Dying Man Preaching to Dying People

Today, I will conduct the memorial service and perform the eulogy for my aunt, who died just after my new little girl was born.  This will be a very difficult day.  I am not sure if she treasured Christ before she died.

The fact is that my aunt struggled with alcoholism for as long as I can remember.  Her daughter said it well last night..."I really feel that she wanted to follow Christ, but her body just wouldn't let her."  This comment, though not coming from someone who is well versed in Pauline theology, has just articulated most accurately, the Biblical doctrine of the "flesh."  It was "her body" that just wouldn't set her free.

There are so many wonderful memories of my aunt, but I must say that those that lie closest to the front of my mind are clouded by the dominion of the flesh in her life.  I'm not one to play the passive note too long - my aunt did have a disease; but she also was responsible for how she lived with it.  I am reminded of some advice a counselor friend of mine gave to me.  He said that there are two prongs to our lives - the first is that we often act in certain ways because of things that have happened to us; the second is that we are also responsible for all of our actions.  

Frankly, the first prong helps me to show compassion for her.  I understand "the body of flesh" or, "the body of death" as Paul calls it in Romans 7.  When I was in seminary, I learned (in the classroom and in life) about the power of the flesh.  And if we are all honest with ourselves, we too understand, very well, the pull of the flesh in our lives.  It is powerful.  It makes us think that we are not Christians.  This understanding helps us to approach others, who are under its dominion, with something other than moralistic advice like, "Just stop doing that!"

Well...I am hesitant to say to any addict, "Stop doing that!" as if they haven’t told themselves the same thing a thousand times.  Telling an addict to stop doing this or that is like telling an apple tree to stop producing apples; and when they ask us “how?” we seldom do more than show them (and even help them) how to pick apples from a tree.

I didn’t talk to my aunt about Christ before she died.  For that I am deeply regretful and repentant.  Here in Alabama, everyone is a “Christian.”  Sometimes I don’t talk to others about the Gospel because I figure they will just tell me they know that already.  But upon further reflection on the nature of the Gospel, and especially on how it has been changing me and my family lately, I am convinced that we all need to hear the Gospel every day - Christian or not.

The Gospel is the only news that can disarm the strongest addictions.  The body of death needs to be dethroned by the Life.  And from Colossians I have learned that there are two means that the body of death uses to maintain its rule.  First, it threatens with rejection and condemnation.  Second, it lures with promises of satisfaction and gratification.  These two are very related, being distinguishable but inseparable. 

My cousin, while weeping, said, “She had a broken heart.  She never forgave herself for the things that she did.  She couldn’t make things right.”  To the guilty conscience, the flesh constantly threatens condemnation.  This is not all bad.  The law condemns too.  But, there is a difference.  The flesh gives no gospel as a way to divert the condemnation.  It binds one to thinking that they must perform to pay their own debt.  It says, “Look what you did!  God will never forgive you.  You’re gonna pay.”

The law, on the other hand is a “tutor” that leads us to Christ.  It condemns, but only in order to make us run to the One that can pay our debt through faith and repentance in His work on the Cross.

The flesh causes despair in that it makes union with God an impossibility.  Because of guilt, our ultimate desire and satisfaction will never be enjoyed.  We are doomed to an eternity of dissatisfaction.  

Therefore, the flesh promises satisfaction in earthly things.  But we all know that all earthly things only fill for short periods of time.  What do we do?  We consume more of them.  For my aunt, her earthly satisfaction was the bottle.  And when she became thirsty again, she drank again…and again…and again.  From all indication, she had no other hope.

Paul, the apostle, in Colossians 2:10, tells us that in Christ “we have been filled.”  He is "our hope."  What have we been filled with?  Eph 1 tells us “with every spiritual blessing.”  As I have said before, we are spiritual sojourners in an earthly wilderness.  Spiritual blessings are the only blessings that finally satisfy us.  The Gospel gives this promise to us.

This, I suppose, is a glimpse of what I might say today at the memorial service.  I will honor my aunt.  And I will honor my Lord.  I have such a mixture of feelings right now.  There is perhaps no better primer for harvest than an occasion like this.  I wish I could give more comfort to them as far as my aunt is concerned.  I just cannot.  I simply do not know.  

But I am thankful that this causes me to take them to the only thing that I do know.  Christ is our only hope and comfort in this life and the next.  I will, with great sorrow and joy, lead them, by grace, to my Lord.