The (Un)Natural Way of Life
He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face. He will take away the shame of his people throughout the earth. For the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 25:8)
Death is a hard thing for us to talk about. When someone or something close to us dies, it makes death even harder to talk about. It brings back the memory of those that we will no longer see on this earth, those who will no longer be there with us. And when we think about those things, we feel an emptiness, a hole, a hurt.
Death seems like it is a natural part of being on this earth. Everything that lives on this earth must die. At least from a human perspective, that’s the order of life. We all know that one day we too will die and a new generation will take our place.
But even death is temporary. When Jesus died on the cross, it looked like the natural order of things had once again happened, but three days later that all changed. Jesus rose from the dead and in doing so, he swallowed up death. He took away it’s victory and changed death into a temporary sleep that every Christian goes through until the day when he returns.
On the cross, Jesus removed our guilt and shame so that one day he will be able to wipe away the final tear from our eyes. From that day forward, we will only experience full and complete Easter joy. We will stand before his throne and worship him. All of this because he has swallowed up death and taken away it’s victory. Amen.
The song for today is “Death Swallowed in Victory” by Brian LoPiccolo