The Epic of Gilgamesh and an open door for the gospel

I recently went to downtown Chicago to listen to the Grant Park Orchestra play The Epic of Gilgamesh, scored by Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959). It was a wonderful experience: sitting in historic Grant Park with my family and listening to some of the world’s best musicians play this wonderful piece was amazing.

This score is based upon the ancient story called The Epic of Gilgamesh. This story is considered the oldest extant work of Greek literature, predating Homer by about 1500 years. Gilgamesh, the main character in this story, is portrayed as almost godlike in his traits, possessing superhuman strength. He is a proud and arrogant leader who built up his kingdom upon the backs of his people. Much of the story centres upon a struggle between Gilgamesh and the gods. What Gilgamesh seeks is eternal life: he is told that the gods gave man life, but they kept eternal life for themselves. Therefore, when he dies, he will enter the netherworlds with all the other people who have died before him with no hope of eternal life.

This epic story, considered one of the oldest in the world, deals with the quest for immortality and eternal life. The quest for eternal life is as old as humanity: all humans possess a need to know that there is more to this life than this moment. In fact, everyone wants their lives to last longer than this moment. As much as the quest for immortality is the ancient quest of humanity, not all have the hope of eternal life. In fact, all men desire it, but not all believe it is possible.

This quest provides a wonderful space for us as believers to step in. As I thought about this ancient work, I realized that the Lord has given us an open door for the gospel—a door built right inside everyone we meet. The quest for immortality and eternal life is not far from any human; it is part of the way humans exist. We build memorials; we carve the names of people on the sides of buildings; we create halls of fame where we honour those who excel in their field. In short, the quest for immortality opens a door for believers to bring a central teaching of Christianity to light for the world.

But how do we step into this space? We step into this space by talking about death. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods hold onto eternal life and subject all men to death. The message of the gospel is that the Creator God sought to spare men from death and so took on human flesh and died (Phil 2:5-11). The wages of sin is death, and since mankind sinned, the sentence of death is upon us. Death is not just a natural part of human existence; it is a sentence placed upon man for our rebellion. Therefore, since it is a sentence, if the sentence is paid, then the penalty can be lifted. It is this death sentence that all of humanity is seeking to escape, but humanity does not know how to do this.

This message of the incarnation is what Gilgamesh was looking for. It is the message that all people are looking for. Why do we have music or sports halls of fame? Why do we give out Academy Awards? Why do we enshrine people? It’s because we are all seeking a transcendent existence. Yet a medal, statue or award will not give us the eternal life we are looking for. Eternal life is found through someone taking on our death sentence for us.

Mankind cannot make sense of the world without understanding the nature of life—especially eternal life. As Christians, we hold the key to understanding the nature of both death and eternal life. The reality of the incarnation, cross, resurrection and ascension of Jesus holds for us the key to understanding immortality, thus providing for us the grounding, resolution and hope for the world. We should not shy away from having this conversation with people. The quest for immortality is a quest for all humans, and it is a door that God has laid open for us to walk through.