It’s Saturday before Easter, a very dark day if you were a follower of Jesus back in the first century. Jesus was dead. Death is real and feels very permanent. As the two in Luke 24 said:

Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. (Luke 24.19 – 21, ESV, emphasis mine)

As we get older, death comes closer to home. I wrote in my “Unsung Heroes” series about Jo Newell who was going through treatment for cancer. I am pleased to report that she completed her treatment successfully and is doing well. HOWEVER, hardly before she and her husband, Ed, had time to celebrate, Ed was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Here is some of what Jo wrote on Friday, April 3:

Ed and I reached an excruciatingly hard decision today. He is going to stop treatment and we have connected with local hospice care. Ed was willing to try treatment, as far advanced as his cancer is, for my and the family’s sake. But he gets weaker every day and just can’t fight anymore. The doctor told us on Wednesday that without treatment he would probably live less than two weeks. Of course, God alone knows his days, but his time is short. 

I asked him what he would want to communicate to all of you who are praying for him, many of whom have walked with him for years and even decades. He said he wants people to know what a privilege it has been to enjoy the friendships he has and to do life and ministry together. He had looked forward to many more years of ministry work and life’s adventures. He is a little scared of this journey, but he knows that at the end of it Jesus will meet him and that all will be well. He is finding that the hardest thing is saying goodbye. He has had conversations with several of our daughters, who may not make it here before he dies because of the pandemic. It is so sad for all of us to know that he will no longer be here with us to share in the family’s joys and sorrows, that this is goodbye for this life.

Words are ridiculously inadequate to express the depth of sorrow and confusion I am experiencing. I know from grieving Nathaniel [their son who was killed in an accident, maybe 10 years ago] that this is going to be a long, tough road. Please pray for my strength/health and the ability to love Ed well to the end. Pray for our [six] daughters as they say goodbye to their dad.

It is times like these that we find out if we really believe the verses we love so well and whether the Lord really is the compassionate Savior we have claimed Him to be. Today, with no power of my own to rely on as I move farther into the valley of the shadow of death, I want to affirm that Jesus IS our Good Shepherd and that in Him we truly do have all that we need. Psalm 46 is true: God IS our refuge and strength and a very present help in trouble. My prayer (one of many) is that His faithfulness to us might help others to trust Him more completely.

Here is what she posted on Caring Bridge on April 6, just three days later, right after he passed:

My dear friends, my dear husband of almost 42 years, got to go home to be with his Lord Jesus about two hours ago. It was peaceful, and I was alone with him, which was a sweet gift for me. Thank you for all the kind words you have shared in the last days about the impact he had on your lives. It is amazing to me how God uses our lives to bless one another, and I don’t think Ed had any idea of how special he was to so many…You are a great blessing to us, now to me. I love you all more than I can say!

God bless you and yours on this Holy Saturday. May we think deeply about Jesus’ death and death in general so that we can wholly enter into the joy of the resurrection.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. (Romans 5.12, ESV)

The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15.26, ESV)