Intended or Not: Elton John’s Thoughts on Death Remind Us Why Easter’s a Big Deal
Elton John is saying out loud what many would scarcely ponder
I can’t say for sure, but I suspect journalist Nicholas Erickson wasn’t thinking “Easter promotion” when he penned a recent piece about Elton John … and death. The timing, however, remains curious.
In an April 5 closerweekly.com piece, the “part time digital writer” passes along that
During a March one-nighter at the London Palladium, for instance, the “Rocketman” musician openly — and perhaps a bit surprisingly — visited the rather somber topic, relating, “On my tombstone, I want nothing to do with ‘Crocodile f–king Rock’. I just want it to say: ‘He was a great dad.’”
The famously mercurial John disclosed that not long ago he “cried for 45 minutes thinking about the end”. “When you get to my age, which is near 100, you think, ‘How much time have I got left?’” He’s made clear he wants his focus henceforth to be his relationship with the most important people in his life — particularly his two sons, Zachary and Elijah.
In 2024’s documentary Elton John: Never Too Late, the singer stingingly confessed his fourteen- and twelve-year-old boys
love their daddy, so they want me to be around forever, [and] I would love to be around forever. … I want to see them have children and get married. I don’t think I’m going to be around for that … So that’s why I want to use the best of my time while I’m around. Time together is so wonderful and so precious.
At seventy-eight years of age, the British superstar’s touring days are finis (his much-bruited “farewell tour” wrapped in 2023.) Advanced age, failing eyesight and familial priorities played a significant role in John’s decision … and his funereal ruminations actually offer a worthy example for those who aren’t world-renowned, best-selling artists or who aren’t confronting their eighth decade of life or who aren’t losing their eyesight. His contemplations would be beneficial for every human being to consider.
Who originally said, “Nobody gets out of here alive”? Jim Morrison? Anthony Hopkins? Paul Newman? Nanea Hoffman? The answer is unclear, but whatever that puckish observation’s provenance, the speaker was demonstrably on to something: At some point, every person’s allotted time on planet earth runs out. One day we’ll all breathe our last. People all, eventually, die.
Novelist John Irving’s spin is even more sardonic: “Life is a terminal condition.”
To be clear, Elton John and the above quotation-purveyors weren’t the first to come up with this sobering revelation. They happen to align with what the Bible has declared for centuries:
— “[T]here is a … time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die;” (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2) (NKJV).
— “The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet … it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10)
–“[I]t is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)
It looks like this unsparing scriptural reality is coming home to an elderly Elton John — which is a plus. It’s a — pardon the pun — deadly serious matter after all.
This time of the year, however — for those paying attention — we’re supposed to be reminded physical death is not the end. There is something more on the other side — either glorious or grisly, depending on each individual’s response. Jesus was crucified for sinners — all of mankind (YOU!). The Innocent One took the punishment deserved by the guilty ones. Three days later? He stepped out of the place in which He’d been entombed … Alive again! (1 Corinthians 15: 3-4; 1 Peter 3: 18)
He’s the forerunner, the “first fruits”, representing a promise of eternal life for everyone else who believes in Him. They, ultimately, will face the inevitable wrap to their earthly sojourn — but glory awaits in the age to come.
The Hebrews writer referenced above alludes to this with the ominous second clause of his statement: “after this [death] the judgment.” There’s some astoundingly good news and some heart-rendingly bad news here. Death invites a reckoning for how each of us has lived. God – Judge of the Universe — keeps a record of all we think, say, do; every response to others, every action, public or private, every attitude, conspicuous or secret; all of it. Each individual who has ever trod this temporal globe will answer before Him for his conduct. (2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20: 12-13).
Faithful followers of the Risen One are guaranteed eternal life, including rewards for those decisions, grand and granular, which conformed to the Creator’s will, calling and purposes. There will be grievous exposure, too, of those times we fell short; whenever we blew it. (1 Corinthians 3: 12-15) Ouch.
Those who failed to believe genuinely, contritely, from the heart in the One Who took their penalty on that cross, rose from the dead and now reigns as the Lord Who is to be obeyed (Romans 10:9-10)? Their fate will be an unendingly hopeless one. (Revelation 20:15)
Indeed, death represents heavy stuff. Because life does as well.
Even the pagan General Maximus — for all his polytheistic confusion — brushed against this transcendent understanding when, facing possible death on the battlefield, he thundered to his troops, “What we do in life echoes in eternity!” (Gladiator, 2000)
EJ is lately acknowledging as much … at least in part. This is to be welcomed. As I like to say, if a person is still breathing, his heart still pumping, that means time remains for him to get things right, make necessary adjustments, get unsettled matters settled; before it’s too late.
There’s little to suggest the near-octagenarian “Captain Fantastic” is pervasively ordering his steps according to the commandments of the God before Whom He’ll one-day stand. (He’s, among other things, an often profane, loud-and-proud homosexual, “married” to another man for over a decade.) But since EJ has not yet taken the big “dirt-nap”… opportunities persist for him to change; to repent.
Well-over a generation ago, this Academy/Emmy/Grammy/Tony/
It seems to me a crime that we should age/These fragile times should never slip us by/A time you never can or shall erase/As friends together watch their childhood fly. [Friends, 1971]
It’s a bit rattling that he he’s now arrived at the very scene of that “crime” … and is, rather vocally, letting his audiences know it.
Christ’s resurrection reassures that development doesn’t have to be a despairing one for Elton John. May his mind, heart and soul be seized by the immeasurably joyful, radically transformative proclamation: “He is risen!” May it happen to him before it’s “too late”.
