The Price IS Right
“After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied” Isaiah 53:11a
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee. (Luke 24:4–6)
The Price IS Right
By: Ashley Peterson (St. Mark Staff Minister Intern)
“The only two certainties in life are death and taxes.” This famous quote from Benjamin Franklin gets passed down through generations because of the simplistic truth. Year after year, you pay taxes, a cycle that only ends at your death. Due to its inevitability, many people fear death. It is something that humans have no control over, though many people try. Some have gone so far as trying cryonic preservation: freezing a body and reanimating it in the future (think Han Solo from Star Wars). Despite the best efforts of medicine, there is no way around death. No matter how much you fight, death will come knocking one day.
This world is all we know. Fear of death is a natural response because we do not know what awaits after death. Beliefs surrounding death help fight against fear, like reincarnation or heaven and hell. Yet, the final enemy remains. It is hard to alleviate fear when our focus remains on death. Though heaven is a place promised to be like none other, a perfect haven where true peace and joy are found, our sinful state always focuses inward, where the fear of death is found. That is why death entered this world. It was never a part of God’s original design, as Romans 6:23 says, “for the wages of sin is death.” Death is the result of our sin. Death is our punishment for turning against God. This is not just a physical passing. This death is eternal, a life separated from God for eternity; hell. That is the punishment for our sin, and when death is the focus of your life, you try to avoid it at all costs.
When you look past death and look toward the cross, this is where we find true peace in death. Our human efforts are futile in the fight against death because someone has already won that war—the same person who alone assuages the pang of fear in death: Jesus Christ. When you look to the cross, you see the payment Jesus made for our sin. He took our sin as his own and gave himself as the ultimate sacrifice. Through Jesus’ resurrection, God made his satisfaction known. It was like God giving his stamp of approval. It was proof that Jesus had truly conquered death once and for all. “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “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 the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 54-57). Though an earthly death is still feared as we wonder how we will one day leave this life, in Christ, we do not have to fear an eternal death, and we can sing along with the hymn Christ the Lord has Risen Today as it says “Death in vain forbids him rise… Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia
Song: Resurrecting by Elevation Worship
Prayer Suggestion: Praise God for Jesus’ resurrection. Death holds no fear.