Are you afraid of death?
Afraid of that inevitable, inescapable moment when you and death will finally meet face-to-face?
An Appointment in Samara
An old Middle-Eastern tale still rings true.
In bustling Baghdad, a merchant sent his servant to the marketplace.
But the man soon returned, ashen and trembling.
> “Master, in the marketplace a woman brushed against me.
When I turned, I saw it was Death.
She looked at me and made a gesture as if to strike.
Lend me your fastest horse!
I must flee to Samara and hide.
Surely she will not find me there.”
The merchant, pitying the man, lent him his own swift stallion.
In a cloud of dust the servant galloped away toward Samara.
Later that day the merchant himself strolled to the market.
There, among the crowd, he saw Death.
> “Why did you frighten my servant this morning?
Why threaten him?”
Death replied quietly,
> “That was no threat.
I was only startled.
I was astonished to see him in Baghdad,
for I have an appointment with him tonight—in Samara.”
Everyone, whether prince or pauper, keeps an appointment with death.
From Fable to Gospel
So what does Scripture say to hearts uneasy about that meeting?
Open John 11.
It was a bright winter day east of the Jordan.
To the west, melt-waters from Mount Hermon glittered as they poured into the Jordan River.
To the east, purple-gray hills stood like silent sentinels.
And wherever Jesus went, people crowded close—farmers, merchants, mothers with children, the curious and the desperate—drawn by the warmth of His words.
Suddenly the hush of teaching broke beneath the sound of pounding hooves and a breathless shout.
A servant pushed through the crowd with a desperate message:
> “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
(John 11:3)
The name behind the plea was familiar—Lazarus of Bethany, brother of Mary and Martha, close friends of Jesus.
When Friends of Jesus Suffer
Notice those words: the one You love is sick.
Let them sink in.
Friends of Jesus get sick.
Friends of Jesus die.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if belonging to Christ meant a kind of spiritual immunity—some invisible shield that kept tragedy away?
But since Eden’s fall, this planet has been a battlefield where sickness and death touch saint and skeptic alike.
Perhaps you carry your own private diagnosis or grief.
Hear this: your suffering is not proof that Christ has turned His face from you.
The one He loves may indeed be sick—and still loved.
A Perplexing Delay
Here is where the story takes a turn we find hard to accept.
> “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more days.”
(John 11:5-6)
He lingered.
While Lazarus lay dying, Jesus continued teaching and healing as if nothing had changed.
Why?
We often think we know the best timetable for God to follow—for our nation, our family, ourselves.
Yet He moves on a different clock.
Jesus explained only this:
> “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
(John 11:4)
We cannot yet see the end from the beginning.
But heaven does.
An old Christian writer captured it well:
> “God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led if they could see the end from the beginning.”
Four Days Too Late?
Two days later Jesus finally turned toward Bethany.
> “When Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days…
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him.”
(John 11:17, 20)
First-century funerals were raw with sound—wailing neighbors, consoling friends, the deep ache of loss.
Grief always feels like an intruder.
Through tears Martha blurted the cry of every broken heart:
> “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
(John 11:21)
How many have whispered that very sentence?
“Lord, if You had come sooner… if You had answered my prayer… my loved one would still be alive.”
Where was God when the monitor flat-lined?
Where was He when the accident happened?
Into that anguish Jesus spoke words that still carry resurrection power:
> “I am the resurrection and the life.
The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die;
and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
(John 11:25-26)
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Death Called “Sleep”
Martha must have struggled to grasp Jesus’ claim.
Her brother had been dead for days, yet Jesus spoke as if death were only temporary rest.
Earlier, when the disciples questioned His delay, He told them:
> “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
(John 11:11)
They misunderstood.
“Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better,” they reasoned.
Then Jesus said plainly,
> “Lazarus is dead.”
(John 11:14)
To Jesus, death is sleep—real, complete, but temporary.
This cuts across common thinking.
Many imagine the dead instantly conscious—soaring to heaven, descending to hell, or beginning another life.
But Scripture speaks differently.
Ezekiel is blunt:
> “Behold, all souls are mine… the soul who sins shall die.”
(Ezekiel 18:4)
If a soul can die, it is not innately immortal.
Paul agrees:
> “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.”
(1 Timothy 1:17)
> “[God] alone has immortality.”
(1 Timothy 6:16)
Immortality belongs to God alone and is granted to humans only at resurrection.
Creation in Reverse
Go back to the beginning:
> “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
(Genesis 2:7)
Dust + breath of life = a living soul.
Separate those elements and the soul doesn’t travel somewhere else—it simply ceases to be, just as a house disappears as a house when you remove its boards and nails.
Solomon describes it:
> “The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit [Hebrew ruach—breath] returns to God who gave it.”
(Ecclesiastes 12:7)
Ruach means breath, not a conscious ghost.
Job echoes this:
> “All the while my breath [ruach] is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils.”
(Job 27:3)
The Creator’s breath animates life; when He withdraws it, we rest in unconscious sleep.
A Modern Picture
Think of a cloud-based playlist.
When you tap play, songs fill the room—but not because the music hides inside your phone.
It’s data plus power.
Cut the power and nothing plays.
Where did the playlist go?
Nowhere.
It simply awaits power again.
That’s creation’s formula in modern terms: dust plus breath equals life.
