How to die well

Sunday 22nd September 2024

Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit’

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’

Luke 23:46, Acts 7:59 (NIV) 

How to die well

I remember the Australian evangelist John Chapman used to say that one way to bring a dinner party to a crashing, grinding halt was to lean over to your host and ask, “Have you given any thought to your death lately?”  I have to say I have never tried it, but surely he was right.  We do not like talking or thinking about death.

And yet it is one of the things we can be most certain of: that we will die.  Would it not be sensible to do the best we can to be ready for that most life-changing of all events?

That is certainly the view of John Wyatt who, in his book Dying Well, encourages us not only to talk about death but to get ready for it.  He explains how Christians of previous generations used to speak of the ars moriendi – the art of dying well and dying faithfully. 

At the heart of the book he deals with the opportunities and challenges that dying well may bring.  There are opportunities for internal spiritual growth; being thankful; healing, building, celebrating and completing relationships; finding forgiveness; letting go; leaving a legacy; reordering priorities; fulfilling dreams; preparing to meet our Lord and Saviour.

The challenges of dying well, according to the ars moriendi, lay in facing various temptations and developing the corresponding virtues: the temptation of doubt and the virtue of faith; the temptation of despair and the virtue of hope; the temptation of impatience and the virtue of love; the temptation of pride and the virtue of humility; the temptation of greed and the virtue of letting go.

To these five ancient temptations, Wyatt adds two modern temptations that we are prone to: the temptation of denial of death and the virtue of acceptance; the temptation of self-reliance and the virtue of dependence.

There is then a moving chapter as he writes about learning from the example of Jesus.  There was clearly something unique and unrepeatable about Jesus’ death, and yet there is much we can learn for ourselves from the way Jesus died.

Lord, thank you that we do not need to fear death; teach us to die well and faithfully when our time comes.  Amen.

 Yours warmly, in Christ,

Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)