Spiritual Lessons from Archimedes' Death

Some material in this post is taken from Wikipedia ("Archimedes").

Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) was "an ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer."  He is "[g]enerally considered the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time." Archimedes "died c. 212 BC during the Second Punic War [Rome vs. Carthage], when Roman forces under General Marcus Claudius Marcellus captured the city of Syracuse [under Carthaginian rule] after a two-year-long siege. According to the popular account given by Plutarch, Archimedes was contemplating a mathematical diagram when the city was captured. A Roman soldier commanded him to come and meet General Marcellus but he declined, saying that he had to finish working on the problem. The soldier was enraged by this, and killed Archimedes with his sword. Plutarch also gives a lesser-known account of the death of Archimedes which suggests that he may have been killed while attempting to surrender to a Roman soldier. According to this story, Archimedes was carrying mathematical instruments, and was killed because the soldier thought that they were valuable items." 

In both of these accounts, we see that Archimedes' work was more important to him than anything, even his personal safety.  In one account, he was so engrossed in his work that he was oblivious to everything going on around him; in the other, he tried to salvage his tools to the last.  As I pondered this the other day, I realized that this man who let nothing distract him from his life's work.  To us it may seem foolish that he didn't abandon his study to preserve his life, but when you look at this incident closely, you see that mathematics was Archimedes' life.  It eclipsed everything else therein, even his personal safety in the end.

What a great example for Christians!  Archimedes let nothing distract him from his mission, just as Paul exhorts us in 2 Tim. 2:4, "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."  Furthermore, something was more important to him than life itself...another great example for us.  Paul said in Acts 20:24, "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."  To Paul, the word of God was more important than life, just as mathematics was for Archimedes.  If a Greek scholar will put his thirst for mathematical truth before his life, shouldn't we also put the word of God, the absolute truth (John 17:17), before ours?