What makes for a good death? We don’t often talk about what dying well might look like. Although our society has conquered many of its big taboos – particularly the taboo of discussing sex – death often remains undiscussed and unexplored. So the question of a good death is not something we talk about much.

This week, we have mourned the life of someone who most would agree died well. As far as we can tell from the outside, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, died as well as anyone might hope to die: at the end of a long life, well-lived, surrounded by those she loved.

So what does make for a good death? The writers of the Old Testament had a very clear idea of made for a good and bad deaths. Much of the view about a good death can be found in summary form in Genesis 15.15-16: ‘As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation.’ In other words, there are three things needed for a good death: to die peacefully in old age; to be buried with your ancestors and to leave behind descendants who can live into future generations.

Today we would have many different criteria for a good death, though the first -- living to an old age and dying peacefully – would probably be shared across all generations and cultures.

Jesus’ death, however, shared none of these characteristics. He died young. His death was the opposite of peaceful. He was buried not in an ancestral tomb but a new tomb bought by a stranger. He left behind him no biological descendants. So was his death a good one or not?

We could spend many hours discussing this (and indeed I have) but here I will say just this. John’s Gospel adds a new element into the question of a good death: ‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (John 15.13). Jesus’ death was a good death because it was a death that began, continued and ended with love. One of the features that many people have noted about Queen Elizabeth is that the same is true of her. Her life of self-sacrificial devotion is something that so many people remember of her as they mourn her death.

And that brings us to the crucial issue. What makes a good death? Life. A life well-lived in love and devotion leads to a good death. And because of Jesus’ ‘good death’, it proceeds onwards into new life and resurrection. A good death is a death entwined with life.

May Her Majesty, the late Queen Elizabeth II rest now in peace, from her life well-lived, and rise in glory.