March 17: Death, the Last Enemy
♫ Music:
WEEK THREE INTRODUCTION
THE PARADOX OF DEATH: BOTH PROBLEM AND SOLUTION
March 17 - March 23
We do not choose to come into this world, and it is certain that we will die. Death is the only thing we can’t avoid. Death is most often accompanied with great grief and sorrow on the part of those who are left behind. 1 Corinthians 15:26 refers to death as “the last enemy,” the evil one’s greatest stronghold. The most human action Christ could have performed, his sacrificial death on the cross, changed the use of death for all time, transforming it into the means of life. Ponder Professor John Behr’s powerful words concerning Christ’s salvific act, “Without minimizing the tragedy of death, Christ has opened up a way of seeing a deeper mystery in death and has transformed death throughout all time: for what was once the end, now becomes the beginning of a deeper mystery.”
Sunday, March 17
Death, the Last Enemy
Scripture: I Corinthians 15:25-26
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Poetry:
Easter
by Jill Alexander Essbaum
is my season
of defeat.
Though all
is green
and death
is done,
I feel alone.
As if the stone
rolled off
from the head
of the tomb
is lodged
in the doorframe
of my room,
and everyone
I’ve ever loved
lives happily
just past
my able reach.
And each time
Jesus rises
I’m reminded
of this marble
fact:
they are not
coming back.
DEATH: THE LAST ENEMY
Death, the last enemy: In many respects however, it’s the first enemy. As Baudelaire observes, ‘the dust of death is on all things now.’ Don’t we find ourselves experiencing death already in the dreadful anticipation of the all-consuming totality of its negation?
The slip into non-being; that beckoning event which promises to swallow whole our very existence; being itself (and whatever fragile meaning it’s accrued) – this is the ultimate event of our lives. Ultimate both as in final in sequence, and also ultimate as the summation of our existence: our being climaxes in this blink into nonbeing. ‘We are beings toward death”, observes Heidegger. Plato remarks that ‘life is a preparation for, and meditation upon, death’. Barth sees clearly that ‘Death is engraved inexorably and indelibly upon our life. It is the supreme tribulation in which we stand. In it, the whole riddle of our existence is summarized and focused…the dying Socrates is the only fitting emblem of philosophy.’ What more can the human say for itself, than that it ends? The recognition of our finitude, and the anxiety attendant upon this recognition, cause fear and despair. We endeavor to hide and cloak this reality; indeed, the herculean attempts to forget this inevitability generate their own pathologies. Our gurus—both ancient and modern—offer varied techniques to mitigate or even avoid suffering and death. We speak of our ‘immortal souls’ (although our text tells us that ‘God alone is immortal’ [1 Tim. 6:16]). We strive to mask and prevent our aging, to avoid sickness, these interruptions to the ‘good life’ to which we deem ourselves entitled. This fate is not for us, surely!
But it is. Jesus says it is. He himself doesn’t avoid suffering and death, he certainly doesn’t promise you anything different. ‘In the world, you shall have tribulation’, he says, on his way to a cross, ‘but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.’ We witness Jesus march into the very yawning maw of death (telling us not to be afraid!). And by the will of the Father and the power of the Spirit, he is resurrected, and appears on the other side of death. He beckons us, be not afraid, follow me through death to life. Death now is not extinguishment, the unmaking that results in eternal non-being; it is but a membrane, the other side of which is eternal life.
Christianity doesn’t ignore death; it doesn’t soft-pedal its reality. It doesn’t offer techniques to avoid it. Instead, the Christian faith looks at death level and clear eyed, and boldly out-narrates it. The Christian proclamation reduces to hope, and it is here that this hope is most audacious. No naivety, no delusion, no escapism, but rather, a revitalization, a making of the ultimate and absolute end a mere penultimate step in a broader, and better, story. The God who is, out-narrates nonbeing. Death as the emptying of our existence, the stripping of our meaning, is itself emptied and stripped of its meaning. Negation is negated. The sting of death is neutralized. Its reality remains, but it is now a toothless lion. Fear is thus removed.
