Christian Living

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Hey, Death Where Is Your Sting?
© 2006
by

Stephen A. Peterson


On May 7, 1945, the European part of World War II ended. During the Allies push into Germany, Allied soldiers revealed the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps where millions of human beings, most Jews, were systematically murdered at the discretion of the state because they were who they were.

Some 15 centuries before this horrific period of human history lived the Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo (345-430). In 410, at the age of 26, Augustine and the Christian world, was horrified when the barbarian tribes known as the Goths swept across the Roman world then invaded and sacked the city of Rome. During the invasions, thousands of Christian men, women, and children were tortured and hideously put to death. At about the same time of these invasions, Augustine wrote “The City of God”. His statements and reflections are now being considered once again some 16 centuries later in a world that has not changed since Augustine’s time in its cruelty against humankind in spite of humanity’s so-called advancement in knowledge, wisdom and awareness of pain and suffering (ex. Terri Schiavo case).

Augustine wrote, “The end of human life puts the longest life on equal par with the shortest…. Death becomes evil only by the retribution which follows it. They, then, who are destined to die need not inquire about what death they are to die, but into what place death will usher them.”

The people who place their trust in God through Jesus Christ and look forward to being in heaven view death not like a prison guard dragging her or him off to an execution but like a willing child waiting eagerly to be in the presence of a loving father to be engaged in happiness and bliss.

Paul the Apostle exhibits this sort of excitement in his first letter to the Corinthians. Imagine, if you will, a child making fun of something—Na! Na-Na-Na-Na! You can’t catch me!” Now imagine what Paul is saying to death—“Na! Na-Na-Na-Na! Where, O Dumb Death, is your victory? Where O Dumb Death, is your sting? Hey! You don’t count anymore! I’m not afraid of you!” Paul could do this because he knew exactly where he was going when his life on earth ended!

Every single person can have that same feeling of confidence in the face of their death because of what Christ did more than two thousand years ago. That is, to face death in whatever form joyfully and without fear even though there is pain and suffering involved. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, every Christian can look at her or his death not as a period but as a comma in the continuous and everlasting life in heaven in the presence of Jesus Christ for all eternity in happiness! WOW!

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