Man literally drives himself into a blind obliviousness with social games, psychological tricks, personal preoccupations so far removed from the reality of his situation that they are forms of madness, but madness all the same. …Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever.
Ernest Becker, said these words in his book, The Denial of Death, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1974.
He wrote the book the year before his death from colon cancer…at the age of 49.
It is a fascinating book, one of my favorites, because it is so honest, so stark, so real.
Becker struggled with the reality of death. He refused to put on rose-colored glasses. He refused to play the psychologial games that we often play. To deny death, to diminish its reality, to distract ourselves with entertainment, sports, TV binges, shopping, fame, fortune, alcohol, etc.
Modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing. (Becker)
Becker sees death for what it really is. The end of life. The finality of saying good-bye. The decay of the body. The terror of the unknown.
He also struggles with the message of Christianity.
He is not a believer…and does not appear to become one…but he is intrigued by the Christian faith.
He is enticed by its hope.
As an ideal, Christianity, on all the things we have listed, stands high, perhaps even highest in some vital ways, as people like Kierkegaard, Chesterton, the Niebuhrs, and so many others have compellingly argued (Becker).
Whereas as the world often describes Christians as people with a pollyanna, irrational view of life, Becker realized it was actually the other way around. People who pretend that man is some kind of god who can solve all of life's problems or who look to science, sex, romance, education, or heroism as some kind of "salvation" from the sheer reality of death and the meaninglessness of life are the ones living in an illusion. For all its potential faults, in Becker's mind, the Christian faith at least looks at life and death honestly and recognizes that salvation, if it is available, must come from outside ourselves.
Redemption can only come from outside the individual, from beyond, from our conceptualization of the ultimate source of things, the perfection of creation. It can only come…when we lay down our individuality, give it up, admit our creatureliness and helplessness (Becker).
If we are to be saved, then it must come from beyond…from above…from God.
Not from ourselves.
Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10-11)
A Savior is born.
From above…into our world…for us…for our salvation.
Salvation from our own brokenness and the brokenness of our world…from our own sin and the sin of our world…from the finality of death and the decay of our world.
If there is to be true hope, then it must transcend death. And it must come from outside of ourselves.
From a Source that has unlimited power and life.
From an eternal God who loves us enough to save us.
This is the person of Jesus.
This is the message of Christmas.
This is our hope.
And this is good news!
