Everett Henes column: The great equalizer – The Hillsdale Daily News

Everett Henes| Hillsdale Daily News

Old advertisements for handguns dubbed one The Great Equalizer.

The idea behind this tagline was to drive home the point that a small person could be just as powerful as a bigger person.

Whatever your views of guns, there is another, greater equalizer among us all, and that is death. I have yet to meet a person whose life will not end at some point. The truth is, life is promised to none, but death is certain for all.

When we are young, this doesnt take up much of our thoughts. As we grow older, experiencing more life and facing more challenges, it comes to the fore.

This is not to say a young person never confronts death. Hospitals are dedicated to young people who are facing it. Every funeral puts death right before our eyes and, if we are wise, we will bring our children to help them think about life.

Weve been working through the book of Ecclesiastes. I hear a lot of feedback on this particular book. Some people love it, and others find it overly depressing. I understand both responses and Ive probably had both at various times throughout the years. The reason some find it depressing is its focus on the reality of death. We are not a people who like to think about the end of life. We have an entire industry for that, to make those last days comfortable. When my own congregation faced several deaths some years ago, I was shocked by how few resources there were for pastors to help people work through such things. I turned to the Hospice resources and found many that were helpful.

Solomon has been taking us on his journey in the early chapters of Ecclesiastes. He begins by declaring that everything is vanity, fleeting, and then goes on to explain how he came to this conclusion. Today we cover the verses that ultimately drove him there. In the early part of chapter 2, we saw how he tried to recreate The Garden of Eden. The reason for this is that hes looking for a way to end death; to reverse the curse.

Ecclesiastes 2:12-26 shows Solomon beginning to come to grips with the great equalizer of death. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. (Ecclesiastes 2:14) That event he is speaking of is exactly what weve said, How the wise dies just like the fool! Wise or fool, rich or poor, intelligent or ignorant; death comes for all.

One theologian comments on death, there is no fact which we ponder less carefully, or less frequently remember. For we form all our plans just as if we had fixed our immortality on the earth. This book makes us stop, and to consider both the reality of death and the way it crushes everything we desire under the sun. Even this begins to give us a way of understanding the message: if our focus is only under the sun then one day it will all be gone.

Solomons words that come from this are shocking: So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:17) We might be inclined to offer him a snack and a nap, hoping that his thoughts will pass away. But we know hes right. I dont mean that we ought to hate life. I actually dont believe that he ultimately hates life. But in the process of sorting it out, he experiences something that is helpful for us to consider. Death cannot be avoided.

This is why we must understand the Bible as a whole story. You see, God is the only one who can reverse the curse and make death something that no longer exists. This is the promise at the end of the story in Revelation 21:4, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. The way God works, though, is simply amazing. The death of death comes about through the death of Christ. Not just his death, though, but also his resurrection for Christ defeats death. It is the resurrection that gives us the answer to Solomons quest and the answer to our longing hearts.

Everett Henes, pastor ofHillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church, may be reached at pastorhenes@gmail.com.

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Everett Henes column: The great equalizer - The Hillsdale Daily News