On Death

by Timothy J. Keller

Rather than accept and prepare for the inevitable, we only avert and deny it.

If your champion won, the whole army won the battle, even though none of them lifted a finger. That is what Jesus did.

Christians can and must both grieve profoundly and fully and yet do so with hope.

But although grieving is right, grief can become bitterness; it can embitter you, darken your life, and stifle joy unless you season it with hope.

say, “Oh, death is just natural,” is to harden and perhaps kill a part of your heart’s hope that makes you human. We know deep down that we are not like trees or grass. We were created to last. We don’t want to be ephemeral, to be inconsequential. We don’t want to just be a wave upon the sand. The deepest desires of our hearts are for love that lasts. Death is not the way it ought to be. It is abnormal, it is not a friend, it isn’t right. This isn’t truly part of the circle of life. Death is the end of it. So grieve. Cry. The Bible tells us not only to weep, but to weep with those who are weeping (Romans 12:15 NASB). We have a lot of crying to do.

When we grieve and rage in the face of death, we are responding appropriately to a great evil. But Christians have a hope that can be “rubbed into” our sorrow and anger the way salt is rubbed into meat. Neither stifling grief nor giving way to despair is right. Neither repressed anger nor unchecked rage is good for your soul. But pressing hope into your grief makes you wise, compassionate, humble, and tenderhearted. Grieve fully yet with profound hope!

We should grieve, yet we should have hope; we should wake up from our denial and discover a source of peace that will not leave us; and finally, we should laugh and sing.

Grieve with hope; wake up and be at peace; laugh in the face of death, and sing for joy at what’s coming. If Jesus Christ has you by the hand, you can sing.

Just because we know a loved one is with Christ and eventually we will all be together doesn’t mean that somehow we should all just be happy now and should stifle our grief and even our anger.