THE LAST ENEMY—DEATH

 

“For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:25-26)

The Apostle Paul rightly identifies death as an enemy. Yet Paul also said, “to depart and be with Christ . . . is far better” (Philippians 1:23) and to be “absent from the body” is to be “present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Jesus assured Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus, that “everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” (John 11:26)

So for the believer in Christ, “Death” is already a defeated enemy. And at the resurrection, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54).

 Yet in this life, death is still very much an enemy—mostly for those left behind.  Death disrupts and disorients every life it touches, but profoundly so the life of a beloved spouse. And the longer one is married, the greater the disruption. 

My whole world changed when Linda died. I had been retired from full-time ministry for eight years. Our children were grown with families of their own and most of them were living in other states. My life was bound up with Linda’s. All our activities were interconnected. I assisted her in preparation for her ladies Bible study and prayed during the session. She contributed to the discussions in my adult Sunday School class. We worked our garden together, We walked in the country and along the beach together. We talked and prayed together.

The enemy Death ended that life. It didn’t end Linda’s life. She is more alive now than ever! Death ended my life, the only life I had known for 52 years. Companionship, intimate conversation and affection were gone. Our shared history was gone, all of our little in-jokes. Those laughs were gone forever in this life. 

 Does God have yet another “life” for me here on this earth? I have reason to hope. But that hope is still far away, and day after day, alone, I live among the vestiges of a life that has ended.

 Yes, death is an enemy. I know that very well. But I know Christ has won the victory and will one day put that enemy under his feet!

 

 

A NEW FACET OF LONELINESS

This evening I experienced a strange sensation. It felt like that cinematographic technique of isolating one character for dramatic effect. The camera zooms in on that person and everything around him blurs into obscurity. That’s how I felt when I sat down at my usual seat at the kitchen table in front of a bowl of canned ravioli. Suddenly all that was clearly in focus was me and that bowl.

 This is loneliness, I said. There is only me. Actually this was just one facet of loneliness. There were more painful ones, those that made me weep and those that made me cry out to God for relief. This one just made me feel isolated.

 During the day I busied myself with Bible study, writing, working in the yard. But now at supper time, sitting there with the bowl of ravioli, I was alone. Linda was not in the other seat, she hadn’t been for over a year and a half now. No one was there and no one was likely to be there for a long time. How long? I wondered.

 As I pondered this new sense of aloneness, it occurred to me that Jesus endured loneliness even worse than mine for three and a half years. In my case, I know that there are people who know me and understand me. But right up to the last supper, Jesus was not fully understood, even by those closest to him. “"Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? ” (John 14:9)

Yes, I am lonely, but not as lonely as my Lord was. And He reminds me of that when I get a text from one of my new widowed friends. Then that friend comes into focus along with me. I’m not alone anymore, and my life has value to others, as theirs does to me.