…Die
// by Tom Macy
Our current sermon series in 2 Peter notes that Peter wrote with the expectation of his imminent death. …I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me… (2 Peter 1:14). Both Jesus, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him” (John 11:11), and Paul, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51), use “sleep” as a euphemism for death — the separation of the body and spirit — but in anticipation of the resurrection, the restoration of body and spirit. Peter believed his time was near and was not afraid. He lived Ready to Die.
Thirty years earlier, do you recall when Jesus told the disciples at the Last Supper, “You will all fall away because of me this night” (Matthew 26:31)? Do you remember Peter’s reaction? He boasted, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away…. Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” (Matthew 26:33, 35). But you know what happened: two servant girls and some other bystanders pointed to Peter, “You too are one of them; your accent betrays you” (Matthew 26:73). His courage melting in fear, Peter denied his Lord.
Peter denied Jesus out of fear of suffering and death. But in the account of Peter’s restoration, Jesus added, “But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) (John 21:18–19). Jesus was saying that Peter, unlike Jesus, would not die young, but like Jesus, would die by crucifixion — “you will stretch out your hands.” Thus Peter faithfully preached the Gospel for about three decades with this death sentence, prophesied by Jesus, hanging over him. That prophecy was fulfilled when Peter was crucified in the Neronian persecution of Christians in the late 60s AD/CE, the latter years of Nero.
What changed Peter? The obvious answer is the resurrection of Jesus, who conquered death. Death is not the end for the believer, but a new beginning.
Over the past three weeks in our GROW class on the Statement of Faith (essential doctrine), I’ve guided the class through a summary of Eschatology — what the Bible says about “last things,” what Scripture says about Christ’s return and related events.
In my 50 years of preaching and teaching, I hope I’ve come to a better understanding of the unity of the Bible and God’s story that runs through it. It is not circular, as is the view of much of eastern religion. It does not diminish the body as an evil to be discarded and escaped from. God’s story — His-story — is linear. It is directional. It is moving toward an end. But it is a story in which the end is a new beginning to which there is no end.
The story begins with Eden and the sad removal from a glorious paradise. But the story of Israel — history and prophecy — is fulfilled in Jesus: his birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return, leading to the renewal of all things in the new Eden, the Garden City of God.
As Peter reminds us, “But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). Yes, we all, like Peter, have a death sentence hanging over us. But in Christ, the end is a new beginning to which there is no end. So, like Peter, we can Live Ready to … Die — because of Jesus!