Heath Ledger could act.  He really, really could.  And those of you who know me well, know that I’m not one to hand out compliments for much of what modern Hollywood considers fine acting.  No, Heath Ledger was good.  He made guys like this and this look like the kid who played the lead role in your Jr. High production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

And yes, if you’re about to jump on my case ‘cuz the dude starred in Brokeback Mountain, just cut it out.  Yes, I completely disagree with the message and premise of the film.  But the man was astounding in it.  The other dude however, was a trainwreck.  And yes, I skipped the sweaty stuff.  Okay, back to the topic….

Of course, Heath Ledger is not the first young star to die “before his time” and sadly he won’t be the last.  Just how the guy died doesn’t mean a whole lot to me.  Rather, what gets my attention is how differently we treat the death of someone like Ledger than the death of others.  Now, I’m not talking about how his death gets more attention because of his fame - no, that is totally understandable.  I’m talking about something different.

You see, when someone like Heath Ledger dies (young, without notice, with talent yet untapped) our gut reaction is to use words like, “tragic,” “devastating,” and “unfortunate.”  We see it is as a completely negative event.

And yet there are other deaths that we seem to treat as positives.  For example, your 85 year old uncle whose health has deteriorated over the years finally gives out and passes away in some senior living facility.  And standing around his casket we say, “Well, he’s better off.”  Or, “It was his time.  He’s happier now.”  While sad, we ultimately see this kind of death as appropriate, warranted, and on the whole positive.

While we could argue the reasons behind this, in the end, such a view sees death as contextual.  You know, sometime’s it is a good thing and sometimes it is a bad thing…depending on your age, your potential, your value to the world around you, and whether you’ve had what the world deems as a long enough trip on the train so as to not be getting jipped.

What I find interesting is that the Bible sees death differently.  From the Bible’s perspective death is always - always - seen as a bad thing.  Remember, death was not a part of God’s original design.  Kids were never meant to bury their parents, the talented stars never meant to fizzle out, and aging was ever meant to be a process of slow and sad deterioration - never.  All of this is the result of sin busting onto the scene like Kool-Aid through a brick wall. (Nice 80’s reference for you.)  Sin came through the fall of mankind (Genesis 3) and with it, death.

If we view death biblically, it means that whenever we see it we see a reminder of the presence of sin and how things are not as they should be.  This is why death hurts so bad, why it confuses so much, and why it crushes so many that are affected by it; because our hearts and minds and lives were not meant to have to endure it.  Death is not natural.

Where Jesus comes into play is in the fact that in His death on the Cross and resurection from the grave he has paid the price for our sins and shown his power over death.  That is, death couldn’t hold him - he beat it - and those who are his baptized followers will one day beat death too, when on the last day our dead bodies rise to new, eternal, flesh and blood life as it was supposed to be in the beginning.  This is why Paul says that death has “lost its sting.”  Because of Jesus, it is not the massive, hope crushing monster it used to be.  For those who are with Jesus it’s just a temporay pain in the ass.

So, back to Heath Ledger and our dead uncles.  The reason this is an important distinction is because it is ultimately more truthful to God’s Word and more respectful of all life.  A contextual view of death, in the end, says that some people are more valuable and more tragic of a loss than others - and this is not the case.  (This is the same reasoning, by the way, that furthered the pro-abortion movement.)  And any attempt to tell a grieving widow that the death of her husband of 57 years is somehow a “good” thing is a slap in her face, undermes her pain and tells her very passively that such grief is really unfounded.

No, death in every case is sad, tragic, was not meant to be!  But thank you God that you have sent One who has defeated death and one day will bring back all those - in flesh and blood - to live forever with you.  I pray that this fine actor is among them.