Questions and
Answers About Suicide
What is it that
ever leads a person to the point that they believe, “I
would be better off dead!”
Last week I sat through another funeral for someone who committed suicide I decided to address the issue of suicide. If you ever attend a
funeral of someone who committed suicide, it is an experience that you will not soon
forget. While there is still love, those emotions are mixed with disappointment, anger,
frustration and unanswered questions about what might have been. Because of that
experience and the realization that we as a church family have twice been touched by this
tragedy in last six months, I have decided to address this subject tonight. The untimely
death of a 13 year old boy and five months later his 42 year old mother has touched us
deeply. It causes a lot of questions to arise. Of course, I nor anyone else has all the
answers, but I felt that we really needed to acknowledge these tragedies and try to find
some Biblical solace for those who have been touched by lives that have been so
unnecessarily shortened.
“Suicide is a global problem,
a leading cause of death in the world claiming about 30,000 lives in the United States
each year, almost 1 million annually
world-wide. It greatly exceeded the rate of homicide
in 1999 (1.7 times as many),
as it has for the last 100 years…. Suicide is the third leading cause
of death in youth 15–24 years old. [Reducing Suicide: A National Imperative (2002)
Institute of Medicine]
One oddity of the statistics on suicide is
that men kill themselves twice as often as women but women attempt suicide twice as often
as men.
That means that every 17 minutes someone
commits suicide in the United States. Surprisingly perhaps, it is industrialized nations
and not the world’s poorest countries that have the highest rate of suicide.
I am not going to try to cover doctor
assisted suicide (euthanasia) which is a subject unto itself. The only thing I will say is
that the excuse often offered for doctor assisted suicide is “the right to die with
dignity” is without merit. The truth is that God does not promise dignity in death.
As Jesus carried his cross to Calvary covered with sweat and blood it is doubtful that
anyone said, “My, doesn’t he look
dignified.”
Nor is it my purpose tonight to address the
causes of suicide, there are too many and they are too varied to be considered in this
format. But when all is said and done, people kill themselves primarily because they reach
a point that they cannot believe their lives are precious enough to make them worth
living.
What I do want to do tonight is consider what
the Bible says about suicide. The word “suicide” does not occur
in the Bible. Neither are there any laws relating to it. You may not realize it but six people in the Bible
committed suicide. They were
Samson (Judges 16:30) Brought
on by:
Hopelessness
King Saul (1 Sam 31:4)
Saul’s armor-bearer (1 Sam 31:5)
Athithophel (2 Sam 17:23) Disgruntled
Zimri (1 Kings 16:18) Death by arson
Judas Iscariot (Matt 27:5) Judas killed himself because of his shame and grief at betraying Jesus (Matt. 27:5).
There is one question that I have been asked
several times over the last several weeks concerning suicide. The question is, “Is Suicide a forgivable sin.” They ask
this question because many people have heard that if a person commits suicide that he or
she is going to hell.
This belief comes to us from the Roman Catholic belief that in order for a
sin to forgiven it must be confessed. According to Catholic beliefs because suicide cannot
be confessed it is unforgivable. This of course is not biblical. But it must also be
admitted that although not unforgivable suicide is morally
wrong. Some people who commit suicide go to heaven and some people who commit suicide go
to hell. But how can you tell which go to heaven and which ones don’t? Well the
answer is simple, God judges a person by his or her relationship with Him.
Tonight I would like to consider with you
five biblical reasons that suicide is wrong.
First,
It Destroys the Body Which Is Not Your Own But God’s.
In Psalm 100:3
we read, “Know that the
Lord, He is God; ?It is He who has made us, and ??not we ourselves; ?We are His people and the sheep of
His pasture.” In the New
Testament this is reiterated in (1 Cor 6:19-20) “Or ??do you not know that your body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, ?and you are not your own? ?(20)? For ??you were bought at a price;
therefore glorify God in your body ??and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Since
we are not his own, but God’s, for a person to take his or her own life (commit
suicide) is to destroy His property. Man is created in the likeness of The Creator and to
dishonor or to destroy our bodies is to dishonor Him. God as the Creator has power over
all existence. He alone should control life, whether it continues or stops (Job 1:21; 1
Cor. 6:19).
Second,
It violates the Sixth Commandment- “you shall not murder.”
