If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
I would like for you to consider with me several scenarios:
• A little girl is setting-up the most perfect tea party for her favorite dolls, imagining that she is the lady-in-waiting to the throne of England.
• A ten year old boy is hitting stones over the fence in his back yard; he is pretending each swing is at a critical point of a World Series game.
• A teenager has a death-grip on his X-Box360 control – his military game “Call of Duty” requires him to kill 82,000 soldiers if he’s going to live through the day. He is making admirable progress; he aspires to someday be the governor of California.
• For those of you who want an illustration from real life – my oldest granddaughter, Chelsea had a fear of going under the water when she was very young. We lived in Florida, so we had a pool (it’s mandatory). Every day 3 year old Chelsea would tell me she was going to do it – cannonball into the pool and go all the way under, mouth, nose and eyeballs!
One fateful day she tried several times, as she had often tried before, running right up to the edge of the pool, then stopping like an invisible bungee-cord was tied to her. Finally she managed to brave it…Chelsea put her fear aside and leaped into the water…down, down, down….scrambling to the surface, and as she cleared the water from her eyes, she shook her head, looked around to survey the audience reaction, and proclaimed, “Well…..THAT was an adventure!”
Most likely we can all see these imaginary events and smile. After all, a “play event” that a child sees as monumental, adults see as “cute”. The little ones need to play at being “big people”. Soon enough they’ll get to the “real world” and have to deal with the bigger, more profound issues.
Life Has Some Serious Issues
Of course adults have big issues. Today even a ten minute segment of the news can send you running to the medicine cabinet for some valium or Prozac:
• Depression – it’s a good name for the state of the economy; that’s one where the issue and its effect are the same word.
• War and terrorism occupies our minds and prayer lists.
• The environment – global warming and narrowing energy choices.
• Racism, justice, peace, poverty, disease…….and on into the night!
Life’s Most Serious Issue - Death
Most of our culture’s problem issues have a solution, or can be addressed. But what do you do with death? This is the real public enemy #1! We have on planet earth at any one moment at least thirty gazillion people working on trying to beat or cheat death. Count the ways:
• Exercise and diet – I know you watch those shows, and if part of your church membership demanded filing your Mastercard statements with the treasurer, we’d have evidence you’ve ordered at least something to get healthier! But getting healthier doesn’t change death; perhaps only cheats it out of a few years.
I did one of those life-expectancy calculators online. They ask you a bunch of questions about your diet, age, family history, eating habits (ugh) and the like. After you answer all 75 questions you press “calculate” and the machine laughs at you, but produces a number that is your expected longevity. Mine was age 84. That seems pretty good, but it started the left side of my brain crunching the numbers. I’m just about 63. That means three-quarters of my life is over, gone….history! If the number is right I’ve got three times as much behind me as ahead of me!
Once you shake off the depression of that realization you begin to believe the mortality statistic – it’s 1:1, everybody dies. And it’s quicker than any of us thought. The apostle James, brother of Jesus put it this way:
What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:14b
• Surgery – We have transplants available for most body parts these days. And if the doctors can’t get a part from another person, they’ll invent a plastic one, or a pig will have to give up his seat! (Barring the kind of surgery that actually means something to your physical health, there’s always plastic surgery to fool ourselves into thinking we’re doing better in the race with death!).
• Cryogenics –Some reports say that Walt Disney and baseball legend Ted Williams had themselves frozen so they might be brought back and given another round at life. When they freeze you (at least your head) it’s proof that, even if we die, we’re still hoping against hope that it isn’t permanent!
The Fact is Settled – Nobody Gets Out Alive!
A teacher was testing the children in Sunday school class to see if they understood the concept of getting to heaven. He asked them, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?” “NO!” the children answered.
“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into heaven?” Again, the answer was, “NO!”
Now the teacher was smiling. Hey, they’re getting it, he thought! “Well, then, if I was kind to animals, gave candy to all the children and loved my wife, would that get me into heaven?” he asked. Again, they all answered, “NO!”
He was just bursting with pride. “Well,” he continued, “then how can I get into heaven?” A 5-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD.” [1]
In light of that fact, Paul, in our text says: If all you’re looking at is the tea party for dolls, or hitting imaginary home runs over your back fence, or how much better you’re going to look after the face lift, your focus is on 70-80 years, give or take…and you are to be most pitied [2] for being so short-sighted; eternity is a much bigger issue! And so here’s a much bigger question:
Forget About Cheating Death –
What Are You Going To Do About Eternity?
Paul told us how God has planned for it to work out. In the most documented of his miracles, Jesus conquered death by resurrecting from the tomb after three days. Then he offered it to us on a silver platter.
The scenario plays out this way:
Human Problem #1. Every person since Adam has sinned; you and I included. Solution: Christ paid that penalty with his death on the cross.
Human Problem #2. The consequence of death still hangs over us. Solution: Christ offers victory over death by virtue of his resurrection – it is a gift. Once received, that means you belong to him.
The End is Coming
Paul said it, Then comes the end… [3] The word in Greek is telos and its meaning is “purpose”. The whole purpose, or meaning to the event of Easter is salvation, where Jesus presents back to God all the authority of rule and a restored order of kindness, peace and justice on the earth. Where it says in our text that Jesus has put all his enemies under his feet IS the end, or purpose to it all. It means that all enemies, including death have been destroyed.
The story of the Gospel (in a very small nutshell) is that God made a perfect world and our sin messed it – and us – up, big-time! That divided us from God because he will not tolerate sin. Jesus came and died so we can know God again…and the “end” or purpose is that relationship with the Father, our Creator!
Your life is supposed to have meaning
Does your life have purpose? Does your life make sense, have meaning? Or do you mostly feel like you’re wandering? Is it 80 years of tea parties and home-run stones? Shouldn’t there be more? Isn’t your heart telling you that there IS more, and that you’re missing it?
Many people say they’re not afraid of death – but they are misinformed. Death should be feared, because death is to be separated from God for eternity. Death isn’t just when you stop breathing, and you therefore don’t have the struggles and worries anymore. Your soul and your consciousness are never going to die. And even your body is going to be resurrected.
The Bible talks of two resurrections. One is a resurrection to life; the other, resurrection to eternal death – separation from God. Jesus came to buy you out of that. He died for your sins, gave his life on the cross in your place, so that you can have an eternal life, not eternal death!
There is only one intelligent way to not be afraid of death – when you have eternal life. That is possible because Jesus said so:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 (NRSV)
My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:27 - 28 (NRSV)
When you are in the Master’s hand, then you can look at death and truly not be afraid, because the hand of death can never touch you – you will never be separated from the One who loves you more than is humanly possible. You will be able to talk to death like John Donne did in a poem :
DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.[4]
To give your life to Christ is to celebrate the death of your death!
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Endnotes
1] HomileticsOnline, © 2010 COMMUNICATION RESOURCES, INC
2] 1 Corinthians 15:19
3] 1 Corinthians 15:26
4] Divine Sonnet X
