Fear Of Death

Do You Fear Death?

10.3.21 [Hebrews 2:9-18] River of Life (19th Sunday after Pentecost)

Do you fear death? It’s not the kind of question you ask at a dinner party just to make small talk. Do you fear death? is the polar opposite of small talk. But over the last 80 weeks, we haven’t had to make too much small talk at too many dinner parties, have we?

For the past 80 weeks, you and I, our community, our country, our whole world, really, have been forced to stare death in the face.

It sent a great many people into a panic. Death has always been inevitable. But now it felt like it was making house calls. So many delayed doing nice things, good things, until it was safe again.

But this popular desire to put life on pause until it was safe again, sent a great number of people off the edge. As they watched so many try to wait out this health-hurricane, they saw misery and sorrow and calamities that seemed unnecessary. So they reminded people that life isn’t safe. It never was. You can die in any number of ways. Life is full of risk. You cannot avoid it.

Each view is compelling in its own right. It is wise to recognize that current conditions can prevent us from doing things we normally do without hesitation. When your pilot announces that your plane has been grounded due to bad weather, you don’t tell him flying is the safest form of transportation.

At the same time, it is right to acknowledge that a person cannot escape death. Our time is finite and we cannot evade every danger.

Despite each view having a point, we have reached the point of shouting and name-calling, heels getting dug in and conspiracy theories. Right now, as most people see it, you are either in the Follow the Science! crowd or you must be in the Follow Your Heart! crowd.

Do you feel that tension? Maybe you lean one way or the other. Perhaps you feel caught in the middle. More than likely, you’re just frustrated and tired of all this and just want things to get back to normal.

When life goes back to normal our collective fear of death will subside for a little while. The fight between the Follow the Science! folks the Follow Your Heart! mavericks will die down. But death won’t disappear. The question Do you fear death? will still have to be answered.

Which makes the words of Hebrews 2 of critical importance to us. In this moment, we are more keen on listening carefully. So let’s take a look at what the Lord of life says to us.

Did you notice the way the Holy Spirit described mankind in Hebrews 2:14-15? We are the children who have flesh and blood and who all their lives have been held in slavery by their fear of death. Our fear of death is like a slave-master.

What exactly does God mean by that? Well, like a slave-master, our fear of death shapes where we go, what we do, & how we live.

Your fear of death might compel you to avoid certain places or certain activities. You may avoid traveling to or through dangerous places. As you’ve matured, perhaps you’ve set aside things you’ve enjoyed because you know that they increase your risk of death. Decadent foods are delicious, but rarely are they good for you. A powerful motorcycle might be thrilling, but you know the risks are much greater on one than in a car or truck. You may have smoked.

Your fear of death guides you to make certain choices. You may go places you don’t particularly enjoy—like the gym—because you know that (1 Tim 4:8) physical fitness is helpful. You might eat more salads because you know that it’s part of a well-balanced diet. You might take medication with side effects because your body needs it.

Okay, Pastor, you might say. I might be more of a slave to my fear of death than I realize. But how can God say everyone is? What about the daredevils? From a distance, it seems they don’t. If you ask them, they might even say they laugh at death. But do you know what they fear? Dying without doing something spectacular. Something adventurous. Something that gets their blood rushing. They fear dying without have a meaning, an impact, or a great life.

We all are slaves to death, regardless of how we try to reframe it in our minds. We each live with a soccer time clock hanging over our heads. We have a general idea of how long we think we will live, but we can’t calculate how much extra time we may have.

We might hope to hear God say: You’re afraid of death because it’s unknown. But there’s nothing to worry about. Death is the end of it all. So enjoy life while it’s here. Carpe diem.

But that is not what God says in his Word. God does not tell us we are fools for fearing death. We should fear death. Death is real. It is unavoidable. It is final. It renders us powerless and hands us over for judgment. Sinners deserve to be condemned. Everyone who does not meet the standards of the Judge of the living & the dead will hear him say: (Mt. 25:41) Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

God (Ezk. 33:11) takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but the devil does. The devil rejoices each time he crushes us under his feet and sees anyone condemned to eternal death. But the devil did not create death. He cannot create anything but lies. Yet it was through his lies that he brought death into this world. The devil understood that (Rm. 6:23) sin produces death. So he breathed his lies into this world and injected doubt into the hearts and minds of God’s beloved creation. In the Garden of Eden, the father of lies encouraged God’s children, Adam and Eve, to snub God’s law and do as they pleased. You can live as you want! the devil offered. You’ll know it all for yourselves! the father of lies promised. (Jms. 1:14-15) Then the wicked desire to be like God was conceived. It gave birth to sin. They ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And that sin, gave birth to death.

That death came in two stages. First, the perfect unity mankind had with their Creator was dead, instantly. Now, they were incapable of living as holy people. Now, they were ashamed of what they had done and who they were. So, they tried to cover themselves up and hide from God. Now, they knew evil—but what was good became a distant memory. Since that day, all the descendants of Adam and Eve have been held in slavery to sin and their fear of the consequence of their sins—death.

