Memento Mori
As you walk through the Minneapolis Institute of Art, you may notice a recurring element in the paintings. It’s the same prop that likely comes to mind if you were to imagine a solo actor on stage in a Shakespeare play. That common element: a skull. It’s not there though due to a morbid fascination with the macabre. Rather, it serves the same purpose as our upcoming “Memento Mori” service. Let me explain.
Wisdom of the Ages
"Memento mori" is a Latin phrase Christians have historically used to "remember death." It's not that our forebears in the faith were fearful of or obsessed with death. It’s not that death was more a normal part of regular life in previous centuries (though it was). Rather, the emphasis of this phrase is an application of Psalm 90:12, "Teach us to number our days." Why is it the psalmist’s prayer that God’s people would be mindful of our fleeting days in this life? “That we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Shakespeare and painters of the “Vanitas” genre were touching on a profoundly biblical motif. The presence of a skull on a desk serves as a daily reminder that this life is fleeting. The day will soon pass, and your labor finished. Because of Adam’s sin, every one of us will eat the bread of toil “til you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). Ashes to ashes; dust to dust. It is the great problem every worldview must seek to answer and one that none satisfactorily do apart from Christianity.
Shakespeare and painters of the “Vanitas” genre were touching on a profoundly biblical motif. The presence of a skull on a desk serves as a daily reminder that this life is fleeting. The day will soon pass, and your labor finished. Because of Adam’s sin, every one of us will eat the bread of toil “til you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). Ashes to ashes; dust to dust. It is the great problem every worldview must seek to answer and one that none satisfactorily do apart from Christianity.
Death in a Day of Deception
But remembering death is not designed to lead to morose introspection. The psalmist wants wisdom. Remembering that we are mortal is a weapon we wield to slay the pride present in our first parents—and in me. We believe that ancient lie, “You will not surely die … You will be like God” (Genesis 3:4-5). Yet “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). We remember death that we might humble ourselves in the fear of the LORD.
In our society, we bristle at such things. Death is cordoned off in sanitized hospitals. The bodies of loved ones are cremated so none have to look upon death. Maybe even reading this far, you’re squirming over just how uncomfortable the idea of death is. We just want the happy stuff. We want to skip over sin and go to redemption. “Pastor, winter is cold and dark, and I’m already feeling down. Tell me something good!”
We cannot be made wise unto salvation if we do not first reckon with death. While thinking of death and sin in the abstract is right, don’t leave it there in the realm of general ideas. Yes, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12). But don’t stop there. Keep reading. “So death spread to all men because all sinned.” All sinned. I sinned. You sinned. We still sin. You and I will die not only because of Adam but because of your sin and my sin. You and I—we are not like God.
In our society, we bristle at such things. Death is cordoned off in sanitized hospitals. The bodies of loved ones are cremated so none have to look upon death. Maybe even reading this far, you’re squirming over just how uncomfortable the idea of death is. We just want the happy stuff. We want to skip over sin and go to redemption. “Pastor, winter is cold and dark, and I’m already feeling down. Tell me something good!”
We cannot be made wise unto salvation if we do not first reckon with death. While thinking of death and sin in the abstract is right, don’t leave it there in the realm of general ideas. Yes, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12). But don’t stop there. Keep reading. “So death spread to all men because all sinned.” All sinned. I sinned. You sinned. We still sin. You and I will die not only because of Adam but because of your sin and my sin. You and I—we are not like God.
A Death That Leads to Life
Setting ourselves to “memento mori” serves our souls to cultivate godly grief that “produces a repentance that leads to salvation” (2 Corinthians 7:10). By doing so, we are lead to the Good News that “if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (Romans 5:15). Have to go by the cross to get to the crown. We go to the grave before reaping the harvest.
Follow after the great cloud of witnesses who have crossed the River by faith, brought safely through by the Captain of our salvation. “Memento mori” with us at a service on the evening of March 5. We will reflect on our own mortality, our own sin, our own need to live a life in keeping with repentance. Or as one author captured it, we will “meditate on our mortality, sinfulness, and need of a savior; to renew our commitment to daily repentance in the Lenten season and in all of life; and to remember with confidence and gratitude that Christ has conquered death and sin."
Follow after the great cloud of witnesses who have crossed the River by faith, brought safely through by the Captain of our salvation. “Memento mori” with us at a service on the evening of March 5. We will reflect on our own mortality, our own sin, our own need to live a life in keeping with repentance. Or as one author captured it, we will “meditate on our mortality, sinfulness, and need of a savior; to renew our commitment to daily repentance in the Lenten season and in all of life; and to remember with confidence and gratitude that Christ has conquered death and sin."