The past weekend I visited a church friend who had been hospitalized after suffering an asthma-induced cardiac arrest. As I stepped inside his isolated intensive care room, my heart sank. I had heard he was unresponsive after his heart attack, but I guess I didn’t really believe it. I had never seen someone fighting for their life in ICU until that moment. What I saw moved me beyond words.
My friend lay in a hospital bed, dressed in a white hospital gown. His eyes were closed as if he were sleeping, only he wasn’t. Actually, he couldn’t. He was completely unaware of his surroundings. Unable even to breathe on his own, his chest expanded and contracted with the steady rhythm of a breathing machine. Other tubes were attached to his body. It was hard for me to watch him suffer like this after seeing him in seemingly good health at a church meeting a few short weeks earlier. It is a sight I will never forget.
The Villains of Death & Suffering
Two days after my visit, my friend died, leaving his wife, daughter and church family to grieve his loss. I am thankful he is no longer suffering, but it still hurts to know I will never see him alive on Earth again. Suffering and death are a normal part of our existence in an imperfect world. It’s easy to overspiritualize them — until they affect us. Like an unexpected hook punch to the stomach, they still leave us stunned, helpless and vulnerable. Only then do we begin to see them for the villains they truly are.
And once we see suffering and death as they truly are, we can understand why we need Easter.
If life were a sentence, the hope of Easter is that death is not a period at the end but a comma in the middle. Death is not the end of our existence. For Christians, it is only the beginning of an eternity with Jesus. You see, we believe Jesus lived and died. But we also believe that, unlike other spiritual leaders, He overcame death. Because He stepped out of His grave, everyone who trusts in Him for salvation has hope of doing the same.
Reframing Death & Suffering
Our understanding of Jesus’ resurrection helps us to see suffering and death in a different light. They are not permanent states of being. Even when suffering leads to death as it did for my friend, it is like taking off one set of clothes and changing into another. It is replacing a temporary body with an eternal one. This is why the Apostle Paul could ask, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55) Because Jesus experienced the sting of death when He died on the cross, death cannot hold us in the grave. It doesn’t have the last laugh. The resurrection of Jesus assures us of ultimate victory over this sworn enemy.
Your heart may be shaken by the recent loss of a friend or loved one. You may be troubled when acts of violence in schools, rumors of war, widespread suffering and natural disasters claiming tens of thousands of lives fill national and international news headlines. Mourn these losses. Pray for those who grieve. Help in whatever way you can. Advocate for those who suffer unjustly. But hold onto your hope in Jesus. Point as many people as you can to Him. Easter is proof that someday suffering will be no more, and death will die. And that’s why we need it.
Article by Cam Edwards
0 Comments