Death has been swallowed up in victory. 1 Cor 15:54 (NIV)
PART 1 – Death Penalty
I have trouble processing death. I don’t like to think about it, I don’t like to talk about it… when I do, this itchy and achy feeling opens up in my stomach.
When I was 21, one of my friends from high school died of cancer. I could not, and still don’t, understand it. Well meaning people tried to comfort me saying things like, “it must have been ‘his time’…”, “everything happens for a reason…”, and the worst, “Jesus needed him in heaven…”
I can't wrap my mind and heart around the idea that God would give a 21-year-old guy a fatal disease that would whittle his life away slowly and painfully while his family and friends watched hopelessly on. (but that, my dear friends, is a devotion for a time when I’m much wiser).
Even though I’ve always had faith and I believe in Jesus and that there is life after death, I still think death is a horrific mystery. And we should allow it to be, rather than trying to make it all nice and flowery. Trying to make it sound cosier than it is, is like spraying ‘Pot Pourri’ air freshener over a filthy smell… it kinda smells OK (not really, not at all), but you can tell something horrible is lurking underneath, and really, the whole thing makes you want to vomit. Those of you who have lost a loved one will know what I’m talking about. Death is the ultimate separation. And it will always be painful and difficult to process.
This verse is not saying that death doesn’t matter anymore. “Death is swallowed up in victory” so who cares!
Nope.
On a podcast I listened to recently, the hosts were discussing eschatology (end times theology) and one of them said that death makes this life more precious. The fact that we are here now and one day won’t be drenches our lives with meaning and importance. We are each a rarity and a “once-in-a-universe-time” collection of cells and personality. It's not a “you better get it right” kind of importance, but a “squeeze as much as you can out of life” importance. Learn, grow, make mistakes, own them, keep on going… live and love with grace, hope and passion.
When Christ died, it would have been a complete train wreck of the mind and heart for those who loved him. Death, the ultimate separation, stood between Christ and his followers, hope and hopelessness, freedom and bondage, law and grace, old and new, decay and restoration. How would that chasm be crossed? Had they lost him forever?
Go to PART 2 “Nothing, not even death!”
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