Dignity
I’ve been praying recently in a focused way for our elderly that are shut in, lonely, and isolated as humanity awaits its deliverance from the pandemic that continues to afflict millions. I hate where many - including a good number of dear friends and family - have come to find themselves: alone in a hospital bed, their loved ones unable to visit, embrace, or see one another during what has been, for a number of at-risk patients, their final hours in this life. Alone, with no allowance for physical contact, a final embrace - this is no way to die.
No one has the privilege of choosing the manner of their death but there have been a few courageous fathers and mothers amongst us that have modeled dying well. They have modeled dying with dignity. The manner in which some are spending their final hours robs them of this. I am not okay with this.
I have no interest in debating with the various ideological “sides” how serious or severe this pandemic is. For many, maybe even most, it has not been serious at all. However, we have reached a stage where it has become very serious for more and more people as their friends, co-workers, and family begin to succumb to the virus. Everyone I know seems to be trapped between the ten percent on one side of the argument that are irrationally afraid, irrationally angry at the non-compliance of many Americans, having obeyed the dictates with great caution. On the other side are the ten percent that are irrationally suspicious and angry at what seems to them to be overblown governmental overreach, and while it goes without saying that they will not have their liberties trampled upon, they also possess an outspoken contempt for those who yield to the other side.
Eighty percent watch the ideological tennis match, unsure of which side to root for.
Lost in the noise and the argument is the loss of dignity for our elderly. Neither extreme adequately addresses this, that in the name of keeping a segment of the population safe, we have also effectively stripped them of much of what makes us human. The libertarian side will make this argument more than the totalitarian side; there does seem to be a general concern and desire to protect the elderly from those voices, but with very little to offer by way of a solution to their plight. Neither rules nor liberty can adequately address the problem of great men or women dying around the world alone, apart from human contact.
As a culture, our irrational fear of death has left us unprepared to truly face it. There seems to be either an unwillingness to think about it and plan for it, or a kind of misguided bravado in the face of the inexorable and unavoidable eventuality of it. Death comes for us all. We rarely talk about it, try not to think about it, and therefore have no grid to really prepare for it. In our day, there seems to be very little written about it, very little addressed from our pulpits, and I cannot help but think that this is a significant part of our problem during this season of time. An entire generation of relatively (in the light of the overall human experience throughout history) affluent Westerners have been taught not to die, at all costs.
This is likely a visceral and subconscious reaction to Genesis 3 and the rebellion and fall of mankind to the curse of sin and death. We were made for immortality, and death was never meant to be a part of the normative human experience. Death is the final enemy of God that Jesus conquers at the end of the age, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. Therefore, as humans, we rightly hate death. “Dying well” should never mean that death and loss is something that we are “okay” with. We fool ourselves. It is not okay, and we are not okay with it. Death is the original thief of humanity’s dignity as image-bearers of God, who Himself is sinless and deathless.
We cannot, then, recapture our dignity through the acceptance of death. Death does not lose its sting via the acceptance of it. Death loses its sting via the promise of eternal life through Christ and His Cross and resurrection. We accept death not as our permanent future state but as a momentary delay before the manifestation of the full promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the continuation of our eternal life with Him in the eternal home that He has prepared for us. We do not have to like or accept death, but we do not need to fear it. Loss - particularly sudden, unexpected loss - can hurt but we derive great comfort in the midst of our sorrow from the fact of the loss as temporary, if in fact the one that we lost was in Christ. We are comforted by the one who will wipe away every tear regarding our suffering and loss in this life.
The Cross and resurrection of Christ is the great reclamation of the dignity of man. In Him, we do not need to cower at the face of death but can face it - not with acceptance but as those who stand victorious against it. This is the good news, and the decline of Evangelical influence in our culture brings with it the loss of the only good news that matters to a man or a woman suffering alone, on their deathbeds, apart from their spouses, family, and friends. If life is merely about not dying, then the chaotic arguments that frustrate us presently are only going to increase in their irrational, visceral fear and anger. Man cannot recapture his own dignity through his creativity or ingenuity. The pandemic has exposed the hollowness of our worldview. All that is left when you strip our facades and shallow ideologies away is a tragic, lonely end.
Our task as evangelists is not just the joy of introducing someone to Jesus, our dearest friend, but to aid in the reclamation of their dignity, which is the removal of the irrational fear and powerlessness that lies at the heart of our cultural storms. The beauty and dignity of humanity is a powerful thing, and when it is restored via the gospel of grace, even death cannot overwhelm it.