Death

I just finished reading the book previewed here on the Colbert report:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bishop N.T. Wright
www.colbertnation.com
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It was an interesting read. There are definitely certain points that are questionable (rejection of purgatory, NT Wright's view on Pope Benedict's view on purgatory), but still refreshing to hear him talk about how we are all stewards of God's creation. We are here to till and cultivate the world in beauty, justice, and evangelism. 

But I am here to talk about death. 

My conversion story started with the death of my grandfather. When he died and I did not get a chance to make restitution to my own wrong-doing, I started to question life after death. I started to question faith. There is just something about death that triggers me to question my own life and my own way of doing things. 

When I read his book, I actually had to stop in the middle of the chapter for a moment because I got afraid. "What would happen to me if I die?" I question myself as I was reading his commentary on cremation and burial of the death. I will grow old? I will forget things? I will not be as good looking as I am today? 

Is there a better way to enter heaven than to die? I guess Isaiah and Enoch (and Mary) assumed to Heaven, but I am not them. I will have to die naturally. 

But that is not all. All throughout my life, there are certain things that I have to put to death:

• my selfish ego
• my prideful desire
• my lack of discipline
• and so many other bad habits

I have tried to bid them farewell for oh how many times and yet they come back to life again and again. and again. 

Death. It is one of the natural occurrence in life that shows, at least for me, that there is something bigger, greater than what I can comprehend in our own life. 

"Death. Where is thy sting? Where is thy victory?" That's what St. Paul says when he was contemplating on resurrection.  

With Jesus's incarnation, with His death and resurrection, He has broken the circle of death and brought redemption into this whole earth. This watershed moment brought the earth from the fallen state to the redeemed state. 

Christ brought a new meaning to death. Death is not the end. It has become the beginning of the end. It will become the hallmark of our entrance into the place where God has become the all in all. And finally, when the new heaven and the new Jerusalem will come, we will all shout, "Marana tha!" Come, Lord Jesus!