Since October, I have been more regularly thinking about my death. I don’t have a notecard on my bathroom mirror me or a picture of a grave as my phone’s background to remind me. I honestly just let it come to me whenever. Sometimes this twitter account pops up on my feed, which is a stark reminder for sure. Maybe it would be good to put some more practical reminders in my life.
What I can tell you is that when I invite and allow the reality of my end into my thought life, it can be powerful. Again, honestly it is not always powerful for me but that is because sometimes it’s just not what I want to think about. Often in those moments it is because I don’t want to change, and to keep meditating on my death will force me. But when I embrace the plain and simple fact that I won’t go on forever in this life, there is a force to be reckoned with.
And I believe that will be true for you too. No matter who you are and how you view the world. Death is a medicine for agnostics, politicians, muslims, women and men, the spiritual and unspiritual. But I believe there is an even more concentrated power to be leveraged in death for certain people.
What if there was one who possessed access into and out of death? Would you not want to know this one? I am one of the Atlanta Braves chaplains for southwest Florida. They come to my hometown for spring training, and that is when I get the opportunity to serve the team. The stadium is well secured. No one really is getting in or out without being seen or being on camera. And no one is getting into the clubhouse and close to the players without certain access. I had to go through a pretty significant background check and that only happened because of the right people saying I could do so in order to get the access needed to get close to the players.
There is one who has the authority of opening and closing the doors of death. And knowing Him and having Him call your name grants you access to escape death. He actually said that you won’t even taste death (Matthew 16:28). His name is Jesus, and the picture Revelation 1 gives us of Him is not one of a fluffy sheep:
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
And when John saw this One, he fell at His feet as though dead (Revelation 1:17). This is the visceral response of encountering the one who has all authority over life and death - it feels as though you died. He said in Exodus 33:20, “No one can see me and live.” It would be scary to see him. But how does Jesus respond?
But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
He doesn’t say, “yeah that’s right!” He comes in close. He reaches out his righteous, omnipotent right hand and lays it on him. And then, I imagine, He calms the roar of many waters that is His voice like he did on the Sea of Galilee (Luke 8:22-25) and he says, “Don’t be scared. I was before anything else, I will live forever. I did die, like you are going to and like you are feeling right now in my presence, but I rose from the dead. And listen to this, I have the keys of death.” (paraphrase). He has the keys of death.
Now, unlike my access into the Braves stadium, this should give us a different, richer understanding of what the Christ is saying here. What he is saying is that we are locked in death. It is coming. No escaping this truth. But, he has the keys to this cage. He has the authority and power of releasing everyone who will let him. He wants to do this. He isn’t dangling a carrot out in front of you to see if you could do enough to get the keys yourself. He is so desperately and graciously trying to reach in to your death chamber to release you. This is He “who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” (Revelation 1:5).
I really do hope that everyone who reads this will be encouraged to leverage the one part of our story that is certain - our death. But what I am saying here is that there is even more leverage to have when you let the one who has the keys to death release you from yours. That may be confusing to you. I have said you won’t even taste death, in yet I keep saying that it is certain you will die. That is true. You will die. But Christianity reverses all things. Your death will not be your end - it will be your new introduction.
This is why He came. This is Christmas.
He came to to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound (Isaiah 61:1).
In a sense, Christmas is all about keys. The keys of death. And Jesus has them.