Considering Life & Death

“Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow.” - William Shakespeare

With the turn of a new year comes the opportunity for evaluating our past, present, and future. Rather than floating along through life as though nothing matters, God wants us to walk with wisdom. The prayer of the Psalmist should be our own, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) But how do we gain such wisdom?

James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” God is our starting and ending point for life-giving truth. He has spoken to us infallibly through His word. He has also ordained that creation and the experiences of life are magnets to pull our heart towards Him. Mountains, oceans, galaxies – these all speak of a powerful and magnificent Creator (Psalm 19:1).

Our daily routines should also awaken us to our dependence on God. Several times a day our stomachs shout “Feed me!” Sleep overtakes us each night. But why? Why do we have to submit to these demands?

It is because we are human. We are created with God-dependence written into our very bones. Our limitations serve to daily remind us that we are not God. No matter how important we think we are, at least once a day the earth continues to travel the galaxy while we slumber. But it is not so with God. He never sleeps. That is why David can say, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4:8) David could sleep in peace because He knew that a sovereign God never sleeps.

So, sleeping and eating serve as tools for directing our thoughts toward God. What other tools are there? Today’s painting, St. Francis Contemplating a Skull reminds us that death is a powerful visual for contemplating eternity.

The painter of this piece is Francisco de Zurbarán. He lived in the 17th century, a time of religious wars and political upheaval. Even with the beginning of modern science, the average human lifespan at this time was still under thirty years.

Shakespeare wrote Hamlet when Zurbarán was just a boy. Do you remember the graveside scene in Hamlet, where the young prince comes alongside some gravediggers? In a day before steel coffins, Hamlet picks up a skull from the dirt and asks the diggers if they knew to whom it belonged. When they told him it was a man named Yorick, Hamlet was amazed, for this was a court-jester who had entertained him as a boy.

Hamlet says, “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?”

Hamlet goes further in his meditation to think about how even powerful men like Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar could not escape the indignity of death. He remarks that the dust of Caesar could at this very moment be the dirt that keeps wind from coming through the bricks in a home.
Shakespeare and Zurbarán were thinking the same thoughts as they produced their works, one with pen and one with brush. Both Hamlet and Francis contemplate life and death as a result of looking at a skull. Where there was once life, now there is just bone. Just as death came to the skull’s owner, so too shall death come to the skull’s holder.

So, how are you spending your life while you are in the land of the living? Are you following Paul’s admonition to “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”? (Ephesians 5:15-16)

Perhaps you live as though this world is all there is to be had. Even Paul admitted “If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (1 Corinthians 15:32b)

But we know that the dead will be raised. We know that there is life after death. We know that Christ died on the cross and was buried, but His body did not rot in the grave. We know that God raised Him from the dead, brought Him back to heaven, and that He will come again in glory and power. We know that the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). We know that God will judge all mankind by the standard of Jesus Christ, and that only those found in Christ will receive salvation from the punishment of sin. (Acts 10:42, 2 Timothy 4:1, Revelation 20).

As a new year begins, give some time to prayer and meditation on your mortality. This may sound like a depressing proposal, but it should not be so for a Christian. Be sober-minded about the length of your life, especially in light of the length of eternity. Perhaps you should spend an afternoon walking around a cemetery, reading the gravestones, and calculating how many of the people buried in the ground lived lives shorter than your own.

Consider how each one of the deceased had the opportunity to do just as you are doing now. They each had the opportunity to consider their life in light of eternity. They could read verses like Hebrews 9:27, “Just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment”. What they chose to do with such knowledge determined where their soul now resides. While you are still in the land of the living, give thought to such things, and act upon them… today!

Only one life, will soon be passed. Only what’s done for Christ will last!

W. Scott Lamb is a pastor with Providence Baptist Church in South St. Louis County, MO. He and his wife Pearl enjoy the challenges and pleasures of raising their four sons. Feel free to contact Scott at www.pbcstlouis.com.