When John the Baptist was put in prison and his death was immanent, he sends his followers to ask Jesus if he was he that was to come or do we look for another? Matt11:3  Doubt had crept in, and maybe fear as well and John is in need of reassurance.  When Jesus is in Gethsemane and death is immanent, he prays to the Father “not my will, but what thou wilt.” When you think about that statement it should cause us to consider. Both for John and Jesus the experiences are very similar.  Jesus who in the gospel of John says “I and the Father are one”, at the point of death, recognizes that what he wants and what the Father wants are not the same.  He knows that he came to be the sacrifice for sin and the savior of the world but now, close to death, he wants a reprieve.  Not only for John the Baptist, and maybe if we are called to martyrdom, not only for us, but even for Jesus, that experience brought about an extreme attack of fear and dread that Luke says caused him to sweat drops of blood.    Jesus had to suffer all temptation as son of man and to overcome the fear of death was one of them. 

            When the time should come that death is immanent in our lives, know that Jesus suffered the same kind of fear, if that fear should grip us.  Yet now we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who knows our pain, and will comfort us.  Yet because Jesus experienced death for us, we will not have to experience death.  Our body will die but our soul and spirit will go to be with the Lord forever.  It may take a moment for our emotions to catch up with our intellect, but because Jesus suffered even this for us, he is a remedy for our fear and the experience of dying and God will remove all fear from us.  It is a comfort of the Holy Spirit and we can look forward to our eternal home with God.