WHEN we think of John Milton the majority of us think first of his epic poem, Paradise Lost. We don’t immediately think of his blindness, his politics or his theology, though all of these informed his poetry.
John Milton was born in 1608 and died aged 65. He was a civil servant for the Commonwealth (republic) of England under Cromwell.
He was fluent in 10 languages. He was married three times. In his lifetime he had an international reputation. Yet above all, it is his poetry that sets him apart.
He dared to be different in how he wrote. He abandoned rhyme and used language uniquely. He changed the natural order of words and he reintroduced vocabulary that had become obsolete.
Such liberties and stylistic innovations are known to this day as ‘Miltonic effects’, and continue to impress and influence writers and readers alike.
Milton’s descriptions are grand, and at times, terrible!
His depiction of Death’s response to Satan’s plan of tempting the human race into sin and therefore to death reads: …;’’and Death grinned horrible a ghastly smile to hear his famine should be filled.” We cannot fail to get the message nor picture Death’s anticipated feast!
Already in this New Year we have learned of death and we have learned of the fear of death. A shopper stabbed in the midst of the January sales; an unidentified body of a young woman found on the Sandringham Estate; four shot dead by a man licensed to hold as many as six firearms in his home; the bicycle of a missing father found on the beautiful shores of Carnlough; traffic on a major road being directed wrongly… how easily death snaps shut its jaw!
As a preacher I fully understand the importance of sounding the alarm regarding sin and death, but I am glad that the message of the Gospel does not stop at that. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is life eternal. A life controlled by the fear of death may be set free. Death’s sting may be removed. That’s right – the finality of death may be erased. Death’s victory is only enduring if it can swallow its prey. But what if the mighty jaw of death is prised open? What if there is an escape?
On the third day Christ arose! Christ overcame death. That was the whole purpose of His crucifixion.
The famine Milton referred to will never be fed. Death will always go hungry.
Milton’s Paradise Lost opens with these words:
“Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit, Of that forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat…”
It tells us of the introduction of death and it tells us of the restoration of life.
It repeats an even older record of the same facts:
“And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Hebrews 2:15)
Now that’s real poetry and the real gospel!