Life and Death

1 Corinthians 15:49, "And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven."

Death is very real. Every person must come to grips with the reality of death at some time or another. For some, this comes early in life due to the sickness of themselves or a loved one. Others might live into their twenties of thirties before a parent or grandparent dies and they are awakened to the harsh outcome that awaits us all. Whatever the case may be, understanding death, and the realization that we are transient beings here only for a short time, changes everything.

I was a medical student in my twenties when I first saw my dead body. The corpse looked hollow and empty and I have never been so sure that there is both a earthly and spiritual side to every person as I was in that moment first staring at my cadaver. In my study of the the human body, bone by bone, vessel by vessel I realized how fragile life is and how living each day is a gift and a miracle. One tiny tear in a vessel or the destruction of a single protein and you and I would cease to live in an instant. Most of us are reminded more often of the frailty of life with age. As things begin to break down, slow down and shut down, even though we try not the think about it, the eventual outcome that awaits us begins to loom larger on the horizon.

Even in the face of death, there is great hope in Paul's words to the Corinthians. He reminds us that our failing, fragile earthly bodies will be replaced with a new body when we when are resurrected for eternity. Every single person alive today is an immortal being in that their soul will live on in one of two locations. For those that know Christ as savior and Lord, we are promised to inherit a new body, one like Jesus had, and a body unlike anything we have ever seen. We are told in the scriptures that Jesus, after the resurrection, had a body that could eat fish like you and I (Luke 24:42) but also could go through walls (John 20:19). How cool is that! In giving Jesus a new body, God showed that he can conquer death and he promises to to the same with you and I. This too changes everything.

My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Zeimke, or Mrs. Z as we called her really taught me what it means to not be afraid. She was tough, so much so that the thought of failing one of her infamous pop quizzes would bring me to tears from time to time. She caught on to my fears quickly and pulled me aside after class one day to teach me something I still do to this day. She taught me when you're afraid to ask yourself, "what is the worst that can happen?" because asking this question reminds you that failure or something going poorly is usually not the end of the world. For example, if the worst thing that can happen in taking a test is getting a bad grade, there really isn't too much to be fear since in the big scene of life, things are still going pretty well. If you are getting good grades in other classes, you're alive and you have a family that loves you, it doesn't make much sense to get bent out of shape over one bad quiz grade. Mrs. Z. taught me to look at the big picture and not just what was going on at the time.

I said that something going poorly is usually not the end of the world, well this mantra doesn't work so well with death. The fear of dying is a very real fear because there isn't really anything worse than can happen in life than dying. Looking at the big picture with death is quite pointless since there is no longer any picture to look at, unless God steps in. Jesus in, conquering death and promising to give us a new body, provides a new, bigger picture to look at that makes dying on this earth something we no longer have to fear. "Where O death is your victory, where O death is your sting...but hanks be to God! He gives us the victory though out Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor 15:55, 57