Did Jesus Die A Good Death?
Structured Ramblings on a Debate about Death in St. Paul’s Cathedral
It was a wet Tuesday when three old class-mates met on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral, embraced, displayed the usual satisfaction and contentment gained only by those who have spent numerous years in community together, and filed quickly into the cathedral close behind the flowing scarf of the Professor they had come to hear debate death.
Not a topic you would expect to draw a crowd, and with only half the seats taken, proceedings began. St. Paul’s had four such debates during October as part of their public ministry.[1] Stanley Hauerwas – who was in the UK primarily to promote his new book, Hannah’s Child[2] – was the main attraction for the three old class-mates.
The debate was good, if too short, but what really got us talking in the pub afterwards was the question that ended the debate: Did Jesus die a good death? This was a question asked of Hauerwas by Sister Frances Dominica. By now, I found myself pre-empting Hauerwas’ answer, having followed his theology of death through to this point. But his answer shocked – expecting a ‘Yes’, he answered ‘No’.
Of course, the debate had ranged wider than this question. Up to that point, Hauerwas had given a brief but thorough explanation of why we as Christians sing from an unrecognisable songbook when compared to the attitudes toward death we encounter in our society at large. His diagnosis of cultural attitudes can be neatly summarised by a phrase he repeated a number of times: we want to get out of life alive.
He argued that our culture has been deceived into believing modernity’s project of convincing people that they should have no story except the story they chose when they had no story. The need then to co-operate as humans within society was still present, but as we increasingly accepted modernity’s lie, we needed a hook upon which to hang our co-operation, for it was no longer God. Consequently, Hauerwas names Hobbes as the man who provided the argument that we continue to co-operate because we still have a common factor that affects all of our stories – death. Thus, we have, with an ever-increasing measure, feared death.
This is an about turn from what we as Christians have as our story and our attitude toward death. In the Middle Ages, notes Hauerwas, the prayer was ‘Lord, save us from a quick death’. The desire was to have an awareness and understanding that death was coming – for that enable the dying person to be made right with their friends, enemies, and first and foremost, God.[3] It was God they feared, not death. Today, we it is death we fear, not God.
There is something profoundly obnoxious about wanting to get out of life alive, spending remarkable amounts of money to surround dying people with technology that keeps them alive until they do not actually know whether they are alive or not. We no longer fear God, and thus want to slip out of this life without noticing we died. Indeed, as Sister Frances noted, being surrounded with technology whilst dying is profoundly lonely. But this in itself is antithetical to the Christian message. Because we need not fear death, we are able to make death less lonely by being present with those who are dying. Sister Frances, who had surprisingly little to contribute to the debate and was unable to contribute to what a good death actually is, is practicing this very presence with her work in setting up children’s hospices.[4] Instead of this obnoxious desire to get out of life alive, we have a bigger, better story. Life is a gift from God – and therefore, whilst we rightly see death as an enemy, we need not fear it.
Conversely, Hauerwas ponders whether death is actually, in an interesting way, a gift itself. Death makes life valuable, but because God ultimately wants us to be with Him, Hauerwas wonders with Augustine whether there needed, even before the fall, to be some sort of transition from finite beings to infinite beings. Now, whether Hauerwas is correct on this musing is open to debate, as he seems to disregard the fullness of the communion between God and man in the garden. But it is a thought worth of further pondering that likely needs another article.
Our attitude to death is neither one of fear nor of trepidation. For in our baptism into the death of Christ we are baptised into the resurrection. As Paul says, if we have died with Christ we will surely be raised with Christ. The fear and loneliness that clasp around our society and the pervading attitude towards death are released and banished by the death and resurrection of Christ.
Hauerwas concludes thus: That as Christians we do not have to get out of life alive because we know our destiny has been set through our baptisms into the love of God. Christ’s death was, for us, a very good death.
And thus we come back to the question of whether Jesus died a good death or not.
If we look at the modern fear of death, then Jesus died a very bad death. Not only was he alone, our culture would claim, but he knew he was going to die, it was long and painful, and he was something of a burden to those around him when he died – his death infringed upon the freedom of the lives of many of those around him.
But, when we think about the death of Jesus through the eyes of the followers of Christ we are and not followers of modernity or cultural trends, we surely cannot fail to come to the conclusion that Jesus did indeed die a good death.
Jesus died as he lived: sacrificially and specifically for others. He did not die alone; his Father was with him every step of the way (even if we do allow for the cry of despair right at the last – although even then, the Psalm Jesus quotes does not allow for the actuality of God not being there, only for the perception of his absence). Jesus had time to prepare for his death, he had time to set things right, had he any need to, with his family, friends, enemies (forgive them, they know not what they do), and with his Father. And finally, his death infringed upon millions of people and is remembered by them every time the Eucharist is celebrated.
For Hauerwas to claim that Jesus did not die a good death seems contrary to his whole argument that as Christians we have language and mechanisms that enable us to both understand, process and come through death – our own and that of others – as a community that is radically changed because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who died a good death.
So, when it comes down to it, and we are sat in a small London pub on a wet Tuesday, what do think about death? And what do we think about the death of Christ?
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