We has met the enemy...

In a sermon on Bott Radio tonight Dr. David Jeremiah, preaching about how Jesus defeated death, said, "Let's face it: death is the ultimate enemy."

Enemy?

How can something so natural and guaranteed be considered an enemy? Certainly it is inconvenient, often coming well before one is ready. Certainly it often removes from the living someone that others would rather keep around. Certainly it is the ultimate fear for those who haven't spent much time in the existential zone, or have doubts -- acknowledged or, more likely, not -- about their eternal residence should their faults not be properly attoned for in time.

But an enemy?

Perhaps the perception relies on the definition. I take 'enemy' to mean someone or something who is intent on wrongfully harming one. That gets to be a dicey definition depending on whether you take the myopic, selfish, short-term view or if you take the global, understanding, long-term view. If I take 'harm' to mean any discomfort or pain on my part, then a syringe being plunged into my arm may be considered the implement of my enemy; conversely, if I take the longer view, a vaccination is insurance against future pain and illness.

(We must be careful, however. Torture in the name of security is still wrong. We can never eliminate risk, and to sacrifice liberty for security is an extremely slippery slope).

Considering death as an enemy carries the same flavor as the preachings that a human is by nature bad and wrong, and the only saving grace is through Jesus. Dr. Jeremiah used an example in this sermon, saying "You know those times when something small gets overblown" and ruins your day? Is that a fault of human nature (which God created us with; is He that sadistic that He made us bad and wrong to begin with?), or is it the failure of the person to learn standard stress management? Why put on God what we are able to do as humans and choose not to?

We have made enemies of many things. Mountain lions are enemies and have been hunted and driven from most of its natural habitat, so now we have too many deer that eat my garden and drive up auto insurance. By our labeling of the big cat as an enemy we are interrupting the food chain. Through marketing we increasingly believe that bacteria are enemies, when in fact without bacteria nothing dead would decay and the elements that make up plants and animals would not return to nature for the nourishment of newer life. By making bacteria an enemy we are interrupting the cycle of nature. We decide -- arbitrarily, it seems over the aeons -- that certain nations and rulers are our enemies, mostly when they don't do our bidding, supply the resources we think we deserve that are not on our sovereign soil, or advance a belief that we don't understand and thus fear. By making other nations our enemies we kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people -- which arguably gives a small nod to the problem of world overpopulation, though in a poor way -- take what is not ours, and continue to cultivate hatreds that rankle for decades and generations. It's not the finest we are capable of.

Dr. Jeremiah's proclamation that death is the ultimate enemy serves the purpose of his preaching. However, it hinders progress toward the finer of human achievements. Trying to bring people to delight in God by preaching untruths is weird. No wonder so many people are suspicious of religion. Rationalization does not serve religion or nature well.