![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2018\/11\/unspecified-31-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nRecently one of our dear friends in Lexington died suddenly in her sleep. She was my age, and so, not ancient (no snarky remarks please on my creeping decrepitude). And frankly, everyone was shocked, me included. I\u2019d seen her not long before in our Sunday school class and she seemed the picture of health. Why exactly is it that we continue to be so shocked by death in many (not all) cases? Why does it seem such an unexpected outcome? I can\u2019t speak for everyone but I know that in the case of Christians they understand they have the gift of everlasting life, and so death may come as a shock, but it would not be viewed as \u201cDas Ende\u2019. That person\u2019s spirit will go to be with the Lord and continue to exist. But still, the sudden death of a Christian friend is a shock. Why? <\/p>\n
I have a theory about this. One church father said words to this effect\u2014 \u2018God has put eternity in our minds so that we will realize we were intended to be immortal.\u2019 On this way of viewing things, our mortality is not God\u2019s highest and best for humankind. Indeed, it is called \u2018the wages of sin\u2019 in the Bible. It is not natural for creatures created in the image of God. Here\u2019s one of John Donne\u2019s famous poetic reflections on death\u2014-<\/p>\n
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
\nMighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
\nFor those whom thou think\u2019st thou dost overthrow
\nDie not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
\nFrom rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
\nMuch pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
\nAnd soonest our best men with thee do go,
\nRest of their bones, and soul\u2019s delivery.
\nThou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
\nAnd dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
\nAnd poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
\nAnd better than thy stroke; why swell\u2019st thou then?
\nOne short sleep past, we wake eternally
\nAnd death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. <\/p>\n
Death is a door, not a dead end for those who are in Christ. But how then to face one\u2019s mortality? I\u2019ve had several major surgeries in my life, and probably have one more coming next month (an early Christmas present I guess). How should I view and reflect on my mortality? Here again, John Donne helps me\u2026. he says\u2026.<\/p>\n
Since I am coming to that holy room,
\n Where, with thy choir of saints for evermore,
\nI shall be made thy music; as I come
\n I tune the instrument here at the door,
\n And what I must do then, think here before. <\/p>\n
So, are you tuning your instrument as you face your mortality? Or are you singing a sour song? This life is not all there is. If you view it in the shadow of eternity, mortality pales, not only in length but in character compared to immortality\u2026.. thanks be to God.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently one of our dear friends in Lexington died suddenly in her sleep. She was my age, and so, not ancient (no snarky remarks please on my creeping decrepitude). And frankly, everyone was shocked, me included. I\u2019d seen her not long before in our Sunday school class and she seemed the picture of health. Why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Intimations of Mortality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Recently one of our dear friends in Lexington died suddenly in her sleep. She was my age, and so, not ancient (no snarky remarks please on my creeping\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Intimations of Mortality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently one of our dear friends in Lexington died suddenly in her sleep. She was my age, and so, not ancient (no snarky remarks please on my creeping\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-29T06:44:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-11-07T16:00:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2018\/11\/unspecified-31-768x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/\",\"name\":\"Intimations of Mortality\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-29T06:44:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-11-07T16:00:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\"},\"description\":\"Recently one of our dear friends in Lexington died suddenly in her sleep. She was my age, and so, not ancient (no snarky remarks please on my creeping\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Intimations of Mortality\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\",\"name\":\"The Bible and Culture\",\"description\":\"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\",\"name\":\"Ben Witherington\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ben Witherington\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Intimations of Mortality","description":"Recently one of our dear friends in Lexington died suddenly in her sleep. She was my age, and so, not ancient (no snarky remarks please on my creeping","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Intimations of Mortality","og_description":"Recently one of our dear friends in Lexington died suddenly in her sleep. She was my age, and so, not ancient (no snarky remarks please on my creeping","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2018-11-29T06:44:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-11-07T16:00:25+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2018\/11\/unspecified-31-768x1024.jpg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben Witherington","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/","name":"Intimations of Mortality","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-11-29T06:44:13+00:00","dateModified":"2018-11-07T16:00:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b"},"description":"Recently one of our dear friends in Lexington died suddenly in her sleep. She was my age, and so, not ancient (no snarky remarks please on my creeping","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2018\/11\/29\/intimations-of-mortality\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Intimations of Mortality"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2018\/11\/unspecified-31.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n