This is Lent: Our Mortality
Sue Pyke | March 7th, 2024
Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
–Psalm 90:1-2
My family currently has four living generations. I can reflect on the human lifespan by snuggling with my 1-month-old granddaughter and then sitting with my 90-year-old father. From this vantage point, I can appreciate the significance of a psalm about human mortality opening with this transcendent description of the eternity of God. When one life comes to an end and another one is beginning, God is there. He is the constant through generational changes, forever.
Looking at life from an eternal perspective, the biblical writers describe human life as a dream, a sigh, a breath. As a fleeting shadow or fading flower. When we confront our own mortality, we wonder what really matters and what will endure. Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom, says the psalmist (90:12). How can we have a true understanding of our life that orients us to rightly view our limited time on earth?
Some of these same biblical images give us the insight we need. Our life passes like a breath, yet we know the One whose breath gave us life, and whose Spirit renews our life in Christ. During our brief life like a fleeting shadow, we take shelter in the shadow of God’s protection (Ps. 17:8, 36:7, 91:1). Though our life is like a fading flower, our heavenly Father clothes the lilies of the field, and how much more valuable are we to him than they (Matt. 6:28-33).
Our brief life matters because God gave us life. We bear his eternal image. Jesus experienced life on this troubled planet himself, and he didn’t look away from the broken and the tragic. Even with the power and love to change it, he grieved over our human condition. Jesus wept over the death of his friend Lazarus, and then raised him from the dead. Jesus wept over the sin and sorrow of the holy city of Jerusalem. Then he went to it and gave his life, to be resurrected and establish the new Jerusalem through the renewed hearts of his followers.
Generations will come and go; lives will pass from infancy to old age. But the true perspective on our fleeting mortal life is that though we may weep now, we will not weep forever. In the coming Easter celebration, we live a renewed life that will not end in death, a life in Christ that does last forever.
Response
We can gain wisdom for our own lives by remembering that Jesus both weeps and restores. In John 11:35, we read that Jesus wept. Reflect on Jesus’ grief over the death of his friend Lazarus, followed by raising him from death in John 11:38-44.
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! (Luke 19:41-42a). Jesus desired peace, justice, and security for Jerusalem, the holy city of his people. But they refused to walk in obedience to him, and they faced a future of violence and death. Reflect on Jesus changing that future through his own violent death, and then his resurrection to bring a new future for all people.
