We interrupt our Advent meditations for a special announcement:
Death doesn’t take a vacation during Advent.
We’re in that season of looking forward to the First Advent. We actually live in the season of looking forward to the Second Advent, which carries this promise:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21.1 – 5, ESV, emphasis mine)
The implication is clear: until the former things have passed away, and Jesus makes all things new, there is death, mourning, crying, and pain.
I write this because of soccer sportswriter Grant Wahl who died suddenly in Qatar during the last part of the Argentina / Netherlands game during the World Cup of soccer. It’s especially poignant because, since Grant was a sportswriter, we have some of his last words. I report here from an excellent article at ESPN.
Wahl was covering his eighth World Cup. He wrote Monday on his website that he had visited a medical clinic in Qatar.
“My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you. What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort.“
Bob’s note: The World Cup started with one game on November 20, three games on November 21, and after that, there were four games per day through December 2. Then two games per day December 3 – 6. There were no games on December 7 and 8. He said he rested on the 8th, but he was back to work on the 9th. He died late in the second game. Grant’s words continue:
“I didn’t have Covid (I test regularly here), but I went into the medical clinic at the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis. They gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup, and I’m already feeling a bit better just a few hours later. But still: No bueno.
“I basically canceled everything on this Thursday that I had, and napped and I’m doing slightly better that you can probably tell in my voice that I’m not at it at 100 percent here. Hopefully I will not cough during this podcast. I’m coughing a lot. Everyone’s coughing here in like this is by no means limited to me like so many journalists have got a crazy cough. It sounds like a death rattle sometimes.
“The only thing that’s surprising to me actually is there isn’t that much COVID here. I thought there might be a real issue with that. We’re not really seeing COVID cases. We’re just seeing a lot of general sickness, coughing, colds, and I can’t wait to be on the other side of what I have. But I am going to be ready to go. I’m attending on Friday.”
“I’m ready to go. I’m attending on Friday,” and while “attending,” – read, “working” – he died. There are worse ways to go, to be sure, but it gives one pause. One day he’s at his place in the press box and the next day, they’ve set up a memorial to him in that place. Maybe if Grant had exercised moderation in his last days, he’d still be with us. We don’t know.
It’s not just the famous. June was talking with her friend Sarah at a social function Wednesday, making plans to get together in January to talk about June’s helping her sub as an organist for a local church. Thursday, Sarah had a stroke. Friday, she was gone.
And it’s not just the elderly and overworked. Just this morning we got word that the 16-year-old grandson of long-time friends of ours was killed in an automobile accident. A lady in her 70s, a 48-year-old sportswriter, and a 16-year-old high school student. Death is no respecter of age or persons.
No one can control the wind or lock it in a box. No one has any say-so regarding the day of death. (Ecclesiastes 8.8, MSG)
But we celebrate Advent, when Jesus came as a human being subject to death in order to destroy death:
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, (Hebrews 2.14, NKJV)