Septuagesima/ Sanctity of Human Life
Dear friends in Christ. Our text this morning is the word of David to his friend Jonathan, the son of King Saul. Because of his sin, the Lord had rejected Saul as king and had chosen David to be king. This, of course, did not sit well with Saul and with his army he was chasing David to try to kill him. David is on the run and figures he cannot forever escape the wrath of King Saul. He then confides in Jonathan, his dear friend and son of King Saul. Our text: Then David took an oath again, and said, "Your father certainly knows that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, 'Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.' But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death."
David is literally, a marked man, an outlaw. He knew that each day could be his last; he lived under the threat of each step possibly being his last. David was very aware of his death; of the fragility and precarious nature of life. But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death. The picture here in our text that David uses to describe his situation is like that of standing just at the rim of a huge cliff. He is only one step away; he may at any moment be plunged to his death.
Really, when it comes down to it, each of us is like David. The only difference is that he is very much aware of it; most of us are not. Human life is a very fragile thing precisely because it is a good gift of God. It is so obvious, that we often overlook it. But Luther reminds us that life is a gift of God. In the explanation to the First Article of the Creed Luther, Luther says: I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He then goes on to say that God richly and daily provides [us] with all that [we] need to support this body and life. He also picks up this same thought when he explains the 4th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: Give us this day our daily bread.
Precisely because life is such a good and precious gift of God to each of us is why the devil is out to destroy life. Much like David was with King Saul—a marked man, hunted and pursued in order to destroy him—so too are we as Satan is out to destroy every good and gracious gift of God to us—including our very lives. Like David, each of us can rightly say: But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death. In the midst of life, we are in death. To be sure, we don’t often realize it; are blinded to it. But as we live out our earthly lives, we are but a step away from death.
Sometimes we are like David and realize the precarious nature of life. Hearing names like Newtown or the Twin Towers reminds us just how quickly and unexpectedly life can be snatched away. Like it did with David, we realize the precarious nature of our own lives if, for example, we hear the pronouncement of the doctor that we or a loved one are suffering some dread, terminal disease.
But that raises the question: why death? Why is it that the devil can lay the snares of death around us? Why can death threaten us? Scripture clearly answers that question [Rm. 6.23]: The wages of sin is death. Because we sin, we will die; death is the result of sin. If we didn’t sin, we wouldn’t die; if we didn’t sin, the devil could lay all the traps and snares he wanted but they could do us no harm. As our lives go on seemingly normally, in the midst of life, we are in death. Because we are all sinners from the first moment of life, we are from then on, on the path leading to death, the just reward of our sin. But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.
As Christians, we rightly recognize death for what it is—the result of sin; we rightly recognize the wrath of God in it. Unlike others, we know that death is not “natural”. God did not create humanity to die but to live. Death came into the world as the result and curse of sin. Christians recognize death as a cruel enemy, not as a “friend.” Those who advocate/ promote suicide of the terminally ill call death a “friend” that takes the person out of their suffering. Speaking by the Holy Spirit, St. Paul writes [1 Co. 15.26] about the time of Jesus’ return on the Last Day and the Resurrection of all: The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. Death is the enemy; it comes and destroys what God had created; it is the result and consequence of sin. There is nothing “friendly” or nice with death. It is the enemy.
In this whole discussion of “assisted suicide” of the terminally ill, even some Christians are sucked into the way of thinking of death as “friend”—after all it brings us to Jesus. But here remember dear Christian, both that death is still the enemy and our holy Triune God is still in charge. Death, the result and curse of sin, wreaks its havoc, destroying that life that God created; that God gives people; it is the enemy; in the midst of life we are in death. But, God, Who is still in control, uses even this, our enemy, to carry out His good and gracious purposes toward us—namely to bring the soul of His dear Christian to Him in heaven.
Yet, this does not mean that we should ever hasten death. We should never intend for the death of the living. Many in society equate dying with being terminally ill. Having a sickness/ disease that will end in death is one thing; but dying means that bodily functions are shutting down. We can allow the dying—those whose bodily functions are shutting down—to die; but we dare not cause the death. Yes, these end of life issues are difficult. But we do well if we neither prolong the dying process nor intend to hasten it. Let God alone decide.
Many in the “right-to-die” crowd say we should determine time and place of our death. That’s the so-called “death with dignity” that promoters tout in trying to get people to support state laws allowing for “physician assisted suicide.”
