Jesus and death have a lot in common.
Now let us not get too existential here. There is a particular similarity which I want to focus on which can be found between Jesus and death. Both of the (I will call them) figures which I am going to discuss are incredibly complicated, but I want to limit myself today to talking about the way in which we wait for both of the subjects of this writing.
Understanding here will be impossible to the fullest extent without some background information. This weekend, I received a call informing me that my Grandfather had undergone emergency surgery, and was at the time hooked up to a ventilator. Doctors did not have hopes that he was going to be able to recover. My Grandfather is the first family member who's death I have had to begin the process of coming to terms with, so having his potential death come at me much sooner than I was expecting was indeed difficult.
My own personal pain is not what I want to talk about right now though. There will be plenty of time for me to contemplate that, but seeing as how my Grandfather did indeed survive his surgery, that particular time of reflection can wait. Instead, I am going to look at the effect which the imminence of death had on my life. Death is not something I dwell on often, but when confronted with it, I found that it dramatically effected every part of my day. I dreaded every phone call, thinking it would be the one telling me that a man I am deeply inspired by was gone. I kept myself from doing things so that I could be available to console those who would need what little comfort I could provide. My prayer, too, were effected, with my focus turning completely to the situation, and that God's will, whatever that may be (a painful thing to pray), would be done. I cannot say that everyone will react in this same way, but if nothing else my experience can be an example of death consuming almost all aspects of someone's life.
In thinking of Christ, particularly His imminent return, I find many parallels to this. Like death, I think that we tend not to want to think of Jesus' second coming. This event represents such a monumental change in our lives that it makes us uncomfortable to the point of inspiring avoidance. However, when we reflect on the second coming of Jesus, truly reflect, we find another commonality in that the thought Jesus' return dramatically impacts that way in which we live. We develop (at least hopefully) a sense of urgency in our ministry. We find boldness we did not know we had. Scripture has more weight and inspires us more. I struggle to allow Jesus' return to have this kind of impact on my life, and I am certain I am not the only one, but when we allow ourselves to be fully immersed in the reality that our Savior is indeed coming back, it can and should effect our lives deeply, something which I think we should strive to embrace.
Though there are similarities present between Jesus and death and their impact on our lives, there are equally important differences which must be acknowledged. When we think on death, we dwell on something that brings pain, sorrow, anger (though sometimes joy, but I would question the fullness of that joy for any that are not the one experiencing death). Jesus' return stands in dramatic contrast to these feelings. The idea of our Savior's return brings hope, excitement, beautiful life change, and the fulfillment of love.
We can see from the above examples that there are many things which can grip our hearts and dramatically effect the way in which we live, and this is not necessarily a bad thing. We should allow our selves to feel emotion, both positive and negative. However, when we have the opportunity to choose that which we will focus on, I think it is infinitely better that we fix our eyes, our thoughts, our very souls on the compelling being who brings a hope and joy unlike anything else that could occupy our minds.
With His love, and hopefully His grace,
Taylor
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