This is what we fear. Being held accountable for every rotten thought we have ever had. Being judged for every careless and spiteful world we’ve ever uttered. When we survey our lives, we see countless acts of selfishness and wickedness—and we know we do not remember them all. Our consciences condemn us. We know we deserve eternal condemnation for our ways. Which is exactly what the devil wants.

The devil, who rebelled against God’s dominion in heaven, exacted his revenge when he tempted Adam & Eve. He infected the crown of God’s creation with the fatal disease of sin. But, when the devil and his evil angels rebelled against God they were instantaneously and eternally condemned. Perhaps Satan thought God would do the same to mankind. But God did something marvelous and incredible instead. He first cursed the devil again. (Gen. 3:14-15) Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. Then he made a wonderful promise. (Gen. 3:15) He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.

Our sin was the reason Jesus (Heb 2:9) was made lower than the angels for a little while. Jesus (Heb. 2:14) shared in our humanity because the divine could not be touched (Jms. 1:13) by temptation or (Rm. 1:20) death. But as true man and true God Jesus (Heb. 2:18) suffered as he was tempted and (Heb. 2:9) tasted death for everyone. These words of bursting with grace and truth. But especially after these past 80 weeks, we should have an even greater appreciation for what we are told here.

When the pandemic began, we marveled at the front line doctors, nurses, and support staff that risked their lives to care for COVID patients. We admired their faithfulness to their unique calling. We appreciated their willingness to go the extra mile—often times living apart from their own families so that they could tend to the sick, sometimes even leaving their homes to go to where the need was greatest. We grieved as we heard stories of them holding the hands of patients who were dying all alone. We celebrated them as heroes, rightfully so, because we witnessed their commitment, their compassion, and their sacrificial attitude and actions. But even they did not go into ICU wards knowing it would certainly cost them their lives. They accepted the risks to their bodies and lives—but they did not plan on dying.

Yet that was precisely Christ’s mission. He took on flesh and blood, became (Heb. 2:17) fully human in every way, and threw himself into this world of disease. He subjected himself to (Heb. 2:18) temptation & resisted the devil’s advances, but still endured the condemnation that our sins deserved. God’s own Son (Heb. 2:9) tasted death for everyone, to (Heb. 2:17) make atonement for our sins. The God who created (Heb. 2:10) everything also created a path for our salvation. Through his sacrificial death, we are (Heb. 2:11) made holy.

When he died, it seemed as if the devil had won. On Good Friday, it looked like the Satan had struck the final, fatal blow. Calvary didn’t appear different than Eden. But the grave could not contain Christ. Since death has no power over (Heb. 2:10) the pioneer of our salvation, it no longer strikes fear in our hearts the way it once did. Jesus blazed a trail that we would never conceive. He transformed death from the devil’s greatest triumph into his own crowning glory. And ours.

So our fear of death is transformed, too. There is much we rightly fear about death. We fear the pain of death. The timing—when it will happen and how long it will take. We fear the grief and loss that will be felt by our loved ones. We fear the death of the people we care about for many of the same reasons. But because Jesus tasted death for us and came through crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, our fears have been reordered.

What do I mean? When Luther explains the meaning of the 1st commandment You shall have no other gods he tells us that we should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. That does not mean that Christians are to be afraid of God like you might be afraid of some threat or enemy. It means that what God thinks and says about us should be our highest concern.

Your fear of God is something like a person’s fear of heights. You don’t fear heights are going to chase you down. But when you are in the presence of heights, you move with thought and purpose. You don’t mess around because you respect the gravity of the situation. Knowing who God is and what he has done for us, we move with thought and purpose.

Our fear of death is different than that. It’s like the fear a person may have of wolves. I know I can’t outrun a wolf. I know that it is has so many advantages over me that I cannot hope to defeat it. I am outmatched in every way.

Now imagine you are afraid of heights and wolves. You are out in the woods and a wolf begins to pursue you. You may run, but you know you cannot outrun it. So what do you do? You climb a tree. Even though you are afraid of heights, you run to the thing you fear because it is that very thing which saves you.

As death approaches us, we do not run to climb a tree. But, through faith, we run to the cross. That spectacle of death gives us confidence as death draws near. Because Jesus has tasted death for us, we don’t have to fear the devil or eternal condemnation. We may still fear the pain of death, the timing and nature of our physical passing, but our fear subsides because we fear, love, and trust in God’s power to save even more than we fear death.

That is what unites us, today. We live and move in a world that is dealing with their fear of death. They tell us that we have to choose to either follow the science or follow our hearts. We know better. Science is a wonderful tool, but it tells us little about the purpose of our lives and nothing about death. Our hearts have been corrupted by sin. We follow Christ. The Christ who loved us enough to become like us, to taste death for us, and is not proud to call us his own brothers and sisters. Amen.