Fear of Death

The scriptures referred to are Hebrews 2:14-18.

It may simply be that I have just reached that age when people who were young adults when I was a kid are now up in their 70s and 80s, but it seems like a lot of celebrities have been dying lately. Over the last year, Doris Day, Tim Conway, Rip Torn, Valerie Harper, Cokie Roberts, Peter Fonda, Eddie Money, Diahann Carroll, Peter Mayhew, Caroll Spinney, Jim Lehrer and many more have been taken from us in what feels like a kind of slow motion Rapture. True, most had lived long lives and died from disease. But the death roll is peppered with people who did not die in old age nor from natural causes. Kobe Bryant and his 13 year old daughter Gianna are the most recent.

Looked at dispassionately, death is about the fairest thing there is. It's one per person. But it's the age at which some people die and the manner of their death that makes it feel unfair at times. The ideal would be that everyone lives a good long life first. And indeed that's how the Bible looks at it. Of wisdom the book of Proverbs says, “Long life is in her right hand...” (Proverbs 3:16) And certainly making wise decisions will increase the odds of a person living longer, just as making unwise choices increase the odds of death or disability. As a nurse I have seen too many lives ended or upended by needlessly risky behavior involving alcohol, drugs, guns, rage and just plain recklessness. (I once had a patient who was in the hospital because his truck was hit by a train at a crossing. For the second time in his life.)

But as our passage from Hebrews points out, fear of death can result in a life of slavery. People's phobias can severely limit the life they live. Now some fears are legitimate. There is a difference between courage and foolhardiness. It makes sense to use your seatbelts, look both ways when crossing a street, wear a helmet when on any two-wheeled vehicle, and take similar common sense precautions. Just this week I met someone who knew the woman who drowned when her dinghy capsized recently in Key West harbor. He said he had warned her over and over to wear a life vest.

But we all know someone whose life is curtailed by a fear of highly improbable threats. Some folks will not fly, though cars kill far more people. You are 86 times more likely to die in a car crash than a plane crash. In fact you are 3 times more likely to choke to death on your food than to plummet to your demise in a plane.

Some folks fear certain animals like sharks and bears. However, the most deadly animal in the US is not them, nor the pit bull, but the deer. They cause 1.2 million car accidents a year, resulting in 200 human deaths. Even so all animals are only responsible for 400 deaths in the US. Actually, accidental poisoning is the leading cause of unintentional injury deaths, followed by traffic accidents and falls.

Overall, the number 1 cause of death is still heart disease, followed by cancer. Homicide, which, if you watch a lot of TV shows or local news, would seem to be a pervasive cause of death, doesn't even make the top ten. If you really want to cheat death, having a gun or learning krav maga won't buy you nearly as much time as those boring old standards of eating healthier, losing weight, and exercising.

But even if you adopt the healthiest lifestyle possible, as the Shel Silverstein song goes, “you're still gonna die.” You don't want to hasten it but ultimately you cannot avoid it. As the Book of Common Prayer puts it in the Burial Service, “in the midst of life we are in death.” So the question is, what do we do about that?

If this is the only life we get, there are two ways to approach it. You can be very cautious and strive for the optimal quantity of life, at the expense of foregoing a lot of pleasurable experiences. Or you can gratify every desire and seek out every pleasure in an effort to maximize the quality of your life, even at the expense of your longevity. Most of us split the difference, trying for a balance between a reasonably pleasant life and a fairly long one. But there are no guarantees that we will succeed in either endeavor, because we cannot control for things like unexpected disaster or disease. Though the hedonistic approach is more likely to result in tragedy.

The Old Testament rarely mentions any life other than our earthly one. So the advice it gives is concerned with having a life that is good in both senses: one that is enjoyable as well as being characterized by ethical behavior. And the rules it lays down are sound.

“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.” (Proverbs 3:1-2) The basic commandments are the famous Ten, which Jesus summarized in the two Great Commandments to love God with all you are and have and to love your neighbor as yourself. And certainly that will more likely increase both your life and life satisfaction. Science backs this up, showing that having an active faith gives one all kinds of mental and physical benefits as does having social support. The director of the 80 year long Harvard Study of Adult Development says the secret of a long life is love. It is far better than the alternative, which is to hate God and to hate your neighbor. Hating God leads ultimately to hating the world and even one's own life. Hating your neighbor, which according to Jesus is anyone you may encounter, leads to a life of strife and stress.

