The King of Pop, Dies

Could it be any clearer what God says about death?

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. Psalms 116:15

As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live… Ezekiel 33:11

Whichever camp the king of pop (Michael Jackson) was in, we don’t know. It was only he who could ultimately know whether or not he had a personal relationship with the forgiver of sin, Jesus Christ. What we can know is two things: [1] God takes no pleasure when a person to dies without Christ’s forgiveness because of sin’s penalty – what God calls “eternal death” (eternity without Him) and [2] God tells us it is precious in His sight when one of His children leaves this life (they will be forever with Him).

To be sure, Jesus doesn’t see everyone as children of God (John 6:66), nor does everyone possess everlasting life (1John 5:11-13). There will be many who think their way is right, but it only ends in death for them (Proverbs 16:25). Jesus claimed (and ultimately proved it by resurrecting from the dead), that he was the only way to heaven (Matthew 7:13-14; John 14:6).

Michael Jackson’s premature death at age 50 proves how vulnerable and frail our physical lives really are. It also shows us that, in the grand scheme of things, life is fast & furious, evaporating before us like the morning mist.My hope is that those of us who know Jesus personally and love people would take any death, but especially MJ’s death, and be stirred more than ever to share the awesome news that God wants to make us His friends through what the J-man (that’s Jesus!) did for all of us on a wooden cross some two millennia ago.

In just 100 short years, nearly all the 6.8 billion people on this rock we call Earth will die. So, why do we as Christ-followers shrink back from sharing the Good News? Is it because we don’t think it’s newsworthy to share or perhaps it's because we are fearful of slight rejection? Or possibly it has to do with the fact that we don’t really believe that people want to hear about Jesus – even though in a recent national poll, the one person in all of history that most people in America would like to meet is none other than Jesus Christ.

Whatever the case, people’s eternities lay in the balance…and you and I get to be used by God to possibly be the “tipping point” that alters their decision to choose Christ as their personal savior.


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