Courage To Face Death

Courage To Face Death

She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her. . . . Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave . . . in the land of Canaan.

Genesis 23:2, 19

The stories of people in the Bible should instruct and inspire us. These examples are better than using the Lord Christ as an example for reaching and comforting people who have weak faith. When such people hear the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah and how they all died, these devout and God-fearing people won’t be so afraid of death.

It’s not their own fragile condition that bothers people with weak faith as much as the gruesome appearance of dead bodies. They say to themselves, “If my body were like the body Christ had here on earth, and if it couldn’t be destroyed by death and eaten by worms, then I would wait for my last day with greater courage.” Because Christ came back to life in only three days, his death doesn’t seem like a good example of dying to people who are weak in faith. So it’s reasonable that they are drawn to the examples of other people in the Bible whose bodies decayed, just as ours will.

In contrast, those who have stronger faith laugh at death. They fearlessly defy it: “What is death? What is hell? Christ, the Son of God, placed himself under God’s laws and died. But Christ’s death defeated death and gave us life.” We need the strength to believe and not doubt that Christ died for our sins and was brought back to life. If we believe that Christ did this so that we could have God’s approval, then we don’t have to fear death. Christ’s death assures us that our own death means nothing. But other examples are helpful for those who are weak in faith. For them, knowing that Sarah died and was buried helps them accept the fact that the same will one day happen to them.