How we need the perspective of Jesus about death! Knowing it was an enemy, Jesus came and faced the penalty that entered the world through man’s sin. “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”
Though we often just think of the physical, Jesus sees death from an eternal point of view. As close as I may have been to physical death last year, there was a time when I was worse off. I didn’t look bad. I was healthy and strong. I was popular. I had everything a man could want, but Jesus knew I was dead. When one sees himself in such a hopeless place he cries, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
If someone discovers a cure for cancer, we will all rejoice, but there is a far more deadly disease at work in this world… and people seem to pay little attention. Sin kills. “The wages of sin is death.” But Jesus came to raise the dead! Do you hear His voice?
I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
If we are intrigued by such words and want to follow, He tells us we must count the cost:
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
And if we claim there are more urgent matters at hand, Jesus says hard things:
“Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead.”
And if we follow awhile, we hear even harder things:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
If we resist the temptation to walk away, knowing there is no other place to go, we shall find He really is the only One with words of eternal life. And we shall discover we need not fear.
“‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I Corinthians 15:55-57