The greatest fear and sadness for humans is “death.” In the case of some people, it suddenly comes. That was my case. During the summer vacation of my third year high school student, I was involved in my friend breaking up with his girlfriend. He eventually broke up with her, but sent me home by motorbike on the way home. In the evening, the prefectural road became dim and rain began to fall. When we came to an intersection, there was a car trying to turn right. My friend was driving the motorbike, but he was shocked and couldn’t see the car. I noticed it and tried desperately to stop my friend, but it was already too late. We both rushed into the car. Then I realized that I was being taken to hospital. When I had surgery and I couldn’t sleep at all, I thought about this. “How ephemeral my life is? If I hit my head, that was the end of life.” When I thought so, the question came up from the inside, “If a person dies, is that the end of all?”
One day, I dared to ask the monk who came home on the day of my family’s death. “Buddhism says paradise and hell after death, is that true?” Replied the monk. “That’s a pious fraud.” In other words, it is a kind of threat that “If you do bad things in this world, bad things will happen in the world after death.” I was relieved, but the next moment I was again skeptical. “So why is he memorializing the dead one if there is no post-mortem world? At the time, I was 18 years old, I felt something suspicious and I was very disappointed.
But one day, the friend of mine suddenly said, “I want to go to church.” So I accompanied him like a bodyguard. In fact, I was seeking answers to my questions. In fact, I completely forgot the preaching of the church. However, after that, the teacher of the church prayed for me and I thought, “I want to go to church and learn the Bible.” From the next Sunday I started going to church. And there I learned that Jesus Christ was crucified and rose from the dead on the third day. And I was impressed when I learned that the disciples abandoned their lives and passed on Christ to people. Six months later, I personally accepted Christ as my Savior from sin and death. And since then, the fear of death has disappeared from my life.
Jesus Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.”
Are you free from the fear of death?
Senior Pastor Masao Nakanishi