13 Jan Resources | Preparing for Your Dying Hour

Since every one of us must one day depart this world, we must turn our eyes to God — for it is towards God that the path of death ultimately leads and directs us. Here we find the beginning of the narrow gate and of the straight path to life (Matt. 7:14). All must joyfully venture forth on this path, for though the gate is quite narrow, the path is not long. Just as an infant is born with peril and pain from its small home in its mother’s womb into this immense world, so every man and woman departs this life through the narrow gate of death. And although the world in which we currently dwell seems large and wide to us, it is nevertheless much narrower and smaller than the mother’s womb in comparison with the future heaven.

And yet most, when faced with the prospect of their own death (as certain and sure as it is) find themselves in fear merely at the thought of it. Why is it that death is so terrifying to man? Death looms so large and is terrifying because our foolish and fainthearted nature has etched its image too vividly within itself and constantly fixes its gaze on it. Moreover, the Devil presses man to fix his eyes on the gruesome image of death in order to add to the worry, timidity, and despair he feels. He conjures up before man’s eyes every type and kind of sudden, terrible death ever seen and heard. And then he also slyly suggests the wrath of God, which he has long used to torment believers. In these ways he fills our foolish human nature with the dread of death while at the same time cultivating a love and concern for this world and this life. Burdened with such thoughts, man forgets God, flees and abhors death, and, in the end is and remains disobedient to God.

The power of death is rooted in our fearful nature and in our neglecting it until the last moment. We must commit to familiarizing ourselves with death during our lifetime; we must contemplate death while it is still at a distance. Once our time to die has come, this is hazardous and useless, for then death looms large of its own accord. In that hour we must instead put the thought of death out of mind and refuse to see it, as we shall hear.

Sin also grows large and important when we dwell on it and brood over it too much. This is increased by the fearfulness of our conscience, which is ashamed before God and accuses itself terribly. That is the water that the Devil has been seeking for his mill. He magnifies the number and greatness of our sin, reminding us of all who have sinned and been condemned for lesser sins than ours so as to make us despair or die reluctantly, thus forgetting God and being found disobedient in the hour of death. It doesn’t help that man himself feels as if he should dwell on his sins in the hour of his death, convinced it is right, necessary, and useful for him to engage in such contemplation.

No, the hour of death is not the fitting time to meditate on sin. That must be done during one’s lifetime. All throughout our lifetime, when we should constantly have our eyes fixed on the image of death, sin, and hell (as we read in Psalm 51:3, “My sin is ever before me”) the temptation is to close our eyes and hide these images. And then in the hour of death when our eyes should see only life, grace, and salvation, the tempter at once opens our eyes and frightens us with these untimely images so that we shall not see the true ones.

You must look at death while you are alive and see sin in the light of grace and hell in the light of heaven, allowing nothing to divert you from that view. In such pictures death will not appear terrible and gruesome. No, death itself will appear as reprehensible and dead, slain and overcome in life. For Christ is nothing other than sheer life, as his saints in him are likewise. The more profoundly you impress that image upon your heart and gaze upon it, the more the image of death will fade and vanish without struggle or battle. Thus your heart will be at peace and you will be able to die calmly in Christ and with Christ, as we read in Revelation 14:13, “Blessed are those who die in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

This was foreshown in Numbers 21 where we hear that when the children of Israel were bitten by fiery serpents they did not struggle with these serpents, but merely had to raise their eyes to the dead bronze serpent and the living serpents dropped fro them by themselves and perished. Thus you must concern yourself solely with the death of Christ and then you will find life. But if you look at death in any other way, it will kill you with great anxiety and anguish. This is why Christ says, “In the world — that is, in yourselves — you have unrest, but in me you will find peace” (John 16:33). You must look at sin only within the lens of grace. Engrave that picture in yourself with all your power and keep it before your eyes.

How is that to be understood? Grace and mercy are there where Christ on the cross takes your sin from you, bears it for you, and destroys it. To believe this firmly, to keep it before your eyes and not to doubt it, means to view the picture of Christ and to engrave it in yourself.

“What more should God do to persuade you to accept death willingly and not to dread but to overcome it? In Christ he offers you the image of life, of grace, and of salvation so that you may not be horrified by the images of sin, death, and hell.”

What more should God do to persuade you to accept death willingly and not to dread but to overcome it? In Christ he offers you the image of life, of grace, and of salvation so that you may not be horrified by the images of sin, death, and hell. Furthermore, he lays your sin and your death on his dearest Son, vanquishes them, and renders them harmless for you. He lets the trials of sin and death assail his Son, instead of you, and teaches you how to preserve yourself in the midst of these and how to make them harmless and bearable. And to relieve you of all doubt he grants you a sure sign, namely, the holy sacraments. He commands his angels, all saints, all creatures, to join him in watching over you, to be concerned about your soul, and to receive it. He commands you to ask him for this and to be assured of fulfillment. What more can or should he do?

From this you can see that he is a true God and that he performs great, right, and divine works for you. Why, then, should he not impose something big upon you (such as dying), seeing as how he adds to it great benefits, help, and strength, and thereby wants to test the power of his grace. Thus we read in Psalm 111:2, “Great are the works of the Lord, selected according to his pleasure.” Therefore, we ought to thank him with a joyful heart for showing us such wonderful, rich, and immeasurable grace and mercy against death, hell, and sin, and to laud and love his grace rather than fearing death so greatly. To that end may God help us. Amen.

Adapted from Martin Luther’s sermon “A Sermon on Preparing to Die” as part of our sermon series, “A Theology of Death.” Martin Luther (1483-1546), the forerunner to the English Puritans of the 16th and 17th centuries, was a German monk and theologian whose ideas ignited the Protestant Reformation in 1517 and ultimately changed the course of Western civilization.