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| "Christ of Saint John of the Cross" by Salvador Dali, 1951 A.D. |
Yes, there is such a thing as
a good death.
+ Henri Nouwen
Along with The Deep Down Things by Amber and Seth Haines, Deep Down Faith by Cornelius Planting Jr., The Ache for Meaning by Tommy Brown, and Beholding by Strahan Coleman, Tyler Staton's first book, Searching for Enough, has been a faithful companion during this first quarter of 2024. I actually read Staton's second book, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools first and loved it. And I've loved Searching for Enough as well.
This is the 2nd of 3 posts (the 1st was "Powerful & Personal Enough Good News") in honor of Holy Week and how Searching for Enough captures some insightful glimpses of Jesus, particularly in relation to His death on the cross. These posts also complement a previous series entitled "Yeshua" based on Frances Spufford's writings in Unapologetic.
A Good Way to Die
"If you read the biography of any famous person, even if their death was a prominent story (for example, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.), it will be only a tiny part of that biography" (John Ortberg). All four reputable biographies of Jesus' life work the opposite way. His death takes up a disproportionate amount of real estate — roughly one-third of each gospel. All four accounts slow way down in Jesus' final week. They all fall into perfect harmony with one another, suddenly documenting each precise detail when they had been a sweeping survey up to that point. Every one of Jesus' biographers seemed to recognize that something significant was happening in his death.
Jesus didn't come only
to show us how to live.
The choice to put the self at the center is a transaction in hope. To place the self at the center, to sit down on the throne of your own life, is creation saying to Creator, "Thanks for the boost. I'll take it from here." I'll find my own fulfillment. I'll construct my own identity. I'll write a story big enough to satisfy my own soul. That choice ripped a separation between creation and Creator.
So how do we close a gap
opened up through putting
the self at the center —
the definitive act of selfishness?
It takes the definitive act of selflessness
— laying down the perfect life.
We needed more than an
instructional manual, so
God came as a person.
But why, then, did God need to live thirty-three years before death, if death was really the big moment, the big payoff, anyway? Because life had to be lived according to design, without sin. The plot had to be recovered by truly living, by going through the ordinary days of ordinary life in this very flawed world, but doing it all in such a way that God maintained His place at the center.
Jesus lived without sin,
and that means that
every moment of every day
He chose God as the center
of His life.
Instead of the charade of
trying to insulate Himself
with enough comfort and security
that He could feel free,
He lived freely by accepting
God as His Protector.
Instead of the futility of
human attempts at control,
He chose God as His Provider.
Instead of the exhaustion of
making a name for Himself,
He took the name God gave Him
and pointed at the Giver of names.
Jesus lived.
He really lived.
He lived like we were always
meant to live.
He lived life full and
abundant and whole.
And He did it all so
He could die, really die...
die completely and fully
and finally.
He had to lay His life down,
choosing death voluntarily.
There was no fighting.
There was no dimming light.
Death had no hold on Him.
He chose to die.
When Jesus chose death,
He was choosing life
for you and me.
Henri Nouwen said it well:
"Yes, there is such a thing
as a good death.
We ourselves are responsible
for the way we die.
We have to choose
between clinging to life
in such a way that death
becomes nothing but a failure,
or letting go of life in freedom
so that we can be given to others
as a source of hope."
Jesus did not fight the dying light. He was living in only light and chose to dive headfirst into darkness. Why did He do it? He let go of His free life so we could hope again. He was opening up the possibility for us to reverse the exchange, to return our hope to God, to accept His offer to pay the debt we couldn't pay. He took on death so you and I wouldn't have to.
The Gift of Passivity
For thirty-three years, Jesus gave us His activity, His life ... teaching, healing, advocating, feeding, freeing, including, comforting, noticing, inviting, hoping, instructing, loving. His final twenty-four hours represented a distinct shift, obvious to every close observer. Beginning with His arrest in Gethsemane, Jesus gave us His passivity, His death. Every gospel author's description of Jesus takes an obvious grammatical turn at that point — all the verbs become passive. He is led away. He is questioned. He is tortured. He is whipped. He is mocked. He is provided help in carrying His cross. He is nailed to it. He is no longer doing; He is allowing to be done. He is no longer acting; He is being acted upon.
It is the passivity of God that
is most revealing of His character.
In Jesus' passion, He gave us
a gift we could not receive
by His action.
Mark's account includes the
reaction of the centurion,
the Roman army commander
who oversaw the execution.
When the last breath left Jesus' body,
when the gift of love was completely
given through divine restraint,
the centurion said aloud,
"Surely this man was
the Son of God!"
This Jewish rabbi had walked
all over the Roman Empire
for three years,
healing the sick,
causing the paralyzed to stand,
giving sight to the blind,
straightening the backs
of the disfigured,
cleansing the skin of lepers,
restoring the minds of the insane,
and even raising the dead,
but none of that looked like
God to those in power.
Somehow what they had missed
in His power
they saw
in His restraint.
The centurion recognized the
divine bloodline in Jesus
by His weakness,
not His strength;
His surrender,
not His victory;
His death,
not His life;
His love,
not His power.
There was something otherworldly,
something wondrous,
about the way He willingly
gave up His life.
Jesus' most powerful healing
came by dying.
Pete Grieg writes,
"When Jesus cried out from the cross,
He was declaring the death of death,
the cure for suffering,
the remission of sin.
... we were saved by
the sacrifice of another."
+ Tyler Straton
in Searching for Enough*,
pgs. 131-136
*If you are intrigued or excited by what you read, purchase Searching for Enough: The Hire-Wire Walk Between Doubt and Faith by Tyler Straton as there is more to be enchanted by in Chapter 11: Recovering the Plot and Chapter 13: A Way to Live Again than I can include in one post. And for a bonus reflection that complemented what was written above, here are a few words from Justin Brierley in Unbelievable? Why, After Ten Years of Talking with Atheists, I'm Still a Christian:
His Death Opens to a
New Way of Living
Jesus claimed to be the only one able to show people what life is really about when He said: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Yet this was a claim made by a man who would soon be tortured and crucified for the things He said and did, and a similar fate would await may of His followers. Bizarre as it may sound (and it sounded strange back then too),
I believe that His death,
offered on behalf
of all creation,
opened the floodgates to
a new way of living.
Those who have experienced its power
claim that they have found the true life
by giving their own lives away
in His service.
This is the profound answer that Christianity offers to a world searching for personal meaning in self-help books, bus slogans, pop songs, atheist church services and videos about happiness. Only the author of life can hand you the key to unlocking life in all its fullness. And it starts by dying with Him and being raised into a new way of living in which you realize that your life was never your own to begin with.
+ Justin Brierley
in God Makes Sense of
Human Purpose,
pg. 89
Additional post about Jesus' Death:
+ Violence & Victory of Cross
+ Violence & Victory of Cross
Next post:
May God's Kingdom come, His will be done.
Que le Royaume de Dieu vienne,
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇
With anticipation and joy,
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