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we do so, the problem is deeper and more di?cult that we might immediately
have supposed. Most basically, if it is true that Christ shows us what it is to be
God in the way that he dies as a human being, then, quite simply, if we no
longer “see” death, we no longer see the face of God. If we cannot “see” death,
we will not see the face of God. If we don’t “see” death, we have no basis for
seeing that life in fact comes through death. If we don’t “see” death, our hori-
zons will be purely imminent—it will be about this life, and its perpetuation,
it’s being “saved.” Like cancer, which is basically cells that refuse to die, we
have become a cancerous society!

And this is not a purely theoretical problem; it has huge economic im-
plications. Already some 80% of health care costs in the US are given over to
the last months of life, to treating the dying by trying to “save life.” The pro-
found demographic changes in the world will only exacerbate this situation:
according to the United Nations, in 1998 the number of older people (ages 60
or above) outnumbered for the ?rst time, in the Western world, the number of
children (aged 15 or less); this shift is predicted to become a global reality by
2045. Another way of presenting this shift is to note that in 1950 there were 12
potential workers to support each elderly person; by 2009 there were 9; in 2050
there will be 4.8 These are demographic changes unparalleled in human history,
presenting challenges of immense proportions.

Now, if we don’t bear these changes in mind, we can easily hear the
Gospel proclamation about the victory of life over death in terms of own mod-
ern understanding of medicine and its treatment of illnesses (rather than the
patient). When we hear from ancient and modern theologians that sickness
and death was brought into the world through human disobedience, we might
now think that Christ has simply reversed the situation: he heals sicknesses, as
a doctor today might do; he has conquered death, such that we will not die; he
provides life, and life in abundance, as we de?ne it today—”having it all and
more” or “be all that you can be”!

But we delude ourselves if we think this: we will still fall sick, and we will
still die, however much we try to hide ourselves from it. If we recognise, and
accept, the fact of our mortality, then perhaps we can see greater depths in the
Gospel message and patristic re?ection: Christ did not destroy death in any

8 United Nations, “World Aging Report 2009,”
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPA2009/WPA2009_WorkingPaper.pdf (accessed
12 March 2013). Cf. Daniel Hinshaw, “The Kenosis of Dying: An Invitation to Healing,” in Behr and
Cunningham, The Role of Life in Death.

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