But it is another case of people trying to play God or to get God out of the picture. They think, or want to think they know what is best; that there is no God who is actively involved in their lives. Instead, the Christian says together with David in the psalm [31.15]: My times are in Your hands. Even in the midst of our suffering or in the suffering of others we are certain of God’s love for the one suffering. God’s love for us is seen not in our lack of suffering—as if we know He loves us if we are free from suffering; instead, we are certain of God’s love for us, for the suffering, when we see Jesus’ suffering for us on the cross. Here we see that love of us sinners, who by our sin and rebellion against God, deserve and brought upon us its consequence of death. But in mercy and grace, the Father sent His Son; the Son willingly became true man, took all of our sins upon Himself to the cross, and there suffered God’s wrath and punishment over sin and reconciled us sinners. The apostle puts it this way[1 John 4.9]: In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
In our suffering or in the suffering of others, we are certain of God’s love for us as we look at the cross of Christ. Even as we are surrounded by and maybe in our suffering even feel death, God does not abandon us in our suffering. Instead, with St. Paul [Rm. 8.32, 38,39] we say: He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for all of us—He will certainly with Him give us everything; and: [Nothing] can ever separate us from the love God has for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is true fear of suffering; no one wants to suffer; it’s natural and right to try to avoid and eliminate it. But in the midst of suffering, when we very much feel, But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death, we can be certain of God’s love and presence with us in the suffering. No matter how great the suffering, no matter how little value people think that the suffering and dying have, God still values that life. The value of our life is not based on what we do or can do; instead, as long as God gives us life, He gives meaning and purpose. He is mightily at work in the life and witness of the suffering and dying Christian, who by it gives testimony of that faith and that peace we have in Christ and who by this silent but mighty witness is calling others to enjoy that same faith and blessing. God is mightily at work in suffering purifying the Christian’s faith to look to and to trust in Him alone. As long as God gives life—no matter how little that life may be valued by society, regarded as a drain by society—He gives it meaning and purpose. That’s why we must always care and never kill. In the midst of life we are in death.
2. The opposite is also true: in the midst of death we are in life. Our text: But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death. But what happened to David—even though he was a step away from death and very much felt it? He was still in the hands of the living God—and God preserved him and made him king and an Ancestor of Jesus, the Savior of the world!
The lesson for us, dear Christian, is clear: even though we are sinners who earn and deserve nothing but God’s wrath, nothing but eternal death in hell—even though we are in the midst of death, we are in life. In Christ, we have new life. Not only have we been created by God but in Christ Jesus He saved us from sin, death, devil and hell! Even though, because of sin we will all die, we have in us a new, heavenly, spiritual life brought about and given us by Jesus.
Jesus suffered and died for the sins of the world; all our sins have been paid for and remain dead and buried in Jesus’ tomb when He rose from the dead Easter Sunday. With His death, Jesus defeated death; it couldn’t hold Him any more in death and now Jesus gives us that new life. That’s where baptism comes in: it connects us with Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul writes [Rm. 6.3]: as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death[.] Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into His death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. This new life in Christ is ours and begins the moment we are brought to faith and continues into eternity, as He Himself tells us [Jn. 5.24; 11.25]: He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life; and I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.
In the midst of death, we are in life; we have new life in Christ. That new life is fed as God comes to us in His word and sacraments giving us and strengthening that faith, that new life. Dear Christian, may our whole life here on earth be one in which that new life we have in Christ is continually being strengthened; one in which we are continually receiving the gifts and blessings that Jesus won for us on the cross: forgiveness of sin, life and salvation. Then we are always ready and prepared for times of suffering, assured and given every heavenly and divine gift; then we are prepared for when earthly death comes. Never are we alone in our suffering—Christ is there with us; then at God’s time and place and way we go from life here on earth in Him to life in heaven with Him, the holy angels and all the saints. Remember Jesus has destroyed death and death will be undone come the Last Day and the resurrection of the body. Then we and all our Lord’s dear Christians will be with Him eternally in heaven in both soul and body.
In this life we live with dying; in the midst of life we are in death— But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death—but we, dear Christian, in the midst of death are in life, life in Christ, so come what may now, we live in confident submission to God’s will in the firm and certain hope of eternal life. INJ Amen.