Over the past several weeks, I have been asked many questions regarding the Terri Schiavo situation. The whole thing has been an unpleasant mess for us as a nation. Some have concluded that the husband wanted her to die so that he could selfishly continue life as he wants it—free from any responsibility for her. Some have concluded that the parents have been selfishly delusional about her recovery and that their attempts to keep her alive are all about them rather than about her.
Through our media resources, it is hard to get an accurate picture of people on the surface let alone try to determine at a distance what their motivations are. I have made it clear in my conversations with folks inside and outside the Bible Center family as well as in interviews with the local media that I believe in difficult life and death issues we must always as a culture and in our laws err on the side of life. Providing food and water to a living being is basic to decent humanity. My purpose in this blog today is not to address the biblical foundations for this perspective, but to point out that all of the life and death issues we face (including the Schiavo case) are the result of man's sin.
It was in the paradise of the Garden of Eden that it all started. When Adam and Eve believed a lie from Satan and then acted on that lie by disobeying God, part of the curse was death. Death began its ugly and dark reign in humanity. From the point sin entered the human race, death has lingered like a thick dark, damp cloud chilling and shrouding lives ever since. God said it would be this way, but God also has provided Christ as the way in which the curse was lifted. His passion for us in His death, burial and resurrection has conquered the grip of death. Through faith in Christ the sting of death is removed for the individual and the hope of eternal life with Christ is granted.
The Schiavo situation has raised practical and philosophical issues that must be addressed, but the issues are even more complex than we see on the surface. While our nation grapples with the societal and scientific implications of the life and death issues, as God's children we must proclaim that this is all linked to the curse of sin, but that Jesus Christ came to remove its sting. We must be faithful in not just standing for the sanctity of physical life, but we must be the promoters of the deepest need--spiritual life through Jesus Christ. Whenever you discuss the crucial questions of life and death with others, always share the vital hope you have in Jesus Christ as the giver of real and lasting life!
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