The Power of Life and Death

A man lays on the operating table fully conscious. The doctor approaches his IV with one of those big stickers in hand. Fortunately for the man, the needle goes into the tubes and not into some painfully sensitive part of his anatomy. The doctor warns the man, "Lie very still now, too much of this too quickly will kill you!" The man, upon his life, lays very still. Later, he begins to wonder, why then have that much of the deadly stuff in the big sticker? Is the doctor too lazy to bring multiple doses? Is the administering of such stuff a boost to the doctor's ego? After all, for just a moment the doctor will appear to have the power of life and death over the man.

It may sound more like a Hollywood script than actual medicine, but don't be so sure. We are often tempted by the thought of mortal power over our neighbors. Despots appear to have it, and for a time may use it indiscriminately. Pilate thought he had it over one man as He stood before the mob demanding His crucifixion. Jesus reminded the Roman governor that only if granted from above would that power belong to him. (see John 19:10-11). In Job, we read that even the prince of this world had power only up to the point God allowed over Job's life. Through the use of a government power or a weapon of some sort, many think they hold that mortal authority. Indeed, many human lives are ended in just that way.

However, that is but a temporary thing. Pilate's solution to Jesus didn't last; our Lord rose again on the third day. Jesus raised Lazarus and several others from death. Something about this death power thing does not last long, like perhaps the ultimate authority rests above, as Jesus told Pilate. The governor perhaps thought that Jesus referred to Rome and Caesar in His statement, but we know that above for Jesus is above for those who follow Him, and that means God. That power of life and death rests in God alone, and He loves us. As Job concluded in faith even as he mourned his children, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (1:21b)

Bucky