Death is not medicine

“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.”

When Peter preached these words in Acts chapter 2, he was imploring his fellow Jews to follow a better King than the one they’ve been hoping for. “David died,” Peter was essentially saying. “And you have been anxious for a new king like him, like the kings of this world who all die. But don’t follow kings who die. Follow the King who has conquered death by rising from the grave. Follow Him and He will give you the peace you’re looking for.” 

This is a lesson we should remember as western nations continue to be devoured by the growing cult of assisted suicide.

This past January, Derek Humphry, king of the “Right to Die” movement drew his last breath after spending decades preaching that man finds peace by escaping suffering, and that man could escape suffering by embracing death. This was the ghastly “gospel” he taught most notably in his 1991 bestseller, Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying, a literal lethal cocktail recipe book. And in his final years, one can only imagine Humphry saw his missionary work as an inarguable success. In 2018, Dutch doctors approved euthanasia for a 29-year-old woman with depression. Numerous countries, like Britain and Canada have embraced the movements, constantly expanding their coverage of what “conditions” qualify for state-funded contract killing. Likewise, the movement continues to build support in America. 

The debate over assisted suicide is, of course, not merely political. It’s also a spiritual. Adherents of euthanasia aren’t simply asserting that the government should free doctors and patients to pursue any “end of life” decisions they feel appropriate. They’re also making assertions about the nature of suffering and death. Suffering, they contend, is an evil to be escaped, a wrong to be fixed. Medicine, likewise, is not really the discipline of bringing healing to the sick. It’s a tool to use in service of ending suffering. Therefore, if traditional medicines like drugs or surgery or therapy fail to help a person escape suffering, death may then be conscripted as a form of medicine, as the final elixir to solve the stubborn problem of suffering. 

This was ultimately the creed of Derek Humphry and remains the creed of those who now carry the “right to die” banner. This is the same creed espoused by advocates of embryonic genetic screening who speak as though they’re “saving” children from blindness by destroying any embryos at risk of suffering from it, should they be born. “It’s a mistake when humans suffer,” they’re telling us. “But don’t worry. Death can rescue us from having to suffer in our own bodies.” And perhaps more importantly, they’re telling us, “death can rescue us from having to aid other people in their suffering, and from having to contemplate our own weaknesses by gazing at theirs.”

But brothers, I may say to you with confidence that Derek Humphry is now dead. And one day every advocate of euthanasia and eugenics will follow him into the grave. So don’t follow kings who can die. And most certainly don’t follow them in their false understanding of death itself. Rather, follow Jesus, the King who redeemed suffering upon the cross and conquered death in His resurrection. 

Suffering came into this world as a result of Adam’s fall. But the New Adam has made suffering into something new. For those in Christ, suffering is not a curse, but a means through which you can see the promises of Christ. Now, when disease won’t leave your bones, you are blessed to see the faithfulness of the Savior who will never leave your side, the one who will one day lift you from the grave, heal and glorify your flesh, and welcome you into the eternal kingdom where suffering will never enter. When pain rips through your body, when despair haunts your heart, you can see the victory of Christ surrounding these afflictions, swearing to you that, because He conquered them, you will conquer them too. When afflictions tear apart the bodies and hearts of your neighbors, you can hear Christ calling you to serve them through their cries of agony.

Likewise, death is not medicine. It’s not care. It’s not a tool for fixing the suffering we didn’t deserve. As Jesus showed us, death is the curse that we once deserved, the wage we once earned through our sinfulness. But through His victory over the grave, He has taken the sting out of death, stripped it of its power, and given you an eternal kingdom you never could have deserved. For the Christian, death is a serpent with shattered fangs. Don’t fear its hiss, but don’t extract its venom in an idolatrous attempt to solve your sorrows. In all of this, Jesus shows us that ending your life won’t rescue you from suffering. It will only bring you further away from the only One who has the power to turn torment into peace. 

If you want to find peace, don’t trust in kings who die. Rather, trust in the King who conquered death. Trust the King who alone chooses when we breathe our last, and you will breathe His peace forever.