The Sting 🐝
One event I regularly encounter as a pastor is funerals. Death is something everyone experiences, and I have seen many feelings in the people impacted by a person's death.
In general, most people would agree that the reality of death sucks. It is everywhere and influences all things. Everything is breaking down. To paraphrase the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the natural tendency of any system is to degenerate into a more disordered state. That would apply to our bodies and other objects which decay, but it also applies to every other natural system. Without outside influence to bring repair, everything has an end. Even with repair, everything still has an end - it's just delayed a little longer.
The reality of our death "one day" has a huge effect on our quality of life because of what that impending reality evokes within us. Some of us fear death (what will happen to me, what happens after I die). Some of us fear the process of dying (will it be painful, what about my family). Some of us fear the long, slow march of aging (why don't I look like I used to, why can't I do what I used to).
The Bible has a phrase to describe these reactions: "the sting of death."
LENT vs DEATH
Lent is the season of the church year that faces the sting of death head on. In fact, whereas every other church season points directly to Jesus, Lent is the only church season that first points to us - you and I - and reminds us we are fragile creatures who have a tendency to wander into selfish living.
Lent opens with Ash Wednesday, which emphasizes our mortality. In liturgical churches, Ash Wednesday services usually include a priest or pastor dipping their finger in ash and tracing a cross on the person's forehead while intoning, "From dust you came, and to dust you shall return."
Not only does Lent begin with death, it also ends with death. The second to last day of Lent is Good Friday, commemorating the death of Jesus on a cross (called the Crucifixion). The last day of Lent is Holy Saturday, commemorating the day Jesus was in the tomb and the disciples lost all hope.
We know what comes next: the victory over death on Easter Sunday, yet we should not be quick to rush through Lent to reach Easter. Still, even as we face our mortality and brokenness during Lent, we know that after Lent comes victory over death.
This is why the Apostle Paul could write:
53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”~ 1 Corinthians 15:53-55
Here we see the phrase "the sting of death." Only this time, death has lost its sting. This is why although Lent is a humble and honest reminder of our fragility, it doesn't crush the follower of Jesus into complete woe.
Sadly, however, for some of us, death still has its sting.
By this I do not mean that we can't be sad for the loss of loved ones, or that we can't be angry at the presence of death in the world, or that we can't be affected by the reality of our bodies breaking down or the presence of disease. We should feel grief, anger, or sadness when death impinges on our life. It was never meant to be that way.
However, the sting of death that crushes our quality of life today is fear. When I fear death's presence, I am robbed of life. In fact, we will never be fully alive today until death loses its sting in our life.
PAUSE and REFLECT: WHERE IS DEATH'S STING IN YOUR LIFE?
Take a moment to review your thoughts and emotions around death, fragility, and mortality. Again, feeling anger, grief, and sadness at death's presence is a very biblical response. But look a little deeper. Ask Jesus to show you if fear is lurking in those emotions at all. Most importantly, ask Jesus for the growing presence of hope.
I don't like death's presence, but Jesus empowers me to not be afraid of death's presence, and even further, to have hope in spite of death's presence. Why? Because he has already won his victory over death, and he has given me that victory as well.
So during this Lenten season, face your mortality, face your brokenness, face your fragility, and face your tendency to sin, because none of these things will have the last word in your life. With Jesus, death has lost its sting.