Toward a Theology of Death

A discussion with some friends last night reinforced the need for us to articulate an evangelical theology of death. We have learned to speak of death in unhelpful, trite ways.

I have attended far too many funerals (one would be far too many). I hate them. I hate coming to grips with my mortality. I hate how everyone smiles and tries to be friendly when they want to cry. I hate how I don’t know whether to hug someone or to avoid conversation with them. I never know what to do when I am near a casket. Is it wrong to pretend it is not there? Is it weird if I look at it too long? It is possible that there is nowhere that I am least comfortable than at a funeral.

I suspect that it is this discomfort that causes us Christians to say trite, unhelpful things. We say things like, “This is a time of celebration.” Is that true? Is a funeral a time of celebration? I am not sure I want to celebrate.

The last funeral I attended was for a friend of mine that died tragically in a car accident. He was much too young to die. I was a part of the ceremony. It was not a celebration. It was a tragedy.

I think Paul has a healthy theology of death. He calls it “the last enemy to be destroyed” (1 Cor. 15:26). It is interesting that we find ourselves straining to celebrate at funerals, believing that God wants us to be happy, when God calls death an enemy. Death is an enemy. Death is an enemy. Death is an enemy. Maybe if I write that enough we’ll actually start to believe it. We could go a long way toward developing a theology of death if we stopped trying to celebrate a thing which God calls an enemy.

At that funeral, death won. I couldn’t pull my friend out of the casket so that we could joke around one last time. The enemy, death, had a victory. When death wins, I don’t celebrate. I mourn. There is nothing good about it. It was never supposed to happen. Spirits were never supposed to be separated from bodies. It is a perversion. It should make us mourn.

We don’t mourn, though, like those with no hope. Death is an enemy. However, we know that death doesn’t win in this story. Death will be destroyed. When the perfect comes, there will be no more death. I will never have to stand beside another grave coming to grips with my own mortality. Death will be destroyed. When that happens (and only then) we can join Paul in the refrain, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

When people die, Christians should not celebrate, they should mourn. However, they should mourn with hope because God is going to fix this place and one day, the last enemy, death, will be destroyed.