• Video

Sphere IT

Save This Page

Reader Reaction

Column: Answering ‘Is he going to die?‘

By DR. MARK ROSS/Columnist

“Is he going to die?” The wide-eyed 6-year-old caught the mission teacher off guard. She and her mission’s class were visiting residents in a local nursing home. The other children had already rushed into the room, entertaining the delighted resident. However, this child remained in the doorway. I am sure it was the hospital bed and the medical paraphernalia in the room that prompted the question, “Is he going to die?”
My guess is that this cautious child had some recent experience with death. Possibly a relative of the child had gone into a hospital for treatment, occupying a room very similar to the one in the nursing home. Maybe that relative died. The child is not sure she wants to go into the room. “Is he going to die?”
How do you answer a 6-year-old asking about death? “No, he is not going to die,” one could say that, though it is not entirely true. “Yes, he is going to die, but not today,” that may be the best truth, but also may be more information than the 6-year-old needs. The answer is not so simple when you are six. “Is he going to die?”
The answer is not so simple when you are 36. Trying to decipher the radiology report, the woman asks about her father, “Is he going to die?” How do you answer anyone asking about death? We have ways of saying things without saying things. “It does not look good.” “It will not be long.” “He is terminal.” We answer without answering.
At the news of his friend Lazarus’s sickness, Jesus was not entirely clear regarding the prognosis. “This illness does not lead to death.” However, in only a few short verses Jesus said, “Lazarus is dead!”
What happened? No one delivered an update on Lazarus to Jesus. Was Jesus initially incorrect, and only later making a correction? Was Lazarus dead or only asleep?
Jesus answers the question with a sort of riddle that he offers to Lazarus’s sister. “Those who believe in me, even though they die will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Is that simply religious mumbo jumbo? What does Jesus mean? Are we all going to die or not?
Have you ever noticed in hospitals the display cabinets filled with old medical tools? The devices appear crude and rudimentary, more at home in a Frankenstein movie than a hospital. Yet, at one time, they were top-of-the-line technology. Some day modern devices and tools will be in those display cases. It is the same with all of our knowledge.
Thousands of years ago people measured death in ways that medicine now considers antiquated. Walk through the catacombs of Rome and see the evidence of people buried alive. Today death is determined in ways that we consider sophisticated. Yet, are those ways the last ways? Is life only breath and heartbeat? Could life be more than brain activity?
While the needs and abilities of children are different from adults, both need to be able to talk about death. It should never be the unspeakable subject. “Is he going to die?” Children should know that not everyone in a hospital bed dies. Young children think concretely not in abstract terms. They can understand that someone will not talk or walk again, but eternal life is a mystery to them.
While we are not children, it may be a mystery to us also; are we going to die or not? In a sense, Jesus told Lazarus’s sister yes, and no. The breath may leave, the heart may stop, and the brain may cease. However, he did not say they are the life, he said, “I am.”

Dr. Mark Ross is the pastor of Marion Baptist Church. To learn more about MBC, visit http://www.marionbaptistchurchva.com/
To listen to an excerpt of a service from MBC follow the video link.