The Death of a Good Man

The death of John Lindgren certainly did not sneak up on us. For months we watched him slowly die on the evening news. An anchorman for Channel 36, Lindgren suffered from the dread effects of colon cancer. All of us had first hand knowledge of his therapy and knew that when he "had the evening off" he was probably too sick to be on camera. All the while he maintained a cheerful outlook and, according to family and close friends, never descended into depression about his fate. To die from cancer is normally an ignoble death, but John Lindgren turned it into a kind of triumph of the human spirit.

A large part of John's identity…and legacy...was his dynamic Christian faith. While virtually everyone I heard speak him mentioned his faith, not everyone appreciated its meaning for John. For example, a sport's commentator reflected on John's life by saying John was an avid (Kentucky) Wildcats fan. And, the commentator continued it was certain that John was in heaven looking down on the upcoming Kentucky/Georgia game, and would be cheering the Cats to victory. I know, of course, that the sports figure was trying to pay homage to John's memory, and that he was personally moved by John's death. Yet a centerpiece of John's faith was that death is the transition to a fuller life in the unhindered presence of the Almighty. To translate that into cheering for the Cats for a basketball win is reductionism indeed! What must it be to find oneself present to God in an immediate, full, and open way?

Another news commentator, on the day of John's funeral, remarked that the cars going to the grave site stretched for blocks as they made their way to John's "final resting place." Final resting place? What does that mean? It means at least this, that some of us, including a script writer, have a lot of difficulty thinking a person has any future once the body has died, that the cemetery plot is our inevitable destiny, and that our faith, however important in life, has no lasting significance. To be fair, I may be reading more into the commentator's statement than was meant, and a good many people took John's faith at face value, and a large number shared it. Nonetheless, it is patently evident that the Church exists in an age whose thought patterns are dominated by naturalistic ideas and Christian faith in God is often more an embarrassment than a cause for celebration.

I suppose public interest in John Lindgren's death raises one important question: Where is John now? To many he is nowhere; he has lived and died and is gone, period. To others his soul is "asleep" in the grave, along with his body?, waiting a future act of God that will awaken him to immortality. As far as I am concerned, based on my study of Scripture (which is no basis for determining fact in a naturalistic world), John is "enjoying" the full, unhindered presence of God, whatever that entails. He has reached the end for which he was born; his journey has reached its true beginning. His humanity is complete in the kingdom of God. What he will do is quite beyond me to say. Personally, however, I doubt he is interested in UK basketball. On the other hand, where did we get the last few points of the game that gave us the win?

Jerry Mercer