he will be there on the other side of the doorway of death. Jesus said to the thief hanging next to him on the Cross: "Today you will be with me in paradise." The heart of Paul's dilemma in Philippians 1:23 is that he longs to be with Jesus: "I do not know what to choose. I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is better by far."

C.S. Lewis gives a marvelous picture of what it is like to go through our final doorway in "The Last Battle" -- the last of the Chronicles of Narnia.
In the climactic scene of the last battle, the King of Narnia and his handful of loyal subjects are fighting a last desperate battle against a large army in one last ditch effort to save Narnia. Behind them is a stable, and they are gradually being forced back against it. No one knows for sure what is inside the stable -- but one by one they are pushed back through the dark doorway. But once they enter the doorway it seems as if it is not one doorway, but two: Behind one is the terrible demon-monster Tash, who devours his prey. Behind the other doorway is a whole world, bigger, more beautiful, more wonderful than anything in the world they left.

Was there any reason to fear going through the door of the stable? Only for those who belonged to Tash. Similarly, only those who by their rebellion against God are servants of the devil need fear death. Whoever our master is, whoever we serve in this life, that will be who will be waiting for us.

It's no wonder that Christian martyrs often die singing. Among the last to be put to death by guillotine after the French Revolution were 16 Carmelite Nuns. They willingly and deliberately offered themselves up to die in an effort to quell the Terror by bringing shame on the authorities. Here's a description of how they died: [First Things, May 2000]

Before mounting the scaffold, each sister asked her religious superior: "Permission to die, mother?" To which she answered, "Go, my daughter." Each one then mounted the scaffold in turn. The first to go, the young Sister Constance, began to sin Psalm 117, "Praise the Lord, all you peoples!" The others joined her, singing at the scaffold.

How could they go to death so willingly? Like so many other Christians through the centuries they longed for what lay beyond the doorway.

All this is possible only because of Good Friday. On Good Friday, Jesus died -- he passed through the doorway -- and on the other side he faced the monster, death and he defeated it. Death could not get a hold him, because death is the penalty for sin, and Jesus was sinless.

As a result all who go through that doorway after him need not fear.

It really is Good Friday, and it is a day to celebrate:

"Death has been swallowed up in victory" (Hos. 13:14)
"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.