When breath returns to God, life stops until He restores it.
Scripture Speaks with One Voice
The Bible repeats this theme:
“The dead know nothing; their love, their hatred, their envy have long since vanished.”
(Ecclesiastes 9:5–6)
“When their breath departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans perish.”
(Psalm 146:4)
“The dead do not praise the Lord.”
(Psalm 115:17)
Even Peter, preaching at Pentecost, said of David:
> “He is both dead and buried…
For David did not ascend into the heavens.”
(Acts 2:29, 34)
If immediate heaven were reality, Peter would have said so.
Instead he describes David as sleeping, awaiting the resurrection.
Why Resurrection Matters
Paul underlines this hope:
> “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye… For this mortal must put on immortality.”
(1 Corinthians 15:51–53)
If immortal souls were already alive elsewhere, why speak of a future day when mortality “puts on” immortality?
Why a resurrection at all?
Jesus and the apostles are consistent: death is sleep; immortality is a gift given at the Second Coming.
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The Victory Behind the Promise
Christ the Snake-Defanger
What gives Jesus the right to speak of death so calmly?
Because He has already faced it and broken its power.
Hebrews says:
> “Through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
(Hebrews 2:14–15)
Think of the cobra-handler who safely draws venom from a deadly snake, leaving it unable to harm.
At the cross Jesus entered the pit, took death’s sting into Himself, and drained it of its eternal poison.
The serpent still writhes, but his fangs are empty.
The Night-Sleep of Death
Have you ever fallen into bed after an exhausting day and the next thing you know your alarm is ringing?
Hours vanished in what felt like a breath.
That’s the believer’s experience of death: the next conscious moment is the voice of the Life-Giver.
Love’s Logic
This truth also makes the best sense of God’s love.
Imagine loved ones consciously watching earth’s struggles from heaven.
Could a mother rejoice while seeing a child suffer or rebel?
Could saints enjoy paradise while others writhe in hell?
No.
Heaven would feel like hell.
Only the biblical view—death as unconscious sleep until resurrection—matches the heart of a God who is love.
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The Tombside Miracle
The moment finally came.
> “Jesus, again deeply moved, came to the tomb.
It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
‘Take away the stone,’ he said.
‘But Lord,’ said Martha, ‘by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been dead four days.’
Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’”
(John 11:38–40)
They rolled the stone aside.
> “Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.’”
(John 11:43–44)
In that instant grief turned to joy.
The funeral became a festival.
And the world glimpsed the future God intends for every believer.
A Promise for All
This was more than one family’s reunion.
It was a preview of the day when Christ will raise all who rest in Him.
Paul describes it:
> “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)
Whether a believer died moments ago or millennia ago, the next heartbeat they know will be the call of Jesus and the sight of His face.
Paul continues:
> “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…
For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
(1 Corinthians 15:51-53)
Immortality is a gift given then, not an automatic possession now.
Resurrection is God’s crowning act of re-creation.
Unmasking the Ancient Lie
Why is this truth so often missed?
Because from Eden onward another voice has whispered:
> “You will not surely die.”
(Genesis 3:4)
From that first lie sprang a thousand variations—Greek philosophy dividing body and soul, Eastern reincarnation, even Christian traditions of instant heaven or hell.
But Jesus exposed the fraud.
He called death what it is: sleep, and He broke its power by dying and rising again.
Hebrews celebrates the victory:
> “Through death he might destroy him who has the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
(Hebrews 2:14-15)
Like a skilled handler who drains venom from a cobra, Christ entered death’s pit and emptied the serpent’s fangs.
The enemy still hisses, but his poison is gone.
The Comfort of Holy Sleep
Think of the last time you dropped into bed bone-tired and the next sound you heard was your morning alarm.
Where did those hours go?
That is what death will be like for the believer: no awareness of passing time, no fear, only the next conscious moment—Jesus calling your name.
And this view alone fits the character of a loving God.
If the dead were watching from heaven, could they rejoice while seeing their loved ones suffer?
And if others were already in torment, how could heaven remain heaven for anyone who loved them?
Only the biblical truth—death as unconscious sleep until resurrection—fully harmonizes with divine love.
The Life We Cannot Manufacture
The apostle John puts the invitation simply:
> “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
(1 John 5:12)
Life is not a self-contained human possession.
It is found only in a living relationship with Jesus.
Without Him there is no eternal life, because only He is the Resurrection and the Life.
And He still knocks:
> “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
(Revelation 3:20)
Brennan Manning tells of an old man who lived that truth.
Unable to pray in traditional ways, he imagined Jesus sitting in an empty chair beside him.
He spoke to the Lord as to a friend.
When he died, his daughter found him with his head resting on that very chair.
That is what it means to die in Christ—leaning in trust on the Savior who calls you friend.
Your Invitation
So I ask:
Do you have the Son?
Have you opened the door?
The One who called Lazarus back to life offers the same resurrection to you.
You can face your own Samara unafraid, for the One who is the Resurrection and the Life has already defanged death and promises to wake every sleeper who trusts in Him.
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Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, Resurrection and Life,
thank You for draining death of its sting and breaking the power of the grave.
Teach us to rest in You so that, when our journey ends, we may sleep in peace and rise in glory at Your call.
Amen.
