As the old year dies and we enter the new year, I have been thinking a lot about death and dying.

On the 4^th December my step-mother, Thora, went to be with the Lord.
Thora had a heart operation on the 30^th November.  The doctors had told her that she would need to stay in hospital for a minimum of 2 weeks.  Her birthday was on the 10^th December and the day before she went into hospital she said to her son “Well, I will either be celebrating my birthday in hospital or in heaven!”  She must have had the most wonderful 86^th birthday – celebrating her life in His Presence.

The days following her death were filled with phone calls and visitors and as my sister, brother and I made endless cups of tea for the visitors, I got to know Thora in a way I had never known her when she was alive.  The more I heard people talk about her, the more astounded I was at how little I had actually known about her.  I knew her as a mother, a wife and our children’s grand-mother.  I met people who had known Thora as a teacher of crafts and flower arranging, a leader in the Woman’s Association of the church, someone who they took exercise classes with and as I spoke to her children I learnt about some of the life lessons she had taught them.

I realised that it was only through her death that I was getting to know different facets of who she was and it has made me see the death of Jesus in a totally different way.

To me Jesus’s death and resurrection has always been defined by the verse  John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”.  And yet, there was so much more to His dying.

Just as Thora meant so many different things to  different people and the roles she played in peoples lives was so different, I realised that the same could be said of Jesus.  If He had not died the Bible would not have been written and we would not have the knowledge of Him that we do today.

 

In His lifetime, Jesus touched the lives of thousands of people - just think about the feeding of the five thousand!

To Mary Magdalene, Jesus was the One who cleansed her of seven demons, giving her freedom.

To Nicodemus, Jesus was the One who explained about being ‘born again’ and changed the course of his life.
To Lazarus, Jesus was the One who brought him back to life from the dead.
To Zacchaeus, Jesus was the One who turned his whole life around and allowed him to live with honesty and integrity.
To the Pharisees, Jesus was the One who made them feel uncomfortable and they hated Him.

 Romans10: 17 (NIV) says “faith comes from hearing the message” and it is because of  His death (and resurrection) that all the different life stories of those who had come into contact with Jesus here on earth were collected and put into a book so we could get to know Him better.

As we enter 2013 I pray that we will all do so in the knowledge that “The Lord will go ahead of us, and He, the God of Israel, will protect us from behind”. (Isaiah 52:12 LAB - paraphrased)