Learning from the Death of Jesus

Summary

In this series on death and dying, we’ve thought theologically about funerals, explored the pathway of grief, heard stories of loss and thought about responding to loss, and last Sunday, named some ways to prepare for our own dying. One important topic still remains for us, and that’s to think a little today about how Jesus handled his own death. I want to focus on two related questions: What steps did Jesus take to die well? And what can we learn from him about how we can die well?

But before we get into that, I want to set aside a misconception that a lot of us fall into way too easily. It’s this. Some of us like to linger in a macabre way over the nasty details of Jesus’ crucifixion. We focus in detail on the whipping he received, on the nails pounded into his body, on the process of asphyxiation, and on other intense agonies of getting crucified. I confess that I too have been guilty of taking this approach sometimes in my preaching.