When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:54-55
Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Philippians 1:19-21
Grappling with death is one of the inevitabilities of human existence. Every person through history did it, and Jesus even did it. The two verses above are verses that are conceptually embraced by western Christians, however, there is a large disconnect when it comes living like we believe it. The persecuted church gets it, where believers (even in this moment) are being persecuted, harmed, or tortured for their faith. In living it out, they are showing us what it really means to believe those verses.
We need to live for the Kingdom that we claim we belong to. As long as we live for this kingdom and this Age, we’ll try to find ways to have all the blessings of this world and all the benefits of Heaven (i.e. Gnostic Christianity). However, Jesus was all or nothing, and He calls us to be all or nothing. I admit, that’s not a very popular thing to teach today, but, judging from the Gospels, it wasn’t a very popular thing to teach in Jesus’ day either.
This morning we stayed home from church since our 2 weeks and 6 day old daughter is getting this whole living thing worked out (breathing, sleeping, pooping, and eating). As I gave little Sarah her first rundown of the resurrection story, I thought, “Wow, what an existence.” It really is all about Jesus. Eating, breathing, sleeping, living, would be meaningless without the sacrifice and the person of Christ. The cross was the plan from the foundation of the world. Us being with the Father (in love) is the primary purpose of our existence.
Today as I held our little girl Sarah Clare, I remembered the son that we lost: Elijah. We sprinkled his ashes on a hill with three crosses, overlooking the reservation where we work. Today that is a declaration that death is not the end – it has been conquered. In that moment I realize that my heart is starting to grasp the truth of “Death where is your sting” and “to live is Christ, to die is gain.” I have a daughter on this side of Heaven, and a son on the other. There is a fellowship that my wife and I share, “a strength for today, a bright hope for tomorrow.” As a family, our living is done together, and when that day comes where we cross over onto that other shore, it means eternity together. Life means living for the Kingdom of our citizenship now, as strangers in this land (1 Peter 2:11), testifying of the Kingdom of Heaven by the way that we live now.
He has risen indeed!
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatains 2:20