“Ultimately, we’re all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how, but what we can decide is how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered as men.” -Proximo, Gladiator
…or women…Live as though it were your last day on earth. That’s what we’ve been told our entire lives, in the hopes that we will choose the good things in life rather than the bad. In the hopes that we will do what makes us feel good in the moment rather than what may hurt today but will be good for us later. But there’s so much more to this than just what’s in the here and now. This is more about a lifestyle rather than day-to-day decisions. Ultimately, yes, we’re all dead men. That is the wage of sin: death. Unless Jesus comes back, we will all die. So, what is there to live for? In Matthew 19, Jesus is telling the parable of the Rich Young Man who comes to Jesus asking how he can enter the kingdom of heaven. Hear what Jesus has to say to this young man, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Get over the fact that Jesus is telling him, and us, to sell all our possessions and give it to the poor. That is what we’re called to do as Christians anyway, love our neighbor as our self. If they need everything we have, then we should be filled with joy at the opportunity to give it all up. No, pass to the last part of that first sentence: and you will have treasure in heaven.
This is what there is to live for. Heaven and our eternal treasures there. Because those are the only things that will last. Proximo says rightly that we cannot choose how, and may I add when, we die, but what we can choose is how we meet our death. With open arms, waiting to be held by our loving Father, or terrified of the unknown, the permanent separation from the Creator of all things??? But how do we choose how we meet our death? I think that here we must read in between the lines a bit. I think that our actions at our death stem from our actions from our entire lifetime. From experience, for believers, when we know that our time on this earth is drawing to a close, we relish in the fact that we are going home. Not home as we know it here, home for our physical bodies. But home as we believe in our hearts, home for our eternal soul. “I’m ready to go home.” That’s what all my relatives who have passed have said just before their bodies died. They were tired of life here, on this fallen and imperfect world, and longed for an existence that includes no pain or hurt or suffering. They longed for an eternal existence of perfection with their Father in heaven.
On the other hand, there are those who don’t allow Jesus to be the Lover of their soul and have nothing but an eternal separation to look forward to. I’d be plum scared, too! Hell. Eternal separation from God. In the Bible, the physical characteristics of Hell are described as a fire, a burning lake of sulfur. While that may be true, I believe foremost that Hell is the pain of an eternal separation from God. An eternity of existing with no meaning or love. Not even living, but existing. Like a body walking around with no soul to guide it. No wonder it is terrifying for unbelievers when they are close to death!
So, how will you choose to meet your end? How will you choose to be remembered? As a child of God, storing up eternal treasures in heaven, given eternal life through his son Jesus? As a child of the world, a follower of fleshly desires, only interested in this life with no thought to eternity? Will you choose to live a life worthy of honor, as Maximus was honored? Or will you choose to live a life worthy of being forgotten, as Commodus was forgotten?