(Exodus 20:13, Matt 19:18)
The
Bible throughout it pages teaches the sanctity of life. It tells us that we as human
beings are created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27). Human life is sacred because God
created us to bear his likeness in the world. Life is such a precious gift that no one has
the right to capriciously or arbitrarily end it. Suicide is in fact pre-meditated,
self-murder.
Third,
It Rejects and Refuses God’s Sovereignty in your life and his plan and purpose
for your life.
Some times an
individual can become convinced that the only way out of their troubles is to end their
earthly life.
God is the giver of all life and it is He that
sets the bounds. If you are a Christian to take your own life is to reject God’s plan
for your life. If you are a Christian, God is not through with you yet or He would take
you home to heaven. Since life is a gift from God, to take one’s own life is supreme
ingratitude. Our lives belong to God and we are but stewards. To take one’s own life
is to usurp the prerogative that is God’s alone.
And if a person is not a Christian then it is
surely not true that they would be better off dead, because death without Christ means an
eternity in Hell eternally separated from God.
Fourth,
It Rejects and Refuses God’s Promise Of Help In Times of Trouble.
The Psalmist writes, (Psalm 50:15) “Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
Fifth,
It exhibits the ultimate in selfishness.
Although the person who commits suicide
escapes his or her problem in this life, they leave their friends and family with all
kinds of questions and pain. This can not be what God would have us to do to others. It
leaves others to bear the burden, stigma, guilt and horror of suicide. Suicide leaves
behind an unceasing wake of questions. Family and friends are all left to ask in endless
echo – “Why? Why did they do this? Could this have been prevented?” Everyone tries to make sense of it. But no sense
can be made. There are only questions and no real answers. There is just the same cold,
haunting specter of senseless death.
Those left behind struggle with two
fundamental issues; anger and guilt. Anger comes as the survivors face
the task of putting life back together themselves. They have to go on … alone.
And secondly, when a friend or family member
ultimately decides to take their own life, it’s hard for those left behind to avoid
feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt. Asking such questions as; “What could I have done differently, that might
have prevented this?” But as much
as would like to be able to change things we must accept that ultimately that person made
their own choice.
What we can do is to help those trying to cope
with a suicide.
1. Avoid judgmentalism. It is hard to emphasis how
hard is for family and friends to hear judgmental and harsh statements about the one who
has committed suicide.
Lasting and sometime irreparable harm can be done in
the lives of those who are grieving. You would be shocked to hear how many survivors of
suicide (family and friends) have experienced the shame and humiliation of being told by
some fellow believer, sometimes at the funeral or the graveside, that “they just have
to realize they will never see their loved one again because they are in hell because of
what they did!”
2. Remain sensitive
to the family and friends loss. It can be difficult to know what to say or do after
a suicide but one of the worst approaches is to try to ignore the event and act as if it
never happened.
Conclusion
Deceived
In this world …
her lips are still..
silenced… but not by God
but by her own hand.
No more to sing with joy..
blending her voice with all of
God creation .. in praise.
No more to shout!
“Listen to me, world!
I have found Him!”
No more to whisper words of
love to that One
who loved her so…
Jesus.
In this world …
her eyes no longer see…
blinded…
to the tiny, yellow buttercup….
to the still dawn of a slumbering day…
to the azure blue of a cloudless sky…
and the thousand eyes of a starry night.
unable to see…
the gifts of love sent
by the eternal lover of her soul….
Jesus.
No longer to hear….
in this world….
for she listened …
not to God and His myriad sounds of
love…
but to ‘voices’ wooing her…
to sink…
to submit…
to suicide…
that one sin of rebellion that we cannot turn
away from and say, ‘I am sorry.’
Mute in this world!
Oh, God!
May my lips praise you…
May my eyes see you…
May I hear you…
In every moment of every day…
In this world!
For only here can I share with those who have
never heard of …
Jesus.
[written Anabel Gillham. As quoted by John
Stevens. in “Suicide: An Illicit Lover.” (Denver: Heritage House Pub,
1976]
Resources
David
Cox. “Aftershock: Hope, Help and Healing in the Wake of Suicide.”
Available from Family Life Today.” www.familylife.com ]
Timothy Demy and Gary Steward ed. Suicide: A Christian
Response (Grand Rapids: Kregel Pub, 1998)
Albert Y. Hsu “Grieving A Suicide.”
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