Prayer:
Our God, the very ground of our being, the one who calls us into existence as finite beings, beings who must confront death (although we seek to ignore it), let us remember our hope: we must experience death, and yet we may rest in peace (because, even though we often leave off this second part), we shall rise in glory!
Amen.
Dr. Ryan Patrick Murphy
Director of Educational Programs
Development Associates International (DAI)
Colorado Spring, CO
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Lion with Serpent, 1847, (2 views)
Antoine-Louise Barye
Bronze with wood base
Overall size: Height 4’6″, width 2'10", depth 5'9"
Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, PA
The original plaster of this sculpture was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1833 and is currently in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, France. When it was first exhibited, the sculpture’s size, the extremely naturalistic sculpting of both animals, and the violence of the struggle depicted caused a huge controversy. Since the lion is the archetypal example of a monarchic animal, a symbol of force and courage, Lion with Serpent is considered a reference to King Louis-Philippe during a time when there was widespread discontent with the regime after the July Revolution of 1830. The King's accession to the throne had taken place under the constellations of Leo, the lion, and Hydra, the sea serpent. The sculpture therefore symbolized celestial approval of this political change. Although the fight between these animals can be interpreted in any number of ways, it is used for today’s Scripture as a metaphor of God’s victory of the enemy, death.
About the Artist:
Antoine-Louise Barye (1795-1875) was a Romantic French sculptor best known for his Neoclassical bronze statues featuring exotic animals in repose, engaged in battle, and in mythological situations, Barye began his artistic life by working and studying under prominent French sculptors and painters before training as a goldsmith. His lively sculptures are considered an important link between 19th-century Romanticism and Realism. Barye enjoyed numerous awards and prestigious commissions during his lifetime. His work became a benchmark for animal sculpture in monumental and tabletop format. The latter often conveyed a powerful sense of grand scale, just as his monumental work successfully blended rich materialism, naturalistic detail, and broad rhythms. In advocating for artwork that exhibited good design and craftsmanship and that was affordable to the middle class, Barye broadened options available to artists, artisans, and patrons alike. Today his works are held in major collections around the world, including the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the National Gallery in London.
About the Music:
“Harvest” from the album Japanese Taiko
About the Composer:
Joji Hirota is a Japanese Taiko drummer, percussionist, composer, singer and flautist. Trained as a classical musician in his native Japan, he has now spent over half his life in England freely blending instruments and influences to create music that is uniquely his own. Hirota’s prolific career spans over 30 years and 16 albums, sculpting dynamic landscapes of rhythm and haunting melodies with themes of nature and beauty in everyday life. Since receiving a commendation from the UK-Japanese Ambassador Orita in 2003 for his contribution to Japanese culture overseas through his musical activities, Hirota has continued to work on a vast number of diverse projects and also performs live concerts on a regular basis.
About the Performers:
Joji Hirota founded Joji Hirota and London Taiko Drummers in the early 1980’s, which is regarded highly as an established Japanese traditional and contemporary Taiko drumming group. They have performed at many events and festivals worldwide in the following locations: the USA, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Germany, Turkey, Croatia, Korea, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, and more including many WOMAD (World of Music Arts and Dance) festivals.
About the Poet:
Jill Alexander Essbaum (b. 1971) is an American poet, writer, and professor. Her most recent works are the full-length manuscripts Harlot (2007) and Necropolis (2008). Essbaum's poetry features puns, wordplay, and dark humor, often mixed with religious and sensual imagery. Random House published Essbaum’s debut novel, Hausfrau in 2015. She was educated at the University of Houston, the University of Texas, and the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest. The recipient of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Essbaum has served as the editor for the online journal ANTI-, The National Poetry Review, and has also edited for the Nanopress Project. Essbaum teaches at the University of California-Riverside Palm Desert’s low-residency MFA program and lives in Austin, Texas.
About the Devotional Writer:
Dr. Ryan Patrick Murphy
Educational Programs Director at Development Associates International (DAI)
Colorado Spings, Colorado
Ryan Patrick Murphy, Ph.D., is Director of Educational Programs at Development Associates International (DAI), an organization that is committed to developing the integrity and effectiveness of Christian leaders in the majority world. DAI works with leaders in over 80 countries and offers an M.A. in Organizational Leadership in 16 countries.