Steve Jobs: Is death the best invention of life?

After his death last week, Steve Jobs is getting a lot of press here in Brazil, even though the devices he helped create are beyond the reach of most Brazilians. The phrase that keeps popping up most frequently in the Brazilian media is taken from Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford in June 2005: “…death is very likely the single best invention of life.” His statement begs the question: Who invented death?

Rather than tackle that question, Jobs used his perspective on death as a motivational factor for living: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition.” As one Christianity Today writer said, this is the gospel of a secular age.

While death can be a motivating factor for Christians, it is also a sign that there is something fundamentally wrong in the world—a fatal defect in the operating system of every human being on the planet. The Bible describes death as God’s idea. It is the inevitable consequence of the shared human desire to highjack the Creator’s plan for peaceful and productive community with himself and with others. The human quest for independence and freedom leads not just to physical death, but also to alienation from each other.

The Christian solution for the problem of death and decay does not spring from individual intuition, as Jobs’ worldview suggests. Rather, it is an initiative of the Lord of the universe, who took on human form in order to begin the restoration of all things. Jesus of Nazareth is a living, breathing illustration of what humanity could and should be.

Jesus showed us that being truly human is not summed up in creative thinking, but in humble submission to the Creator’s original blueprint. Jesus’ death says (among other things) that life results from loyalty and obedience to our Maker. His resurrection is the promise that, because life was invented before death, therefore death does not have the last word.

Someone might observe that the Christian gospel is all ethereal hope about what will happen after we die. But this is an incomplete understanding of the message of the Scriptures. The gospel lived out by Jesus is very much linked to the here and now. His model prayer, that the Father’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, points to the relevance of creation theology. Since we are all created in God’s image, the way we treat each other is a reflection of our respect for the Creator (or our lack of it). We are God’s representatives on earth, placed here in order to care for his good creation.

Rather than stifling human creativity, the gospel of Jesus frees us to become who God intended us to be today. We are still flawed, yes, but motivated by the hope that the revolution begun by Jesus two millennia ago is the prelude to a complete reboot of human existence, when he will wipe out all injustice, and reconcile all things to himself.

Two women from Sidon

Here’s a connection I had not seen before. See what you think. I’m looking at the stories of Elijah and Ahab in 1 Kings. We are told that Jezebel, King Ahab’s wife, is from Sidon, a Gentile nation just north of Israel (16:31). Their marriage was likely part of a political alliance. The text seems to suggest that she influences Ahab to “serve Baal and worship him.” Elijah shows up, announces a drought, and God sends him to the Kerith Ravine for safe keeping. Later, when the brook dries up, God tells Elijah to go to—Sidon—where a widow is going to feed him. [Now, from a human standpoint, this is doubly insane. First, you don’t knock on a poor widow’s door if you want to get fed. Second, you don’t wander into Jezebel’s stomping grounds after you have informed her that the rain spigot for her kingdom has been turned off!] But the unnamed Sidonian woman is saved from starvation when she faithfully does what Elijah tells her to do. She later confesses, “Now I know…that the word of the Lord from your mouth is true” (17:24).

What is the author trying to say? Jezebel (and Ahab), Israel’s leaders, should have been leading the people toward God, but instead they were driving the people away from God. Hebrew readers might think, “Of course, Jezebel was an evil Sidonian (foreigner). She didn’t know any better. And if Ahab was so bad, it was obviously 90% the fault of pagan Jezebel!” So we are introduced to the unnamed Sidonian woman who placed her faith in Elijah and in his God. Israel was deaf and blind to God, but a non-Hebrew knows the truth when she sees it. A foreign widow becomes a model for faith. Jesus saw the irony in this picture and used it to condemn the unbelieving crowd in his hometown, Nazareth (Luke 4:36). We dare not draw conclusions about who is part of God’s family based on genealogy, address, culture or color of passport. Those who think they are in might be out. Those who appear to be out might be in.

Just so the readers are sure to get the point, the Old Testament narrator introduces Naaman, the Syrian army commander (2 Kings 5), as another example of a God-fearing foreigner. Jesus mentioned Naaman, too (Luke 4:37). 

God promised Abraham that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3). And God keeps his promises, even if his chosen people disown him.