Thursday, January 14, 2021
To all who knew and loved Mike, especially his family:
A few weeks ago we celebrated Christmas. As I think about Mike's tragic death, I think about the promise associated with what happened in Bethlehem all those years ago: "You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
God our Father wanted there to be no doubt about why he was sending his Son into the world. It was to save us from our sins; it was to save Mike from his sins. (I wrote more about this on Mike's CaringBridge page.)
From the beginning of his life, to literally his last breath, Christ went about the task of doing what only he could do. As the man of suffering who was familiar with sorrow hung on the cross, he uttered a prayer that must have shocked those watching from below: "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing." That prayer wasn't just meant for the soldiers and the crowd on Calvary that day. It was prayed for you, and for me, and for Mike.
Mike didn't know what he was doing when he took all those pills. He didn't realize the horrible pain and the awful grief that he would cause in the wake of his suicide. His illness and despair got the best of Mike.
The forgiveness of sins is at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Martin Luther never forgot this. After a long soul struggle, he came to realize what is in the heart of his creator: "God is the God of the humble, the miserable, the afflicted, the oppressed, the desperate, and those who have been brought to nothing."
Mike is now in the good and gracious hands of our Savior.
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