Death is Messy

I had a dream last night. In this dream, someone had asked me to give a eulogy at a large funeral. I did not know who died and was very nervous. I sorted through a pile of strawberries behind a curtain as I waited to speak. My hands were stained and a mess. Abruptly, I was told it was time to deliver the message.

Slowly and deliberately I began,

 “Death is messy.” I held up my hands.” It is the terrible interruption, the wrenching, tearing away of someone we love, someone we need, a part of ourselves, often. Death is unnatural. It was not supposed to be this way! Jesus knew it. It caused Him to weep. He knew that with sin comes death. O how He knew that. 

How do we handle it? We sanitize, we eulogize, and we sympathize, and empathize. We clean it up and try to manage the terrible interruption. We even joke about it. Irma Bombeck said, of her tombstone, “Have it read, the shell is here but the nut is gone.”

And that is true; the spirit that made the body of one we love is gone; but we are still here. Death is messy. Jesus lived with the knowledge of impending death. He said, “I came that you might have life.” He knew the cost of our eternal life would be His life. He spoke about it to His disciples often, but they denied it, just as we want to deny this messy fact. He even rebuked Peter for suggesting death was not something that would happen to his Master.

You see, we view death as the end. As humans with finite perspectives, we deal with what we see. And it is not pretty. Tears flow; we wail and moan from the bottom of our spirits. Jesus knows all about the agony of separation. Remember the cross and the dark time when the Father turned His face away from His Son?

How unnatural this messy, terrible thing is! Yet it is not an ending, but a wonderful beginning for the one who has transitioned “out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Jesus told us He is the “Way, the Truth and the Life…” He led the way for our saved loved ones to go , through His death on the cross. We read “absent from the body, present with the Lord.” For those who are left, the absence is huge. The truth our dear one is presence with Christ is hard to grasp because death is an unnatural thing to us.

Yes, it is unnatural to us and it should be, because we were originally created for living. Planted in our spirits is the longing for eternal life. If we can just keep in mind the terrible interruption is only that, a necessary part of ongoing, eternal life. It is the way those who trust in Christ begin a wonderful new life with Him.

But, we are left behind to deal with grief, the natural way to deal with this unnatural event. When we look beyond Calvary to Easter, we see the empty tomb. We hear the testimony of those who saw the Risen Lord. We can grieve for the fact of death, yet rejoice for the greater fact of eternal life in Christ. This Resurrection joy is the true reality, the natural continuation of the gift of life given to us who believe. So we say “Hallelujah, He is Risen, as He said!”

A divine promise has been kept! Breathe out a sigh of relief and take in the joy of hope. Grieving does and should last for a time, but joy comes in the morning. Don’t live there among the tombs and in the past. Live in the light of Christ’s promise of eternal life. Copyright Donna M. Bunkers 03/02/2016