At the highest point of tension in the award-winning musical Hamilton, the confident and cocky Hamilton shocks everyone who failed their high school U.S history class and “throws away his shot” in his duel with the more cautious Aaron Burr. While the gunshot wound tears through his abdomen, Hamilton supposedly utters these words off-camera to his grief-stricken wife as he lays dying in Weehawken, New Jersey.
“Remember, my Eliza, you are a Christian.”
Despite the debated historical accuracy of this narrative, it is still routine to hear from well-intentioned Christians in funerals about how the deceased is in a better place or how we ought to celebrate because the deceased is with Christ now. These are attractive sentiments, but never satisfying and comforting. So, how is a Christian to view death? Does the death of a Christian entreat celebration or a time of grief? A good theology on death matters and should always start with the first life.
Death is a Consequence of Sin
In Genesis, God sees a pale blue dot of earth teeming with animals, water and flowers, but, with no one to care for his droplet of creation, he creates mankind. Scooping up dust from the ground, God forms the shape of a man and breathes “the breath of life” into the mould’s nostrils, making him a living being. In a chapter with trees of life and knowledge, a life-giving river, and a talking snake, it is obvious that there’s more going on than meets the eye.
Against all ontological order, man opposes God and is judged accordingly. The woman is cursed with painful childbirth and the desire for control and the man with toil in working the earth and death, returning dust back to dust. However, in an act of sovereign grace, this death is not immediate. Rather, when man hears “hostility”, “offspring” and “heel-wound” in God’s judgment to the serpent, there seems to be evidence that death will not only be defeated, but the effects of sin will regress. In a beautiful stroke of man redeeming his original role of dominion through faith in God, man turns to his female companion and names her “Eve”, meaning life.
From this point to Revelation, the backdoor of the biblical canon, a whole bunch of things go down, but in the beginning man is redeemed through faith in God and in the end man is still redeemed through faith in God. Christ’s resurrection may have defeated death, but we should never forget the unnatural condition of death. Death is not some sort of a portal that transfers people into the supernatural, but a consequence of sin that tears the body and the soul, reminiscent of the separation between us and God. It is horrid and abhorrent. Romans writes that “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). There is a biblical relationship between sin and death that we cannot ignore. Regardless of what comes after death, death itself is not natural and we cannot forget that death is an enemy and that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
Responding Amidst Death
Christians should never be denied the right to grieve. In “A Grief Observed” C.S. Lewis writes that “in grief nothing stays put.” We feel disorientating because loss is disorientating. We feel confused because loss is confusing. When Jesus beheld the dead body of Lazarus, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35) and we can not even fathom the existential, soul-crushing grief Adam experienced with the death of Abel, the first death. The question for the believer, however, is how we ought to respond to death in the midst of grief.
For those who are younger and never experienced death before, one may feel difficulty accepting the reality of the loss, feeling disoriented and enduring pangs of yearnings for the person who had passed away. Between guilt and grief, there is the temptation to “fix” death the same way we “fix” a broken relationship or a loss of a job. When we lose a job, we can find a new one and when a relationship falls apart, we can move towards another. We want to put words into the inarticulable and scramble for control, ultimately missing the mark.
For those who are older and have experienced death before, there is the temptation to skip the grieving process and grow numb to death. We are quick to move from speaking about the diseased individual from the present to the past and look down on others who have trouble accepting and coping with death. Viewing the reality of death as a truism, we either rush the times of bereavement or keep our emotions bottled up within ourselves. However, like most times, the biblical answer tends to be between the two pillars.
Conclusion
In Judaism, there is a tradition during the mourning week, or “shiva” where someone will go with the family of the deceased and just sit. Nothing is said, but the simple act of presence speaks volumes. Christ’s defeat of death does not negate this process of grief, but also provides words for our hope. Unlike the Sadducees who did not believe in the afterlife, Christians can have a language for our hope and faith. Issac Newton writes that “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. With the push of death, we can, with Christ, respond with equal potency of deep joy.
The wrenching realization we have when we first understand and interact with death should never leave us. However, we should never abide in grief or attempt to fix ourselves. Rather, we should cast ourselves to the promises of God, the only thing that can both give us a language for death and give us hope amidst death. The Word of God reminds us that Death no longer has the crown, but Christ does and we will join him with our “crown that will never perish” (1st Corinthians 9:25). We rejoice not despite death, but because “in Christ shall all be made alive” (1st Corinthians 15:22). Despite the strangeness of the syntax, God has pronounced death to death in his resurrection and in our conversion, we witnessed our death slain. Our resurrection will not be like Lazarus who would be raised back to his earthly life only to die again, but a full and permanent resurrection. Death is horrid, unnatural and we must never grow numb to it. However, Christians have the language to speak, it is defeated.
