Death

One of the most interesting topics for me to write on is death. I heard a movie director say that the reason he puts so much death in his movies is that there is nothing more dramatic than death. As long as there are novels, plays, screenplays, etc.; as long as there is art, an artist will find a way to deal with this subject. An irony in death is that it is a part of life. Another irony in death is that life as we know it is inconceivable without it, for meaning is measured against it. We have a unknown, but nonetheless given amount of time to "live", so what is the best use of it? What would we do with ourselves if we believed that we were going to live forever? Would we be... perfect? Could it be that sin is as much a result of death as death the result of sin? Surely, the symbol of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents mankind's corporate decision to trade life for knowledge, and ignorance for death. But now we're in too deep to return to ignorance for we know the difference between good and evil, and we're not the gods we supposed we would be. We're not the holy God of the universe, with all of the elements, including time under our control. (Maybe we can be, or maybe our attempts to control are nibbles of the fruit, and the more knowledge we gain of good, the more knowledge we gain of evil, and thus with every bit of progress comes a tiny death in the soul, until we have progressed so far that the soul just dies.) But we can't be God, we can at best be Zeus, and at worst be a poor insignificant slave. So we can't just choose to be ignorant, as screenwriter Charlie Kaufmann so vividly and sharply conveys in his great work "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". When you know, you know, whether you know that you know in that moment or not. Innocence cannot be regained. The tree of life is guarded by flaming angels with huge swords. But redemption and forgiveness, atonement and justification are available. There is no such thing as the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (of the human being in this life), but the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Soul whose sin has been erased from the memory of the one Holy God, there is such a thing. It's why Jesus matters, why his death and resurrection matters. True life is inconceivable without death, and people who want to live authentically should not live as if they are not going to die. But resurrection changes the playing field dramatically, because it assures us that this life is not all there is, that this life with its good and evil, this life with its breathing and with its dying, has meaning. And that meaning is found in embracing life for all that it is, and trusting God that he has provided a most unexpected, but beautiful way to a different kind of life, a better kind of life, a life that has passed through fire and come forth as gold.