There are other things the Bible says help you live a long life. We mentioned wisdom, the personification of which says in Proverbs 9, “For by me your days will be multiplied and years will added to your life.” (Proverbs 9:11) Being an honest and just person is also important. The Old Testament is particularly interested in businesses being fair, which meant the tools that were used in commerce had better not be rigged. “You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.” (Deuteronomy 25:15-16) And of course, you can't get away with being dishonest for long; it will impact your business and your personal reputation. And depending on whom you cheat, it may shorten your life! Whereas being known as honest and fair is much better for your life and livelihood.

Other things the Bible associates with long life is honoring your parents (Exodus 20:12), having a proper respect for God (Proverbs 10:27), obeying him (Deuteronomy 4:40), and worshiping him (Exodus 23:25-26). And these are excellent and will definitely make your life better and longer. In good times.

The problem is that when injustice is in the ascendancy, being a good, God-fearing person can get you into trouble. The prophets knew this. Amos, Elijah, Jeremiah and others suffered for standing up for God. Jesus accused the religious authorities of his day of following in the footsteps of their ancestors and persecuting those sent by God. And of course Jesus is the ultimate example of the good and just person persecuted and executed for speaking the truth to power.

Jesus predicted that his followers would also be persecuted. (Matthew 10:16-23; Mark 13:9; John 15:20) And not only was this true in the days of the New Testament but it continued afterward under various Roman emperors. When the empire became officially Christian, missionaries to the numerous tribes beyond the borders frequently became martyrs. Missionaries still risk losing their lives when meeting new groups of people. I went to college with a girl whose missionary father was killed by a tribe in Ecuador. Her mother continued her late husband's work and converted that tribe.

The bigger threat to Christians throughout history has been persecution within their own countries by hostile regimes. Catholics and Protestants who hid Jews and otherwise defied the Third Reich were exterminated by the Nazis. And there are still governments where you can be imprisoned for being a Christian and executed for evangelizing others. Which is why Christians in America need to stop claiming they are persecuted simply because they can't do absolutely everything they wish. It dishonors the actual suffering and deaths of our brothers and sisters in Christ elsewhere in the world.

So following Jesus is not always a safe way to live. Jesus got attacked for hanging out with the wrong people, like tax collectors and prostitutes. (Matthew 11:19; 21:31) He didn't observe all the religious rituals respectable people did. (Matthew 15:2) He worked with the poor, the hungry, the handicapped, the sick, the foreigner, and women—those who had little to no power in his day. They still do. And people who minister to them and follow in his footsteps put themselves at risk. Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated for speaking out against poverty, injustice and torture in his native El Salvador. Wang Zhiming worked among the minority Maio people in China and was executed in a stadium in front of 10,000 people during the Cultural Revolution. Annalena Tonelli fought hunger in Africa and later built a TB hospital in Somalia, which was financially supported by her family and friends back in Italy. When she admitted HIV/AIDS patients the community was outraged. In 2003 she was shot in the head as she worked in her hospital.

Nobody gets out of this world without dying. But many die without having a purpose in their life other than just existing. Even skeptic Mark Twain said, “Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” Jesus goes farther. In his parable about the last judgement, he says to those who feed the hungry, quench the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the foreigner, care for the sick and visit the imprisoned, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matthew 25:31-40) It's good to live a life that benefits others; it is better if such a life is rewarded with everlasting life.

And if you realize that you will live forever, you lose your fear of death. You are liberated from the slavery of keeping your actions in check because they might shorten your earthly life. Think if all the good you can do if you don't fear death! 

But if you will live forever, what's to keep you from doing bad things? Set aside the traditional way of thinking of final judgment for a minute. C.S. Lewis pointed out that if you are going to live a normal lifespan and then cease to exist, it doesn't matter in the long term what you do. Hitler killed millions and then took himself off the board. No afterlife, no personal consequences. But if you have to live with yourself forever, with the person you are becoming, there are consequences for your direction in this life. Because of your trajectory, you can become ever more jaded, unfulfilled, disappointed, distrustful, angry, resentful, bitter, self-loathing and closed off. Or you can become more loving, more appreciative, more peaceful, more trusting, more hopeful, more connected, and more open. You can devolve into an ever more hellish creature or grow into an ever more Christlike person. The choice is yours.

There is no choice between life and death in this world. We all die. The real choice is between a living death or a truly abundant life, a life that really is life, life eternal with the one who is life, light and love incarnate. Choose wisely.