The Difference Between Ben Sasse and So Many Other Saints

Ben Sasse has a lifetime of noteworthy achievements and accomplishments behind him. He has earned degrees from Harvard and Yale, been executive director of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, served as a senator for the state of Nebraska, and been president of the University of Florida. Perhaps more importantly, he has been married to Melissa for more than 30 years, raised three children with her, and been a faithful Christian all along. But counterintuitively, the final analysis could prove that his greatest accomplishment will be related less to his life and more to his death, for he is dying publicly and dying well.

I expect you know by now that Sasse was recently diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and given just months to live. Since then, he has been asked to participate in a host of interviews across a wide range of media outlets, both Christian and mainstream. Here’s just a small sampling:

That’s a partial list, but a massive platform. Already he has spoken before an audience of millions. And while much of the conversation has been related to American politics, every interview has also turned to faith. Time and again, he has testified to his love for the Lord. He has spoken of his conviction that his diagnosis is an outworking of God’s providence, his trust that God will care for his family, and his confidence that he has been saved by grace through faith and will soon be face-to-face with the Lord. As he has done this, he has challenged the lost and encouraged the saved. He has stood as a faithful witness.

There is something both normal and abnormal about all of this. What is abnormal is the size of the audience; what is normal is the faithfulness. He has been handed the opportunity to speak to millions, and he has been faithful to do so well—to offer a distinctly Christian perspective on suffering and death.

But while his audience is unusual, his faithfulness is not. There are many Christians who have suffered deeply and made the slow trek to the grave, testifying to the grace of God and their confidence in his providence. There are many who have dedicated their final days to speaking of the gospel and telling of their love for the Lord. It’s just that they have done it before an audience of two or three, or twenty or thirty, rather than millions. Perhaps you would agree with me that some of the sweetest encouragement you’ve received in your life has been from those who are nearest to death.

My friend David also experienced a long battle with terminal cancer. He was known to far fewer people than Sasse, but was absolutely committed to serving well to the end of his days. He was not invited to go on “60 Minutes,” but he did pick up the phone and call every one of his Christian friends to encourage them one last time and every one of his non-Christian friends to share the gospel with them one last time. “Everyone will listen to a dying man,” he told me. And they all did. He is just one of many Christians I have known or read of who were faithful with the suffering God had entrusted to them. (David’s wife, Keri, has written a sweet book titled Firmly Rooted that chronicles this trial and others the family experienced.)

The difference between Sasse and others is not in the degree of faithfulness, but in the scope of the stewardship.

I want to be clear that I’m thankful for Ben Sasse and thankful for his faithfulness. He is an inspiration to me. But even as I rightly laud him, I find that he reminds me of all those who are equally deserving of praise for being equally faithful. The difference between Sasse and others is not in the degree of faithfulness, but in the scope of the stewardship. Sasse was entrusted with five of those proverbial talents, whereas David and others were entrusted with two or one. What matters in the eyes of the Lord is not the number of the talents, but our faithfulness in stewarding them. Sasse encourages me to remember and praise God for all of his people, great and small, known and unknown, who have received their final diagnosis as their final challenge—their final opportunity on this side of the grave to testify to their love for the Lord and the peace they have in him. May you and I be equally faithful.

Photo credit: Matt A.J.