Friend or Foe?
It is often said that the experiences we go through give us a lens with which to view and interpret our reality in the world. In my case, especially after the death of my brother, I have been thinking more frequently about death and life and their mystery. In line with this, I was led to an essay by Esther Acolatse, professor of pastoral theology at Duke Divinity School. Her central idea is that death strikes both as a familiar friend and a dreaded foe,
hence creating ambivalent feelings in us.[1] In her thinking through this ambivalence, she provides a framework for understanding this mystery of death and to anchor it on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I have always thought of death, for a long time, to be both a natural process as well as a negative result of man's participation in his choice of separation from His creator God at the genesis of creation. The verse that Acolatse alludes in this thinking is Genesis 2:17 "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die." Her interpretation takes two tangents: i) that death is a result of the fall of man; ii) that perhaps in God's creation ideal, death was to be a necessarily "good part" of creation, as did the whole creation enterprise. The latter interpretation passes along the idea that perhaps in God's plan, death was to be a transition to life without the agony that is often times a saddening reality for the family and friends of the departed soul.This may be more of a hunch than anything else, for we do not have the mind of God. Whether or not the two interpretations may be valid, the reality is that death is a doorway through which we shall all pass. In this passing, we or those around us shall always experience a dichotomy between feelings of anguish and a hopeful anticipation of the resurrection. This is the same ambivalence to which Acolatse ponders on.
3 Principles from Paul
St. Paul's words to the community of believers at Thessalonica offer a few principles that can illumine this ambivalence between our life before death and after death. Speaking of Christ, he says in 1 Thes. 5:10 "He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him." Several principles ensue:
i) The death of Christ insures life for us:
Who could have thought that the way to life is death? However, those in faith communities learn (knowingly or unknowingly) that everyday dying to self leads to more life. This is in concord with the New Testament writer's exhortation to believers "to die to self." (Luke 9:23; John 12:24; Col. 3:5; 1 Pet. 4:1-2) Hence, in such a day-to-day practise of dying to self, in the eventuality that death comes, we may be able to embrace it better. I say "better" because there seems to be (in our thinking) worse ways of dying than others, for example dying in one's sleep as most of us usually hope for, as contrasted with dying in a shootout. In my opinion however, it doesn't matter too much how we die as much as when we die. In fact, both belong to God. Because we believe God is Sovereign, he can use even the seemingly "untimely" or "bad" (in our thinking) deaths to be a springboard for hope and life. Our limitedness in seeing all of time creates issues for us here, but the principle remains: death brings life. In the long-run, when we see Him, we shall affirm this with even more assurance.
ii) Our death as believers is synonymous with sleeping:
Here we see the transience of death, for those who are in Christ: We merely sleep. Again our idea of time can create a problem for us in understanding this. Paul's metaphors here of "awaking and sleeping" point us toward the day-to-day process of the same. Just in the same way these daily activities of sleeping and waking may be mundane, so are the issues of life and death on earth transient in the context of an eternity. This should cause us to live life here in communion with Him, who both transcends eternity and is immanent in reality. Second, it should enable us to view death as not only an enemy but also as a transition to life - We, myself included, may not be able to fully appreciate this while on this side of death but it can be a place of consolation in the in between.
iii) Death cannot disrupt our life with God:
The only thing which we can take out of this earthly existence is a life spent in the communion and friendship of God (Prov. 18:24). Many other things will crumble with death, or will be left here even the things we hold dear to heart - family and friends. A sizable number in our materialistic society expend their energies in accumulating material gain oblivious of the fact that they will have to pass through the doorway of death. In fact, as soon as infants are born, death becomes a reality. [2] It is a great gift that we can enjoy God on this side of death so that even on the other side, when we accrue the investment of our deposit here, we shall be alive, aware and assured in God. Despite the social and cultural activities and even rituals that surround death, death transcends a biological reality and has theological implications for life on earth and thereafter. With this in mind, life with God transcends both life and death.
Application as Reflection
In the context of this verse:
- Paul urges us to put on faith, love and hope (1 Thes. 5:8)
- Paul urges us to encourage and build each other up (1 Thes. 5:11) He unpacks this practically in 5:12-22
These two points are echoed elsewhere in 1 Cor. 13:13 and 1 Cor. 15:58. In the latter verse, Paul underpins his argument on the resurrection of the body that will follow the pattern of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our "first-born." It is easy to be hopeful of the resurrection but not as easy to deal with the reality of loss of a loved one. This is the ambivalence of death as friend and foe, yet even in this, we have eternal life not only now but also on the other side of the door. In the meantime, we learn gradually through the Spirit of God to dust off our shoes, to knock on the door in humble anticipation and to receive a welcome that will be fitting of our friend and foe.
[1] Esther E. Acolatse, “Embracing and Resisting Death: A Theology of Justice and Hope for Care at the End of Life,” in John Swinton and Richard Payne (eds.), Living Well and Dying Faithfully: Christian Practices for End of Life Care (Cambridge: Wm B. Eerdmans, 2009): 246 - 271
[2] Acolatse cites Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual theory of development here.
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