Death
and Taxes
I expect you've all heard the quote from Benjamin
Franklin: "In this world, nothing is certain but
death and taxes."
Well.
that's not quite accurate. If you are rich enough
or a successful corporation, there is a reasonable
chance that you won't have to pay taxes.
The one
thing that is certain is that we will all die.
Isn't that a cheery note to begin with? Actually,
I believe it is.
Let's looks
ahead to the Easter story. The traditional
understanding of the Easter story is that Jesus
conquered death on our behalf. One way of
understanding this is that Jesus, the Son of God, God
incarnate, willingly died on the cross as a ransom for
our sins and that this willing sacrifice means that we
are released from death and the ravages of sin.
The
traditional interpretation is that this sacrifice could
only be done by Jesus on our behalf. Since this is
a gift freely given, which we could not deserve, our job
is to accept the gift by receiving Jesus as our personal
lord and savior.
If this
interpretation resonates with you, I am glad. If
this understanding of Easter no longer satisfied, let me
offer another. I am not offering a replacement
explanation, nor do I believe that this is the only
other possible interpretation. In fact, one of the
great joys of scripture is its capacity to become
constantly new and to inspire understandings appropriate
to our need. This understanding is offered in that
spirit.
Whenever I
consider scripture, I work from the premise that it
really isn't about Jesus or, if it is, that's not the
important part. If the life of Jesus us about our
salvation, our awakening, then scripture must be about
you and me. The question is: how is
scripture relevant to my life here and now?
This, of
course, applies to the story of Easter.
When I look
at the story of Easter and ask what it has to do with my
life, the salient image is death, not the resurrection.
I presume that resurrection -- awakening -- is a direct
consequence of this "death" that precedes it as
naturally as water flows downhill. If Easter is
about and for me (and you), and the focus is death, what
is it teaching? I look at death and wonder, "What
is it about the nature of death that leads to
resurrection or awakening?"
One way we
have considered "death" is to understand it as the death
of the ego: the dissolution of the separate sense of
self created by the mind that stands between me and
direct awareness of what is. Allegorically, this
carries a great deal of weight with all the world's
religious traditions, especially the mystic traditions
within each religion.
Yet there
is another way of considering "death" that serves the
same purpose. This is the recognition that we all
must die. Even the son of God dies.
This is not a morbid idea but is the greatest gift we
humans can receive, for awareness of our finitude offers
just the goad we need to wake up into the reality in
which Jesus lived. Without the goad of death, we
could drift forever in our dream state, but we have been
given the wake-up call of death: this life will end, no
exceptions.
Certainly
you have heard the stories of individuals who survived a
near brush with death, or were told they only had a
short time to live and, as a result, lived every moment
of their life with new awareness and joy (while the rest
of us continued on in our pleasant little dreams).
But that
understanding is not reserved for those close to death.
That freedom is available to all of us simply by
bringing death in close to our lives and befriending it.
Thus, one way of understanding the Easter story is that
when Jesus (or we) fully embrace the certainty of our
death, we are reborn into new life here and now.
How then
can I bring death fully into my life? Here it is
valuable to see how we systematically push the reality
of death as far as possible from us. First, we
tend to push death off into the future. Of course,
the older we get the more difficult this becomes.
But we tend to see our death as some future event and
not something that is as likely in the next five minutes
as it is in thirty years.
Personally,
I tend to imagine that I will die sometime in my
mid-80's, nearly 30 years in the future. And I
notice that, as I have aged, that date has moved further
out. My death seems to maintain a fairly
consistent 30-year distance. It is remarkable how
reassuring and stable this is. If I imagine dying
is a mere 20 years away, my anxiety increases. Of
course, this is all absurd because I can't possibly know
the time of my death, just that it will surely happen.
When it
happens, it will be as if I never was. I noticed
that when my parents died, the universe instantly flowed
in and filled the space where they had been. While
their life and death affected me, I could see not
apparent difference in the world.
That will
certainly be true with my death. As the teacher in
Ecclesiastes says, "The people of long ago are not
remembered, nor will there be any remembrance of people
yet to come by those who come after them... I saw
all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all
is vanity and a chasing after wind."
With Love and Blessings… Tom
