I follow the way of Jesus because I want to live well and I want to die well. I pray my life and death will be marked by faith, hope, love, and peace. Maybe you share this same desire?

As we move closer to Holy Week and Easter I want to remind you of the words Jesus spoke while dying. These words can serve as a guide for living and dying well.

Mark and Matthew report that “two bandits” were crucified with Jesus. Thousands considered a threat to Roman authority were executed in this way. Luke takes this part of the story farther, reporting a conversation between these two rebels and Jesus. Here is the way it is written in Luke 23:39-43: One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

These words from the cross are often cited among those that promise life beyond death. The Biblical witness insists death is not an end but a transition. Or as Rev. Howard Thurman has put it so helpfully, death is not something that happens to life but in life. Birth and death are points along the infinite timeline of our eternal Creator. Jesus words on the cross support this perspective of faith.

When we begin to see from Jesus’ perspective death loses its fearful power. We no longer see death as the ultimate end but as a passage along the journey of life that brings us ever closer to life with God. Of course, we still grieve when death happens, it changes the nature of the relationship of loved ones who die before us but as St. Paul noted, we grieve as those with hope. There is life on the other side of death. We will be with our loved ones again.

Yours in Christ,

Marc