“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

Ecclesiates 3:1-8

The Queen who died

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It was the early afternoon of the 27th of August 2020 when I awoke to two messages. I had been working during the night and had been asleep. One message was from the police, who provided a reference number and requested that I call them back. The other message was from the care home where my mother lived for the last year, again requesting I call them back.

Immediately, I knew my mother had died. It could be the only explanation. I recall the feeling of anxiety, denial, disbelief, shock, fear and sadness. Once I gained the courage, I rang them both, who confirmed that my mother had died in her sleep at some point during the night of the 27th. I sat down, paralysed with grief, as I began a new chapter in my life. As the book of Ecclesiastes tells us, “For everything, there is a season….”

“She seemed so timeless and so wonderful that I am afraid we had come to believe, like children, that she would just go on and on.”

Boris Johnson

On the early evening of September 8th, 2022, I had a similar experience when I learned the news of HM Queen Elizabeth II’s death. It wasn’t to the same intensity, but it was a genuine sadness. Was the queen’s passing a reminder of my loss, or was something else happening? As I began to analyse the reaction to the death of Queen Elizabeth, it became evident that people all over the country and the world were having a similar experience.

Like most, I never knew the queen, but she was like a mother in many ways. She was a constant, someone who had always been there. You could trust the queen to be whatever was happening in the country, “Steadfast and sure as the billows roll…” (1). Unlike our politicians, who often seem to be self-serving, the queen felt like someone you could turn to for comfort and wisdom amidst the chaos of our society. She personified an era which had now come to an end. What was the United Kingdom without HM Queen Elizabeth II?

Perhaps we had fallen into the trap of thinking the queen was immortal. After all, we do the same thing in our own lives. She was ninety-six years old and had been on the throne for seventy years. A staggering statistic! As our former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, “She seemed so timeless and so wonderful that I am afraid we had come to believe, like children, that she would just go on and on.” However, there is a time to be born and die. The Bible has a lot to say about the brevity of life and the certainty of death. It likens us to grass or a flower in the field. We flourish, but the wind passes over us, and we are gone (see Ps 103:15-17).

Death, Sinclair B Ferguson writes, “Is a life-destroying icy blast which freezes all hope. The great inevitability also produces great uncertainty. It wears the mask of a mocker. It comes equally to all, the righteous and the unrighteous, the rich and the poor, and thus makes nonsense of all of life’s distinctions.” (2). Ultimately, our status in life makes no difference. Whether you were the most famous person in the world, like the Queen, or a complete unknown, we all go to the grave, and only a few will reach ninety-six years old!

The King who reigns

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Interestingly, times like these evoke a deep sense of eternity in people’s hearts. Atheistic and nihilistic philosophies provide no comfort in the face of death. As Ecclesiastes says elsewhere, “He has also set eternity in the human heart.” (Ecc 3:11). Deep within every human is the knowledge that death is not the end. Perhaps the outpouring of grief expressed a more profound desire for an eternal and good ruler to reign over us.

During her Christmas broadcasts, the Queen often took the opportunity to talk about her Christian faith and her belief in this eternal, just, and good ruler – King Jesus. The Bible and history tell us that Jesus came into this world over two thousand years ago, not to reign but to save. As the queen said in her 2011 Christmas broadcast, “God sent into the world a unique person….a saviour with the power to forgive.” The queen knew what it was to have people curtsying before her, but she also knew she would bow her knee to Jesus one day. This King who died once as he suffered for sin so that we might be forgiven rose again and will reign over an everlasting kingdom (see Dan 7). This leaves you and me with a problem.

“God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general (important though they are) – but a Saviour, with the power to forgive.”

HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2011

The problem is the Bible tells us that after death, we will all face judgment, and without a saviour, we will not be able to stand before Him because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (see Ecc 12:14, Heb 9:27, Rom 3:23). We now have opportunity to prepare to meet Him. Are you going to be part of the everlasting Kingdom of King Jesus? You can only do so by turning away from your sins and turning to Him. We need forgiveness, and Jesus is a saviour who is delighted to forgive. He will not turn away anyone who comes to him in genuine repentance and faith.

The Heidelberg Catechism begins with this question and answer:

“1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?
That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with His precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto Him.”

Queen Elizabeth II professed to believe that answer. As the world mourns her loss, will you also learn from her and acknowledge that all the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Him?

Notes

1. Priscilla Jane Owens, 1829-1907 – Will your anchor hold in the storms of life?
2. Sinclair B Ferguson – The Pundits Folly, Banner of Trust Trust, 1995, p40

All scripture quotations are from the ESV.