from Christian Concern
Our Chief Executive, Andrea Williams, explores what the promise of Easter means in the face of the upcoming parliamentary vote on assisted suicide.
As we approach Easter, we find ourselves confronted by death. Before the triumph of Easter morning, there is the descent into darkness, the approach to the cross, the suffering and sacrifice of our Lord, and the journey to the tomb. Every year, Christians undertake this same spiritual journey as we remember Jesus’ passion and death for our sins and the sins of the world. But after this darkness and sorrow, light dawns on resurrection morning. We awake once again to the knowledge that death could not contain the living Christ. He is risen and seated at the right hand of God in heaven, and we too have been reborn into an eternal life with him.
But as Easter approaches this year, death feels closer than ever. As time passes, the final vote on assisted suicide comes ever closer. After Easter, it will be just a few weeks away.
In the face of the resurrection, death is passing and temporary. That is not to say that we are not pained and troubled by death – after all, it is a result of fallenness and sin. God created us to be eternal beings. But we know that death is not all-powerful in the face of a life-giving God.
That is not the message of assisted suicide. To those who are for it, death is the end. They promise that if you can just be helped to die earlier, you will be able to escape pain and suffering. That you will leave life with your head held high and your dignity intact. That the life you left behind will bear witness to who you truly were, because you died before illness was able to take away your autonomy, your self-reliance and self-image. You will finally be able to be at peace.
This is a lie.