Touching Death

The grave of one of my dad's relatives.  A cemetery is a place I only want to visit when necessary.
I certainly do not want to live there, what about you?

Have you ever touched death?  Can you touch it and if so, what does it feel like?  Can you describe that feeling?  Touching death must be a feeling to die for, you think?  Well, at least it seems that way, since so many people are obsessed with that feeling.  Have you noticed the obsession with death in the American Society or societies, World Wide for that matter?  If not, try this experiment; walk into any video rental store and take an inventory.  Go ahead and pause this reading if you want and drive right over to the store.  It should only take you about 30 minutes to complete this little experiment, if you live close. 

   Did you see what I was talking about?  Pretty frightening isn’t it?  Now, if you have one of those cable boxes that allow you to do a search by category, do a search on movies/horror and see how many come up and then follow up with a search on movies/comedy and compare.  This does not even take into account the non-movie programs depicting real-life or dramatized murders and violent crimes which are shown daily.  Still not convinced?  Perhaps you should pay closer attention to the games offered for each and every gaming system available.  Oh, and let’s not forget the nightly news!  More DEATH!  All in the name of news that we the people MUST know! 

As a teen growing up in the 70’s, we had a local body shop which towed in almost all the badly wrecked vehicles.  Whenever there was an accident with a fatality, usually involving a teenager, the vehicle would be placed in front of the body shop for all to see.  I can very well remember having my mom take me by the shop time after time to see those cars up close and personal.  There would always be a crowd of people gathered, peering inside to see the remnants left behind from the accident.  I can recall all the gory details of what I saw from the back of my mind, but I will not elaborate on those here.  So what was and is the fascination with this thing, called death?

In the Torah reading for this week we are given the ritual of the Red Heifer which is all about…..DEATH and LIFE.  The reading of Numbers 19:1-22:1 begins with God’s instructions regarding the ceremonial killing of the Red Heifer.  This is a very detailed service and also very complicated.  I am not going into that much detail at this time.  The direction which I am led to take my readers in for this year is a much different one. 

Anytime a person touched death, they became unclean.  Being unclean did not imply they were a “bad” person, but rather unable to enter the Tabernacle or Temple.  The Temple contained, Life!  Death could not enter where Life resided. It really was simple after all, not complicated.

   

This applied to priests as well.  What did it mean to touch death?  To come into contact with anything or anyone who was dead.  Absorb that for a moment….people or animals or possibly insects….anything or anyone.  Add to that, if I have touched death and then touch you……well? 

The priests were always on duty of some kind or other.  If they were to touch death they could neither carry out those duties nor could they eat their priestly portions.  This subject can get rather deep if we keep digging.  Now, on a daily basis, this wasn’t a problem for the average person.  If you lived in the surrounding plains or hills no problem, but those three times a year when all Jewish males must make a trek to Jerusalem to the Temple?  Well, now we have a problem.  There must be a way to cleanse all those people so they can offer their sacrifices as prescribed and on a regular basis there must be a way to make people clean anytime they needed to come to the Temple, right?

This problem was already taken care of by God, Himself!  The short version of the story is this; The Red Heifer solution is that the Clean (Priest) becomes unclean (by touching a dead animal) in order to make the unclean (the person who has come into contact with the dead), clean!  Now, let me say that again without all the ( ).  The Clean becomes unclean in order to make the unclean, clean!  This all took place outside the city gates, thus the reason the clean became unclean, (sound familiar?)  Jesus who was clean became unclean so we who are unclean could become clean!  This is an entire post within itself, but no time for that now.  (If you are a rabbit chasing geek like me, go ahead and read the first section of the Torah reading about the Red Heifer and then turn to the Gospels and read every account of the Crucifixion and compare!)

I was privileged to hear Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, Abraham Greenbaum, speak a couple of weeks ago on this section of the Torah portion.  One thing he said that stuck with me regarding the subject of death was:

“The reason young people don’t want to be around old people is because, older people are so close to death.”

If this statement is true, then why are young people so absorbed with movies, games and stories about death?   And why do we continue to hear of news stories involving teens and young adults inventing new things to try that are volatile and deadly?  Why are all of us so obsessed with death rather than life?  What is death anyway?  Is it not just the absence of life?  If so, then what is life?  Is it a beating heart, breathing lungs or brain activity?  Or is life God, Himself and His Son?

John 5:24-26

“Amen, amen, I say to you, one who hears My words and believes the one who sent Me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, for he has passed from death to life.  Amen, amen, I say to you that an hour will come and is now here in which the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will surely live.  For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He has also granted the Son to have life in Himself.”  (The Delitzsch Hebrew Gospels)

John 11:25-26

“I am the rising and the life.  The one who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.  Anyone living who believes in Me will never die.  Do you believe in this word?”  (The Delitzsch Hebrew Gospels)

John 10:10

“The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure.”  (Jewish New Testament)

Now, let us get back to the Temple and the Red Heifer for a moment.  We don’t have to go to the Temple any more, right?  I mean, we aren’t Jews and there is no Temple, so this Red Heifer thing and touching the dead doesn’t apply to us now does it?  Well, let’s do the math.  We know that God’s presence resided in the Temple until Jesus came.  Where has His presence resided since Jesus came?  If you aren’t sure of the answer here, turn to Acts 2 and start reading to refresh your memory!  Perhaps I can help your memory with just one word – Pentecost! 

Step 2:  If believers are the Temple and the Temple is where the Life resides and death cannot be where the Life is then you do the math.  Jesus has already cleansed us with the ashes from the Red Heifer, but now I have a question for you.  Touching death is an inevitable part of life, but how much unnecessary touching are we doing?  Are we crowding out the Life with death?  Every time we look upon death on television or a movie screen or our computer, does Life have to turn His head? 

Abraham Greenbaum also made the statement that this obsession with death in our society is very likely the reason we see so much depression among us.  I had already made that observation and totally agree.  A person who stays in the graveyard with rotting corpses and wilting flowers will never know the beauty of true Life.  Jesus even tells us about a man who came from this type of situation.  In Luke 8:26-39 you can read the story of the man who was living in the graveyard.  He was so deranged the people in the surrounding country were terrified of him, but when Jesus gave him Life he left the tombs!  He certainly didn’t want to live in the graveyard touching death any longer!

You see, Life is so much greater than death!  Death is taking something away and Life is giving something back!  Now, how are you going to treat the Temple where the Life dwells from this point on?  Will you dwell in the land of graves and darkness or Life and Light?