One who died well

I preached last Sunday on Matthew 21.18-22 and I spent a good deal of time trying to help us see that the prosperity gospel preachers have badlymisinterpreted these verses. They claim that this is the only way to pray, when it clearly is not – Jesus prays a different way in the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26.

I said – and I deeply believe this – that the prosperity gospel way of understanding Matthew 21.18-22 will not produce people who die well. One reason I believe this is because of something I was aghast to read in a brand-new book by a prosperity preacher. Here’s the advice he gives about visiting someone in the hospital: ‘…you need to be getting people’s hopes up and speaking positive words. You don’t need to be speaking negative things. When you’re around somebody in a hospital room, don’t talk to them about dying. Talk to them about living.’ This is terrible advice. If someone is dying, you should talk to them about it. You can see that this writer is coming from the position of believing that Matthew 21.18-22 is the only possible way to pray. But Jesus faced the very real possibility of his death. He didn’t just speak ‘positive words.’ And neither should we. At some point in the dying process, this attempt to be faith-filled becomes denial. And you can’t die well in denial. You need to go about the business of preparing to die if you are to die well.

Let me tell you about one who died well. Carol Bugh, the wife of Rob Bugh, senior pastor of Wheaton Bible Church in Wheaton, Illinois. Soon after turning fifty, Carol was diagnosed with an aggressive form of rectal cancer. Rob and Carol fought the cancer hard for a while, seeking all the treatment they could find. But slowly, as Rob says, “There’s a growing awareness that God may be up to something else than bringing about healing…There’s this resignation that comes. Now you know what the gospel describes at Gethsemane when Jesus says, ‘Take this cup from me.’ That was a passage I prayed over and over, ‘God take this from us. Take this cancer from us, but not my will but thy will be done.’” Rob Bugh continues, “My wife was amazing during this because she never complained, and she was always very positive. Now was she scared? Was she worried? Yeah, but she had a firm conviction in the sovereignty of God. She was a deeply spiritual woman. We didn’t like it, but we were willing to accept this as God’s assignment for our life. Carol never lasted in self-pity.”

I’ve taken this story straight from Rob Moll’s excellent new book The Art of Dying: Living Fully into the Life To Come. I highly recommend this book. It seeks to help Christians face death and die well. Notice how Rob and Carol Moll were praying as Carol approached death. They weren’t passive – they were still praying for healing (‘Take this cup from me’). But they weren’t in denial. They were praying a Matthew 26 kind of prayer: ‘not my will but thy will be done.’

PCF, may we live well and may we die well. And to that end, may we believe and pray as Jesus teaches us to in the Gospel of Matthew. Sometimes that will mean praying in a Matthew 21 kind of way. Other times that will mean praying a Matthew 26, Garden-of-Gethsemane kind of prayer.

Posted by Stephen Witmer on Aug 28, 02:31 PM