WITH GLOOMY FACE and grasping hands death has stalked his prey from the beginning of man's recorded history. This aspect a man's experience entered the world with a note of tragedy, as brother enraged against brother arose to kill. Since that introduction death has held men in fear of its power.
The Old Testament concept of death is marked by that which is dark and foreboding. In a day of violence men in tribal warfare watched their fellow men fall into the clutches of death by cruel ways. There are places in the Old Testament where men recognized the existence of life after death. These instances are relatively few in number, and the hope they present is rather dim.
Only rarely does one rise to the height of the psalmist, "I will fear no evil...I will dwell in the house of the Lord ever" or of Job, "I know that my Redeemer lives...and after my skin has been destroyed, yet apart from my flesh will I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another", or of the hope voiced in Daniel, " And many of those who sleep in the land of dust will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt"(12:2). Because of this uncertainty, death was the dread enemy of all. Death cut man off from the enjoyment of this life and delivered his body to decay. Naturally the experience was filled with fear.
The commonly accepted view of death in New Testament days was little different. For the most part people were still slaves to their fear of death. Word pictures give graphic insight into the mourning which was customary when death visited a home. Observe this in the weeping over the death of Lazarus (1 John 11:19) and the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:38). The people had found little in their religion to take away this dread and fear.
It will be found that the teachings of the New Testament effect a different result. Because of Jesus' view of death and because of what His death means for those who link themselves to him by faith, death comes to lose its fearsome aspect. It is never entirely welcome when it appears, but it has lost its power to enslave man by fear. The Christian view of death is ideally founded upon the teachings of Jesus and those who followed him.
A Definition of Death
In general usage death means the cessation of life in any form. When applied to human beings, it means the cessation of life; in this experience the spirit is separated from the body. The term "death" in Greek means merely "the separation of the soul from the body by which the life on earth is ended. While Thayer uses "soul." which is also widely used by others, the word "spirit" might be better. The word "soul" sometimes refers to the entire animated person in the sense that "I am a soul" rather than "I have a soul." At other times "soul" and "spirit" seem to be interchangeable.
Several Scripture passage illustrate the truth of this definition. James wrote, "The body apart from the death and described it as the "putting off" of his "tabernacle" (2 Peter 1:14-15), i.e., the spirit lays aside the physical body because it has served its purpose. When Jesus faced death on the cross, he said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit...and he yielded up his spirit" (Mark 15:37, Matt.27:50, Luke 23:46). This idea is also presented in the story of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-20). He had harvested an abundant crop. He had constructed barns adequate to store it all and said to his soul, "You have much goods stored up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be marry." But God said to him, "Fool, this night your soul shall require of you." When his spirit was called from his body, the life of the body ceased and the "much goods" was of no use to him. Death brings cessation of bodily activity.
One question that is frequently asked is "What happens to body and spirit at death?" Although there no full discussion of this problem in the New Testament, there are some passages which give some light. It appears to be clear that when death comes, the body begins the process decomposition which is natural for it. Customarily we say the body returns to the earth from which it came. It has served the need which the spirit had for it and, having served that need, is laid aside.
What happens to the spirit at death? This is the question which is not so easy to answer. Some help is given in the story which Jesus told of the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). In the story the experience and destiny of two men are contrasted. The beggar, though despised in this life, died and entered immediately into a sate of blessedness which is described in the statement that he was "in Abraham's bosom." The rich man, although he had every material good in this life, died and entered immediately into the state of misery.
It should be noted that as Jesus told the story he pictured the two as entering immediately into the respective states of blessedness and and punishment. This suggests that at death the body of the believer returns to the earth, but his spirit enters immediately into a state of conscious blessedness. Likewise, at death the body of the unbeliever returns to the earth but his spirit enters immediately into a state of conscious punishment. This conclusion by no means solves the entire problem, but it is one part of the answer to the question.
This state, separation of the spirit from the body, is not to be regarded as the final state . For the present it is sufficient to note that death means the separation of the spirit from the body, bringing to an end life and activity on this material plane.
Jesus' View of Death
Jesus' view of death was revolutionary, He referred to death as sleep. On the occasion of the raising of the daughter of Jairus, He said regarding her, "She is not dead, but asleeps" (Mark 5:39;Matt.9:24;Luke 8:52). The people in the home, who had already convinced themselves that the girl was dead, laughed at Him. They thought he did not know what he was talking about. They did not understand that by "sleep" he meant the ceasing of activity of this life which others call "death."
Jesus used the same idea in speaking of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. To his disciples he said, "Lazarus has fallen asleep and I go to awake him" (John 11:11). The people of Jesus' day regarded sleep during serious illness as a good sign; the patient would awake free of fever. The disciples asked why they should go merely because Lazarus was asleep. Then Jesus said to them in terms they could understand, "Lazarus is dead."
This view of death as sleep carries nothing of the current idea of "soul sleep." Jesus was presenting to the people his conception of death as something which brought quiet and rest rather than something which was to be feared as a great enemy. His other teachings indicate that he did not think of death as the unconscious existence of the spirit. His language was metaphorical for the purpose of setting out his views. Others after him used the same idea.
Jesus regarded death as having secondary importance; he made the fact of death secondary to more important matters- those pertaining to man's duty to the will and work of God. He never looked upon death as unimportant. It is as much a part of life as birth. By the one, physical life begins; by the other, physical life ends.
Death, however, is secondary to other things. An illustration is seem in Matthew 8:21-22. Jesus called a man to come and followed him. The man agreed on the condition that he be permitted to go and bury hi father. Jesus gave the rather strange command, "Follow me and let the dead bury their dead." To the twentieth-century mind this answer is very abrupt. But there is no indication that the man's father was dead or even in poor heath! The man was clinging to the custom of filial devotion as a means of putting off Jesus' call to service. In essence Jesus told him to leave secondary things to people who could handle them adequately and to put his mind on the one supreme thing-his duty to God. Matters related to death are secondary to that.
The agony of Jesus in Gethsemane should not be taken as representative of his view of death of his attitude toward his own death. It is true that he shrank from the experience of death which he knew was before him. But it was not merely death from which he shrank. It was the type of death-death on the cross under the burden of the sins of the world.
No words can describe adequately the agony of a Roman crucifixion. Added to that agony was the public shame of the condemned one as his clothes were stripped from him and he was held up to public staring and mockery. To that must be added the agony of the sensitive soul of this One who had committed no sin but was suffering as though he had committed all sins of the world.
He had told his disciples that they would all forsake him and leave him alone, but he said, "I am not alone, because the Father is with me" (John 16:32). When the awful agony of that hour came, however, he had the consciousness of being forsaken by God, and he cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"(Matt.27:46). The particle translated "why" is not casual, i.e "for what cause have you forsaken me? " It is telic, "for what purpose have you forsaken me- what is to be the end of such an experience?" It was death in these circumstances which caused Jesus' agony in Gethsemane, not simply the physical aspect of death.
Thank You
See you, other time...
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