Preparing people to die

As we approach Good Friday, our thoughts are drawn to the suffering and death of our Lord. Many people want to rush right to the triumph of Easter, but if we brush past the occupied tomb to get to the empty tomb we miss what make the celebration of the Resurrection so joyful. We need to take time to meditate deeply on just what Jesus suffered to pay the price for our sins.

My favorite church service of the year is our Good Friday Tenebrae service. While it isn't one that most Baptists are familiar with, the focus on the words of Scripture and the visual aspects of the service create a moving and somber atmosphere that draws your attention to the cross. When you leave the church in darkness and silence, after a time of meditation on the suffering of Jesus, you are in a place from which the joy of Easter can truly flow. From dark and silent, the church on Easter Sunday will be full of light and joyous sound, reflecting the triumph of our Lord over sin and death.

I was listening to a podcast by Carl Trueman, professor of church history at Westminster Seminary, in which he stated that the role of the pastor is to prepare people to die. It's a provocative thought, but there is a lot of truth in it. Thinking about death runs counter to our culture, which is obsessed with staying alive (and preferably young). Yet we are all assured that one day, barring the return of Christ, we will all die. Are we ready for that to happen to us?

In His suffering and death, Jesus showed us how to be prepared to die. Jesus had a strong relationship with His Father, one that led Him to accept the Father's will above His own. He showed a human desire to avoid suffering and death if possible, yet faced His death with purpose. He went through physical, emotional and spiritual agony, yet in the end He knew triumph even in His pain. His sufferings were real (contrary to a variety of heretical teaching throughout history), but they did not break His confidence in His Father.

Before we can even begin to be prepared to die, we have to have a relationship with God. As sinners, we can't do that on our own, but Jesus made it possible for us to be right with God by taking our judgment on Himself. Through faith in Him, and by the grace of God, we can be brought into a right relationship with our Father. We continue to cultivate that relationship through reading and hearing God's Word, prayer, and service to others in the name of Jesus. As our relationship grows, we learn to trust God in everything, even in suffering and, yes, death. In the end, we are prepared to face death because we know it will bring us into our loving Father's presence.

Our churches can't be so focused on Christian living that they forget to prepare us to die. It is in preparing to die that we can really live, knowing that this life is only the beginning of a greater eternal life with our Lord. So think about the triumph of Jesus over sin and death, and the life He brings us through His victory, but don;t forget to think about dying, and what lies beyond death for you as you follow our Lord's example.

Solving Problems By...Creating the Same Problem?

It's funny how sometimes when we combat a problem, all we seem to do is make that very same problem worse. It may even be that in proposing a solution to a potential problem, we actually cause the problem we were trying to avoid in the first place. This isn't just a modern phenomenon; there are historical examples that sometimes make us scratch our heads in wonder.

One example is the way Victor, the bishop of Rome at the end of the second century, handled the issue of the date of Easter. Most of the churches at that time celebrated Easter on the Sunday after the 14th of Nisan, the Jewish date for the Passover. It was widely held that a Sunday was the appropriate day to celebrate the risen Lord, since Sunday was the Lord's Day in commemoration of the resurrection. Still, there were a number of Christians, mostly in Asia Minor, who thought it was most appropriate to commemorate the crucifixion of the 14th of Nisan, and the resurrection two days later, no matter on which day of the week they fell. They were called "Quartodecimans" after the Latin word for fourteen.

The issue had created some small controversy between the parties, but through the middle of the second century both sides had pretty much agreed to let each other celebrate as they chose. Victor. however, decided that unity in the church's observance was paramount, and proclaimed that all churches should call councils and set the date of Easter as the Roman church reckoned it. In fact, a large portion of the church did, but the significant region of Asia Minor was largely Quartodeciman and did not want to change their practice, which was rooted in the practice handed down to them from such figures as Philip, John, and Polycarp.

So, in order to achieve unity, Victor excommunicated the church in Asia Minor! Yes, he decided unity was best achieved by splitting off a large chunk of the church from the majority. The desire for a unified practice may have been a worthy goal (and at Nicaea would become the official position of the church), but Victor's "solution" only created the problem he sought to avoid. The churches of Asia Minor protested strongly, and Irenaeus, who himself followed Roman practice, sent a letter of reprimand to Victor stating that he needed to put a true unity in the church ahead of his desire to enforce a particular practice. To his credit, Victor backed down. He heeded Irenaeus' call not to break fellowship over an issue like this.

What kinds of problems are you facing? Are the solutions you are considering likely to help solve the problem, or might they possibly create the very problems you are trying to avoid? We need to exercise wisdom, particularly when we are standing for Jesus Christ, in order to resolve issues in such a way that the problem is properly dealt with and that we honor God in what we do to solve it.