| Back to Home Page | Back to
Book Index |
Death
Death
The story is told of a
certain man who was walking in his neighborhood when he came face to face with
Death. He noticed an expression of surprise on the creature’s horrid
countenance
but they passed one another without speaking. The fellow was
frightened and went to a wise man to ask what should be done. The wise man told
him that Death had probably come to take him away the next morning. The poor
fellow was terrified at this and asked how ever he could escape.
The only solution the two
could think of was that the victim should drive all night to a distant city and
so elude Death. So the man drove to the other city—it was a terrible journey
that had never been done in one night before—and when he arrived he
congratulated himself on having eluded death.
Just then
Death came up to
him and tapped him on the shoulder. “Excuse me
” he said
“but I have come for
you.”
“Why
” exclaimed the
terrified man
“I thought I saw you yesterday near my home!”
“Exactly
” said Death.
“That was why I looked surprised—for I had been told to meet you today in this
city.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Death
An Indiana cemetery has a
tombstone over a hundred years old that bears this epitaph:
Pause
Stranger
when you
pass me by
As you are now
so once
was I.
As I am now
so you will
be
So prepare for death and
follow me.
An unknown passerby had
read those words and scratched this reply below them:
To follow you I’m not
content
Until I know which way you
went.
The passerby was right
the
important thing about death is what follows. Where are you going? ── Michael P.
Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Death
It has become fashionable
in our culture to hold the view that death is a perfectly natural occurrence.
The Bible teaches that it is not
and even those who deny the afterlife witness
that God “has set eternity in the hearts of men.” The following extract from
Charlotte and Howard Clinebell’s ‘The Intimate Marriage’ serves as a good
illustration of this truth:
One of the roots of the for
spiritual relatedness is the experience of man as the animal who knows he will
die. How can one cope constructively with the dizzy flight of the years
with
the knowledge that every tick of the clock brings death closer? How can one
confront the brevity of one’s membership in the human family? How cane one deal
constructively with the ultimate threat of non-existence? The fact that a man
knows he will die colors all of his life…behind the will to relate is man’s
existential loneliness and anxiety—the normal
non-pathological anxiety which
is a part of what Paul Tillich once called man’s “heritage of finitude.”
Erikson calls this form of anxiety the “ego chill.” It slips up on a self-aware
human being whenever he becomes conscious of his fragile position in the face
of sickness
nature
fate
and
ultimately death.
There are echoes of such
anxiety in any depth study of life or time. Consider this line from R.M.
MacIver’s ‘The Callenge of the Passing Years
My Encounter with Time: “The
deeds of men sink into the melting pot of time
with countless ripples that
quickly disappear.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Death
The story is told of a time
when the famed philosopher Diogenes looked intently at a large collection of human
bones piled one on another. Alexander the Great stood nearby and became curious
about what Diogenes was doing. When he asked the old man
the reply was
“I am
searching for the bones of your father
but I cannot seem to distinguish them
from those of the slaves.” Alexander got the point: all are equal in death. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Death
Tom Howard
professor of
Theology and Missions at Gordon College
captured something of the way humanity
feels in the presence of death in these eloquent words:
Like a hen before a cobra
we find ourselves incapable of doing anything at all in the presence of the
very thing that seems to call for the most drastic and decisive action. The
disquieting thought
that stares at us like a fact with a freezing grin
is
that there is
in fact
nothing we can do. Say what we will
dance how we will
we will soon enough be a heap of ruined feathers and bones
indistinguishable
from the rest of the ruins that lie about. It will not appear to matter in the
slightest whether we met the enemy with equanimity
shrieks
or a trumped-up
gaiety
there we will be. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Death
Sting Removed from
A boy and his father were
traveling in a car when a bee flew through the open window. The boy was so
highly allergic to bee stings that both he and his father knew that his life
was in danger. As the boy frantically jumped around and tried to avoid the
agitated bee
the father calmly reached out and grabbed the bee. When he opened
his hand
the bee began to fly again
terrorizing the boy once more. The father
then said
“Look
son
” holding up a hand with an implanted stinger
“his
stinger is gone; he can’t hurt you any longer.”
As a bee loses its stinger
when it stings
so death lost its sting when it stung Jesus. ── Michael P.
Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Death
Unbeliever’s Response to
Three “pop” postcards
illustrate three aspects of the world’s perspective on death:
Fear: A man is pictured standing
directly beneath an enormous
needle-sharp dagger that is suspended from above
by a very thin thread. The caption: “It’s very inconvenient to be mortal—you
never know when everything may suddenly stop happening.”
False hope: A person is
lying in bed. The caption: “Tell the scientist to hurry—I don’t want to die
before they discover how to save me.”
Uncertainty: A health
enthusiast is pictured jogging. The caption: “I’m doing what I can to prolong
my life
hoping that someday I’ll learn what it’s for.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Death
Unbeliever’s Response to
For Roger:
My sister is crying
Why can’t I?
I guess it hasn’t hit me
that my brother has died;
I feel nothing inside
My brother has died
It may hit me years from
now
But when I found out
That he was gone I felt
nothing
So I wrote down
This song.
Nothing I can do will
bring him back
Why is it that I have no
feeling—
It’s no act I’m not hurt
and I’m not down
I’m just sitting here
writing this song
It’s not sure it’s not
fact
But I still want my
brother back.
Life ends tomorrow
Not for me
Just for my brother
Not for me
His life is over
Not for me.
── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Death
Unbeliever’s Response to
These are the words of a
distraught father telling us of his reaction to the death of his son. He says:
The rays of a late morning
South Carolina sun struck me full on the face as I stepped through the door of
the hospital. The squint of my eyes
however
was not occasioned by the rays of
the sun; it was the visible display of the anguish and despair that wracked my
very life. I had spent several hours with my sobbing wife. Now I was about to
keep the appointment that would prove to be the emotional climax of the day my
world collapsed. On my way to the appointment
I stopped at a diner to have a
cup of coffee and to bolster my courage. I was oblivious to everything except
the appointment that awaited me. Leaving the diner
I made my way to a large
white house
located on a corner in
This is the sting of death
that the non-Christian is confronted with—and to which he has no answer. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Death
Unbeliever’s Response to
It’s not that I’m afraid to
die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.— Woody Allen
Death
Unbeliever’s Response to
Today
some people’s fear
of death is so strong and their confidence in technology so great that they are
spending tens of thousands of dollars to have their bodies frozen at the time
of death. Their hope is that they might be revived to live again when a cure is
found for whatever caused their death. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Death
Unbeliever’s Response to
The story is told of an
author
William Saroyan
who had achieved great success in his field. His works
had been acclaimed in the literary world
his name was a familiar entry on best
seller lists
and he had even been awarded a Pulitzer Prize. But now he lay
dying in
One evening
as Saroyan
reflected on his condition and what the future held for him
he placed a phone
call to Associated press. After identifying himself to the reporter who
answered his call
he posed a question that revealed the honest
searching
sensitivity that had characterized his career. It was a final statement to be
used after his death (which occurred later in May of 1981).
He said
“Everybody has got
to die. But I have always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now
what?” And then he hung up the phone. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Death
Unbeliever’s Response to
Literature is filled with
the expressions of fear about death that grip the hearts of unbelievers.
Socrates said
“No one knows whether death…may not be the greatest of all
good
” but men “in their fear apprehend it to be the greatest evil.”
Francis Bacon wrote
“Men
fear death as children fear to go in the dark…”Samuel Johnson told of his
horror at the death of a friend: “At the sight of this last conflict
I felt a
sensation never known to me before: a confusion of passions
an awful stillness
of sorrow
a gloomy terror without a name.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Death
Unbeliever’s Response to
A missionary told an old
Indian chief about Jesus Christ
describing him as God’s only way to heaven.
“The Jesus road is a good road
” the aged chief agreed. “But I have followed
the Indian road all my life
and I cannot change now.” A year later
he lay in
his hut
deathly sick. The missionary hurried to his side and once more told
him of Christ. “Can I turn to Jesus now?” the dying chief asked. “My own road
stops here. It has no way through the valley!”
Every road that a man walks
in life ends at the grave. The roads of religion
fame
wealth
and success can
never take you through the valley of the shadow of death. Only Christ can do
that ! And he will if you will but trust him. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Search for Immortality
The April 1985 issue of Eternity
magazine contained the following news item. It is not known if these plans were
or will be accomplished
but they do illustrate that men cannot bear the
thought of being dead and forgotten:
The quest for pseudoimmortality took a
giant leap forward with the announcement that you can send your remains “to the
heavens” when you die. The Celestis Group of