The Great Escape

Columnist Peggy Noonan says that in difficult issues of whether to prolong life or not, if you are going to err, always err on the side of life. She then recounts the story from the life of Winston Churchill, when he was in charge of England’s prison systems. At a dinner party one evening, a woman was seated next to Churchill. The woman said that if she were ever given a life sentence in prison, she would rather die than spend a lifetime behind bars.

Churchill reared back and said, “No, madam. Always choose life! Death’s the only thing you can’t get out of.”

Death’s the only thing you can’t get out of. Unless, of course, you happen to be Jesus Christ, or one of His followers.

Jesus offers the only solution to life’s greatest problem: death. John 11:1-11 records the most dramatic of all Jesus’ miracles. 

1. The Democracy of Death (John 11:1-11)

Have you accepted the reality of your mortality? Do you understand that your life here on earth is rapidly coming to an end?

One of the finest monuments in Ireland is located in the town of Waterford.  It is a stone carving of one of the town’s mayors—Mayor Rice, a devout believer and a victim of the Black Death that swept Europe in the 14th Century.

The carving is actually quite gruesome. It portrays the mayor’s decomposing body being gnawed and devoured by toads, vermin, and insects. Below the carving are these words: “Whoever you are that pass by, stand, read, weep. I am what you will be, and I was what you are.” We are all going to die. You are going to die.

2. The Despair of Death (John 11:20-35)

The word death is “thanatos” in Greek. It literally means “separation.” Death represents not only the separation of the spirit from the body, but also the separation of us from someone we loved. Separation, no matter how temporary it is, is always painful.

I’m sure you have experience losing a loved one: a mate, a parent, a close friend, a child. It may have been recently, or it may have been years ago. Yet no matter how hard you try, you can’t erase the pain.

I remember asking a woman who had lost her husband how she was doing. She replied, “I suppose my life is somewhat back to normal, but every morning I wake up, and my thought is that there is something that is not right. I imagine I will carry that feeling with me until the day that I die.”

If that is true of you, you need to understand that the loss, the sorrow, the emptiness you feel is normal. No matter how strong your faith, there is a despair that death brings.  

In writing to the Thessalonian Christians about the future resurrection, Paul said, “But we do not want you to be uninformed brethren about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).  

It is not that we do not grieve, but we do not grieve in the same way as those who have no hope. Why? Death is not the final word for a Christian. We should not place a period where God has simply placed a comma.

Jesus Christ has forever defeated the power of death. 

3. The Defeat of Death (John 11:38-44)

The fact that Jesus Christ defeated the power of death when God raised Him from the grave means that one day those of us who have trusted in Him shall also be rescued from the jaws of the grave. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.”

The only way to escape the reality of death is by trusting in the One who has escaped the grave Himself—Jesus Christ.

When I was a little boy, one thing I remember doing with my dad was staying up late on just about every Friday night to watch the TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

There is one episode I’ll never forget. The episode was titled “The Great Escape.” It was about this woman who was found guilty of a double murder and sentenced to life in prison. As she stood before the judge, she shook her fist, and she said: “I promise you this, I will not serve out my full term, I will escape from the prison.”

So they had that obligatory scene, you know, where she’s riding in the bus one late stormy night through the prison gates, and she is determined that she is going to get out. And she realizes that if she’s going to get out, she’s going to have to find somebody who has keys to let her out. There was an old man who worked in the prison, and his job was to make the caskets and then bury those who died within the prison walls. He had the keys to get out. 

So she says to the old man, “I want you to get me out of this prison. I have all the money in the world, and if you will just help me get outside, I will give you the money you need for an operation so you don’t go blind.” And so the old man finally agrees. “So here is his plan. When the bell tolls at night, signaling that a prisoner has died, you come down to the casket room and slip inside the casket along with the deceased person. I’ll put it in the car, take it outside the prison walls, bury it, and then the next day I’ll come back and dig you up and let you out, and you’ll be free.” What could go wrong with that? 

The next night, the bell sounds. She walks down that eerie, dark hallway, climbs into the casket, feels it being lifted, and hears the cart rolling. She feels the casket being put into the ground. She can hear the dirt being shoveled onto the casket, and she smiles. Her plan’s worked. 

The hours pass. Nobody comes. The next night comes and goes, and nobody comes. Her smile turns into a deep panic. She takes out a candle she’s brought. She lights it, and to her horror, there she sees in the casket next to her the corpse of that old man who makes the caskets. 

And the last scene of that show is the camera pulling back from the cemetery, and all you hear is the wailing and the crying of a woman who realizes she will be in that grave forever.

Her wailing is nothing compared to the wailing of those who, five seconds after they die, realize they have made the worst mistake of their lives in rejecting or neglecting the only way we can escape the power of death. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live again.”