Today’s Scripture Reading (December
14, 2014): 1 Corinthians 15
Benjamin Franklin once remarked, “I wake up
every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the
obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up.” He seems to not be the only
one. The truth is that we are fixated on death. A survey of the headlines on
any news website on most days will reveal a list of those who have recently
died. Sometimes the dead are the greats, the ones that we all liked to think that
we knew. Others are the unfortunates, the ones who died as a result of serious
accidents, strange and compelling illnesses, or as a result of serious crime.
And if that is not enough death for us, we can usually find a list of the most dangerous
mountains to climb, or maybe the most dangerous roads to travel, or any of an
almost endless list of most dangerous items, and every one of them measuring
the danger in terms of how many have died over time in pursuit of the goal.
None of this is much of a surprise. Death is
the one thing (alongside taxes) that all of us will face at some point in the
future. So maybe we should allow ourselves a little curiosity at this
inevitable part of our lives. People die – this is our grim reality.
The Bible seems to teach that death has
entered the world because of sin. Apparently we were not always meant to die.
But this has also been a point of discussion among theologians. The argument is
that death already existed in the animal kingdom before the advent of man and
sin. It is also true that the first sins did not result in death – at least not
immediately. Adam and Eve lived for many years – in fact centuries – after their
sin in the Garden. And Abel died as a result of sin, but not his own. Cain
killed his brother Abel committing the first murder, and God seemed to take great
strides to make sure that Cain remained alive, placing a mark on him letting
people know that he was under God’s protection.
However, there is no doubt that sin begins a
slow spiritual death inside of us. Most of us are haunted by the wrongs we have
committed, and for those who dare to desire to follow God, it seems that the
death caused by sin is actually heightened. Like Adam and Eve as they are
evicted from the garden, we become aware of the great heights from which we
have fallen. And death seems to claim even more of us spiritually – and that
does have an effect on us physically.
But maybe one of the great misunderstandings
of Christianity is that Jesus died to make us good. That is why people enter
the church and are so disappointed by the people that they find there. We are just
people on the same journey as everyone else, because Jesus had no intention of
dying to make us good. He died to make us alive. And because of sin, life in Christ
is the only life that is really ever available to us.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1
Corinthians 16
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