A DNR (do not resuscitate) is hard to watch die. And the family is also hard to watch watching the dying. There is a lot of watching, yes. Intensely and intently. The eyes around the room keep turning towards the doctor as the breathing slows down. “Now”? “Has he yet?”
The room resembles a dramatic silent show in a puppet theater, where only one motion breaks the stillness: the motion of tearful staring faces turning towards the dying, the doctor, and each other, as they witness the last breath. All in silence. No one has to utter any words. Everyone has one fear, one expectation, one question, and we all know what the question is: which. Which was the last one: the last breath of the beloved. Which was the moment, the terrible moment of...death.
When Jesus was hanging on the cross, the Father watched. He watched his Son die. His eyes kept rolling around the “room”, as he watched the others watching Jesus die. This was a large room: deep and wide, as wide as the infinite universe. Millions, billions, trillions, who knows how many eyes watching. Watching Jesus, watching the Father, watching each other, wondering with each breath: Was this the last one? Is this it?
Strangely, as I try to picture the scene in my mind, I find myself uncomfortable with almost all the paintings of Jesus’ death that I have seen so far. All except one. And this one was the only one that would always make me feel uncomfortable before. It’s the skin color. The skin color of a dead person is white-ish; gray-ish. So there is this painter, El Greco. In all his paintings, the human faces are always grey. It’s disturbing. But his works are some of the easiest for me to recognize in a museum. As you can imagine, his Jesus on the cross painting follows this typical pattern. And this time, as I think of that far away moment, I feel like it makes it justice. The one painting that disturbed me before is the only one painting that does not bother me now, on the contrary. Of course, you may wonder, why is this significant? Well, I don’t know. Maybe I just feel like in some ways we have idealized a reality that looks just like .. any other reality. Maybe it is a matter of facing the reality. Maybe it is a matter of being true to what death actually means, of what it actually looks like.
Joh 19:30: When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finsihed: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
Jesus was a DNR. The great Physician had to respect His wish, signed long before in a heavenly court, and ratified by the triune divine council.
But unlike any other Being ever, He did not choose DNR for himself, that He may have an easier death. He chose DNR for us. For you. For me.
This part of Ellen White’s Patriarchs and Prophets is one of my favorite in all her books. I find it fascinating. Here is how it goes:
“The fall of man filled all heaven with sorrow. The world that God had made was blighted with the curse of sin and inhabited by beings doomed to misery and death. There appeared no escape for those who had transgressed the law. Angels ceased their songs of praise. Throughout the heavenly courts there was mourning for the ruin that sin had wrought.
The Son of God, heaven's glorious Commander, was touched with pity for the fallen race. His heart was moved with infinite compassion as the woes of the lost world rose up before Him. But divine love had conceived a plan whereby man might be redeemed. The broken law of God demanded the life of the sinner. In all the universe there was but one who could, in behalf of man, satisfy its claims. Since the divine law is as sacred as God Himself, only one equal with God could make atonement for its transgression. None but Christ could redeem fallen man from the curse of the law and bring him again into harmony with Heaven. Christ would take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin--sin so offensive to a holy God that it must separate the Father and His Son. Christ would reach to the depths of misery to rescue the ruined race.
Before the Father He pleaded on the sinner's behalf, while the host of heaven awaited the result with an intensity of interest that words cannot express. Long continued was that mysterious communing--"the counsel of peace" (Zechariah 6:13) for the fallen sons of men. The plan of salvation had been laid before the creation of the earth; for Christ is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8); yet it was a struggle, even with the King of the universe, to yield up His Son to die for the guilty race. But "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. Oh, the mystery of redemption! the love of God for a world that did not love Him! Who can know the depths of that love which "passeth knowledge"? Through endless ages immortal minds, seeking to comprehend the mystery of that incomprehensible love, will wonder and adore.
The plan by which alone man's salvation could be secured, involved all heaven in its infinite sacrifice. The angels could not rejoice as Christ opened before them the plan of redemption, for they saw that man's salvation must cost their loved Commander unutterable woe. In grief and wonder they listened to His words as He told them how He must descend from heaven's purity and peace, its joy and glory and immortal life, and come in contact with the degradation of earth, to endure its sorrow, shame, and death. He was to stand between the sinner and the penalty of sin; yet few would receive Him as the Son of God. He would leave His high position as the Majesty of heaven, appear upon earth and humble Himself as a man, and by His own experience become acquainted with the sorrows and temptations which man would have to endure. All this would be necessary in order that He might be able to succor them that should be tempted. Hebrews 2:18. When His mission as a teacher should be ended, He must be delivered into the hands of wicked men and be subjected to every insult and torture that Satan could inspire them to inflict. He must die the cruelest of deaths, lifted up between the heavens and the earth as a guilty sinner.
The angels prostrated themselves at the feet of their Commander and offered to become a sacrifice for man. But an angel's life could not pay the debt; only He who created man had power to redeem him. Yet the angels were to have a part to act in the plan of redemption. Christ was to be made "a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death." Hebrews 2:9. As He should take human nature upon Him, His strength would not be equal to theirs, and they were to minister to Him, to strengthen and soothe Him under His sufferings. They were also to be ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who should be heirs of salvation. Hebrews 1:14. They would guard the subjects of grace from the power of evil angels and from the darkness constantly thrown around them by Satan.
When the angels should witness the agony and humiliation of their Lord, they would be filled with grief and indignation and would wish to deliver Him from His murderers; but they were not to interpose in order to prevent anything which they should behold. It was a part of the plan of redemption that Christ should suffer the scorn and abuse of wicked men, and He consented to all this when He became the Redeemer of man.
Christ assured the angels that by His death He would ransom many, and would destroy him who had the power of death. He would recover the kingdom which man had lost by transgression, and the redeemed were to inherit it with Him, and dwell therein forever. Sin and sinners would be blotted out, nevermore to disturb the peace of heaven or earth. He bade the angelic host to be in accord with the plan that His Father had accepted, and rejoice that, through His death, fallen man could be reconciled to God.
Then joy, inexpressible joy, filled heaven. The glory and blessedness of a world redeemed, outmeasured even the anguish and sacrifice of the Prince of life. Through the celestial courts echoed the first strains of that song which was to ring out above the hills of Bethlehem--"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2:14. With a deeper gladness now than in the rapture of the new creation, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job 38:7. (Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 63-65)
1 comments:
The interesting contrast is that with most death of human being who are DNR and attached to life support, is that it is highly anticlimactic for me. Usually we don't know when the exact "time of death" is. If they have died, the respiratory therapist has to come and disconnect the ventilator. The doctor has to officially come in and "call it." When Jesus died, it was very much a climax. The earth shook, the temple curtain was torn. Everyone knew that Jesus was dead. When they called the Roman soldiers to come "call it" they were shocked to see that he was dead. The most shocking thing for me is when someone is coherent enough to sign there own DNR.
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