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Woodstock Mountain Bike Fellowship

Death - Facing the Executioner

July 29, 2008

When we moved to Georgia 4 years ago, our next-door neighbor "Kyle" was a senior in High School. He was a big, strong kid who then went on to Pepperdine University on a tennis scholarship, eventually joining the Army with hopes of making it into "The Rangers." Last year before he went to Afghanistan, I asked if he was ready for the danger he would face and whether he was afraid to die. He brushed off my comments with the proud claim that his whole team was trained so well, he wasn't worried.

While talking with Kyle's mom last week, Susan heard that Kyle had been shot in the chest while on guard duty. He never knew what hit him. One minute, he was standing up, and the next minute, he was flat on his back. Fortunately for Kyle, the bullet slammed into his body armor (which shattered) instead of his unprotected chest, only leaving him with a nasty bruise and some dizziness. When he gets home (he's currently in Italy), I'll look forward to asking him the same questions again.

Like Kyle, perhaps you've had a close brush with death. You escaped this time, but wonder how you'll eventually die. A recent study identified the six most feared but least likely ways that people die (sixwise.com). Here's the list:

  1. Airplane crash. As my plane flew home from Kansas last Friday, I was more tired than fearful. Which is perfectly reasonable, since the statistics show that a person who flies on commercial airliners every day would have the probability of dying in a crash once in 19,000 years.
  2. Shark attack. Don't worry about that fin circling your surfboard. Only 38 people have been killed in the USA by shark attacks since 1580.
  3. Being murdered. Globally, about a half million people are murdered each year, most of them in Atlanta (just kidding).
  4. Falling to death. If you exclude old-age falls, only about 80 adults per year fall to their deaths, mostly in professions working at heights.
  5. Terrorist attack. While we read a lot about this in the news (and are particularly sensitive since 9/11), the odds of dying this way are about the same as death by avalanche.
  6. Natural disaster (tornado, earthquake, hurricane, etc). Even though we see some amazing events like the recent China earthquake and Surinam Typhoon, more people die each year of suicide than natural disasters.
  7. Road biking accidents. Road bikers run a 1 in 100,000 chance of being killed by a collision with a car (1 in 1 million if wearing a helmet). That's why I'm a mountain biker.

By the way, the actual leading causes of death (based on a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association) in the USA are:

  • Tobacco (435,000 deaths, 18.1 percent of total U.S. deaths)
  • Poor diet and physical inactivity (400,000 deaths, 16.6 percent)
  • Alcohol consumption (85,000 deaths, 3.5 percent)
  • Microbial agents (75,000)
  • Toxic agents (55,000)
  • Motor vehicle crashes (43,000)
  • Incidents involving firearms (29,000)
  • Sexual behaviors (20,000)
  • Illicit use of drugs (17,000)

So those are the statistics about HOW people die, and in spite of the numbers, none of us know how we will die. But there is one statistic that we can be absolutely certain about: it is 100% certain that each of us will die (Psalm 89:47,48). Regardless of how hard we try to extend our lives, eventually our time will come. When will that time be? Unless you're on death row, you probably don't know for sure, but it certainly cannot be forestalled through anxiety (Matthew 6:27).

It's interesting to consider that men were not originally created to die. We were created to get stronger (not weaker) and flourish (not decay). Before he sinned, Adam must've been amazing, naming all the animals (Genesis 2:19,20) and holding stewardship over the whole earth. Death was not in Adam's genetics as he walked with God in obedience. But man was formed as a moral entity with the privilege of self-determination. God gave Adam a condition for ongoing life (Genesis 2:16,17) which he violated, and all mankind has been paying for it ever since (Romans 5:12).

So how should we face our inevitable demise? Our world has a few answers that are totally inadequate. The most common one is denial, somehow believing that you are the one who will beat the odds, and then ignoring any thoughts of death. But just as foolish as it would be to stand in the highway and ignore the traffic, it is foolish to ignore the fact that you will obviously stand in the doorway of death.

More recently, we've gained the "wisdom" of new age beliefs, viewing death as a natural part of life. This philosophy would say that death is nature's way of recycling our life into those who follow us, something about which we should not fear or grieve. As stated in the chorus of "The Circle of Life":

It's the Circle of Life, And it moves us all, Through despair and hope
Through faith and love, Till we find our place, On the path unwinding
In the Circle, The Circle of Life

But this is not the way of the Bible. Our Creator made us different than trees and grass and animals. He made us in His image with an eternal soul (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and a conscience which knows that we are accountable for our choices (Romans 2:14-16). Regardless of the foolishness of contemporary philosophy, we all know that death is an enemy – an intruder into this world. Death brings pain and agony (Acts 2:24), a fact unchanged by our denial.

It is interesting to see Jesus' reaction to death when He comes to Martha and Mary after the death of their brother Lazarus. Even though He knew that He was about to raise Lazarus from the grave, He burst into tears of grief (John 11:35-38). When standing before the tomb, He was "moved with indignation" quaking with rage (see the Wuest expanded translation). Here we have the God of the universe weeping and angry at something within His creation. The only possible explanation is that death is an intruder, a monstrosity.

When faced with the death of those we love, it's OK to grieve. In addition to Jesus, we also have the example of Job, who grieved intensely at the death of his children (tearing his robe and shaving his head), yet he did not sin (Job 1:20-22).

Not to grieve kills humanity, assigning a minimal value to life and accepting death as the norm. But similarly, it kills our humanity to continually grieve and rage - we all know people whose lives have been destroyed by unyielding grief. As believers in Jesus, we have an amazing hope - we must "press that hope" into our grief. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 reminds us of the great hope bought for us by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

When you are faced with the death of a loved one (or yourself), camp out in 1 Corinthians 15. Some verses to meditate upon include:

1 Cor 15:22 Jesus is the cure to the death caused by Adam's sin

1 Cor 15:26 Death is an enemy but will be abolished

1 Cor 15:35-37 God gave us seeds to illustrate resurrection

1 Cor 15:42-44 God raises us as individuals to power and imperishability

1 Cor 15:54-57 Death used to have the victory, but God has now given it to us through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's why George Herbert said that "Death used to be an executioner, but the gospel has made him just a gardener." The sting of death is sin, and the poison of death went into Jesus.

Remember, our bodies were built to last forever, but Jesus' body was built to die. He took on flesh and blood in order to take on the power of our greatest enemy (Hebrews 2:14,15), delivering us from our greatest fear.

I opened our conversation tonight with the story about my neighbor, Kyle. As I mentioned, before he went to Afghanistan, he spent many months training with the best instructors. But in spite of his excellent training and physical strength, the bullet that struck his chest last month would have ripped through his organs and left him dying in a pool of blood except for one thing - his body armor. It shattered as it took the full force of the bullet, delivering him from death.

Similarly, there's only one thing that stands between you and eternal death - the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. No amount of religious ceremony or good works will rescue you. I urge you to place your complete trust in the gospel of Jesus Christ, counting on Him to be your Deliverance when you breathe your final earthly breath.

Waiting their turn Bike Limbo! Derailleur clinic