Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

We have all seen a lot of death in the last many months. But, really, death is nothing new.

Even in childhood, we learn early that all living things die. We’ve seen the tears of a child when a pet or any of God’s creatures dies. My youngest daughter had a full breakdown when she was about 5 after pulling two starfish from the ocean and they died a few minutes later. She described an imaginary life these starfish must have had as the tears rolled down her cheeks.

As we grow older, our understanding of the reality of death is much greater. But understanding it doesn’t stop the pain of grief when someone we love lies lifeless before us. And it seems like the list of people we are remembering in prayer who struggle with serious illness just keeps getting longer. Covid has deepened and expanded our grief.

Walking in death

In Ephesians 2, the apostle Paul opened with a line that we need to stop and consider: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked.”

Paul wasn’t repeating a comment from a hospice worker. He wasn’t talking about physical diseases like cancer, heart malfunction, or a raging virus we have all seen bringing someone we love to the end of life on earth. He was speaking to all of us living today. It’s a sobering sentence. We once were doing our daily routines, meeting our obligations, and enjoying everything life had to offer. But what we didn’t know before we met Jesus is that we were dead people walking with no hope of real, full, and abundant life. Sin had taken our life, and no treatment from any medical professionals could change our reality.

Experiencing real life

Paul reminds us that now, because of God’s rich mercy and great love, we are alive in Christ. We have been saved by our faith in Jesus and his matchless grace. We didn’t earn it. We couldn’t engineer a solution that would give us life. We can brag about this achievement because we had nothing to do with it. Our new life was given to us by God.

Paul then draws our attention to one of the most amazing facts of our lives; we are God’s artistry, his craftsmanship. We are new creatures because of the good work of Jesus that was planned long ago. We are no afterthought. Now armed with this understanding, we do the good works of God for those around us. And we do them for his glory.

Sharing good news

It is an important, loving, and compassionate act of service when we pray for those who are sick and dying. It is essential that we grieve with those who experience loss. But we must also remember to pray for those walking around near and far who are spiritually dead. We must pray and we must love them the way Christ loves us, finding ways to serve them, encourage them, and most importantly, to share with them the good news of Jesus. It’s what Jesus would do. It’s what Jesus did do for us and for all who have walked or will walk the pathway of life on earth.

Speak life to those who are walking around in death. They might just be ready for a resurrection.