LEARN TO DIE!
“What we need in our churches today is better education.”
This statement recently fell on my ears from the “fount of wisdom” opened to me by a young, twenty-something-year-old Christian college graduate. As we were discussing the “woes” of post-modern Christianity, this was the universal answer given to me for every issue. Then, in attempting to ascertain the material content of such a saving remedy, I asked whether her degree included a semester on “Dying.” You can well imagine the shock that question provoked!
“What on earth do you mean? There is no course on ‘Dying’!”
“That’s odd,” I said. “I thought that was the whole theme of our ministry. Aren’t we preparing people to die?”
I’ve only recently finished reading, Memoirs of Thomas Halyburton (1825) in which there is a long and detailed account of his deathbed communications over his last few days on earth. I was profoundly affected!
As he lay dying (literally watching his own body lose function gradually from his feet upwards to his throat) he remained conscious and communicating with all who came to visit him. Toward the end, as one visitor looked on quietly, he spoke clearly and said:
“Learn to die! It is rare to die as a Christian: the most people think there is nothing more to do but to lay down their heads and die. This is even as if one cover his face, and leap over a rock into the sea. But it is not so!”
There you have it—“Learn to die!”
Now there’s a course we all need to take; yet, who today is teaching it? The lost world is certainly not. But, is the Church?
Our land is filled today with thousands of colleges and universities, hundreds of thousands of students; and yet, who’s “learning to die”? There is NO single human experience more certain than this one; and yet, we make no preparations for it.
What would that curriculum look like anyway? Where would we start? Where do we find resources and research? Whom do we interview? Let me make a few helpful suggestions.
There was a video clip recently that went “viral” done by a teenage boy who shared his “death” experiences by using written index cards. While it was very interesting, even disturbing to watch and emotionally packed, it was frightfully un-godly and un-Christian. Let me suggest, first, that we not rely on the “experiences” of our frail human minds to study such a critical and terminal subject as death. Remember, for this experience there is no trial run. We can’t afford to come to this place untaught!
Secondly, let me suggest that we cannot look for answers from the hands of “academic speculation”—no matter how many degrees are involved. The removal of the (eternal) human spirit from the (mortal) human body transcends all bounds of mere academia. Simply put—you can’t study this in your lab!
So then, how would we study this subject? Where are the right resources?
Well, I’m glad to announce—the Textbook is already written! For knowledge in such a sublime reality as this, we need to hear from the Creator of the human soul—and we have. He has written a Book. It’s called the Bible—the Word of God.
It just so happens, the entire Text is written for this purpose—to reveal Himself to dying humans. Someone said to me years ago, “If God has ever spoken, the Bible is what He said.” Well, He HAS spoken and the Bible IS what He said, and this is where men may “Learn to die!”
Not only is He the Giver of life, but He has Himself already passed through death, as a man, in the Person of Jesus Christ. Because He has already passed through death, thousands have learned in this university that Christ has “tasted death” in their behalf. Halyburton said it all when, in his final hours, he cried out:
“Blessed be God, there is an everlasting rest! Yea, Christ hath perfumed a bed of languishing and a grave: He has unstinged death!”
Hallelujah! “Unstinged death!” Oh, blessed be God, help us to graduate at this university!
So, I agree with my young friend. What the church needs most today is education. But let our classes begin here: “Learn to die!” Get the Textbook. Hold it up constantly before God’s people. Never leave off the study of this Text until our “graduation” is secure. Calvin said it well when he said:
“There is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breasts, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like angels. Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from her school until we have been pupils ALL our lives…”
Dr. John Suttles
January, 2012 |
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