It was a windy but sunny spring day in May of 1986…
Matt was a part of the team but the best runner was John Waller. John was somewhat of a living legend at that time in boys track. He was an incredibly gifted runner who had consistently placed in the top 5-10 spots in the mile run at the state level since he was in seventh grade.
The starter raised his arm – “Runners, take your mark.” He raised the gun, “Get set.” BANG! The gun was fired and off they went.
But something strange was happening. Matt was in the lead. They rounded the first curve and he was still leading. “Where’s John Waller?” Matt wondered. “Did he trip? What’s going on? He thought, “Did I just have too much adrenaline and start out way too fast? No, this seems like my normal pace. This is really strange.”
Matt led the entire first lap. And as he ran past the starting line where the race began he fully expected to see John Waller on the ground nursing an injury. But, nope! He was nowhere to be found. John had to still be in the race. Matt finished the second lap – still in the lead, his split times consistent with how he always ran –
Where was John Waller?
Easter Sunday is a day about death.
Death entered into the garden of Gethsemane with the temple guards of the High Priest. His fierceness is kindled as he sees the One who has eluded him so long. He snarls and roars, trying his best to intimidate and terrorize this Son of God, but Jesus looks him straight in the eye and does not flinch! There is not one indication of fear. This Jesus has the look of a conqueror!
It is Death that feels a tremor of fear! Could it be that he has finally met his master!?
I can see Death as he goes along with the crowd from the garden to the house of Caiphas and then to Pilate. Pilate, that pompous procurator of the region who would dare sit in judgment of this Perfect Personage of the Universe. I can hear Death whisper into Pilate’s ear: "Kill him. Give Him over to me. I know how to handle this trouble-maker!
Death whispered in the ears of the frenzied crowd, stirring them to cry out: "Crucify Him, Crucify Him! Release unto us Barabbas, the insurrectionist. Let the blood of this man, Jesus be on our hands and on our children’s hands!!
Death celebrates! He’s almost mine! I will devour Him. I will destroy Him. I will kill God’s child. With every lash of the whip, death lunged upon the body of Christ, yet could not get a finishing grip. Somehow he was repulsed.
Death was present as Christ was laid upon a roman criminal’s cross. He looked on with satisfaction as the brutal Roman soldier placed nails in each hand and feet of Jesus. He covered the earth with darkness as the cross was lifted and dropped into place, tearing the flesh and sinew of our Lord.
Finally, in the midst of Christ’s agony, He struggled for breath enough to say 2 things: 1) Father, forgive them; and 2) It is finished --- and He bowed His head and died!
And then something very strange happened. Death died. We can mark the day. We can pinpoint the hour… it was dawn – three days after…
Matthew 28:1-10
The day after the Sabbath day was the first day of the week. At dawn on the first day, Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary went to look at the tomb.
2 At that time there was a strong earthquake. An angel of the Lord came down from heaven, went to the tomb, and rolled the stone away from the entrance. Then he sat on the stone.
3 He was shining as bright as lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.
4 The soldiers guarding the tomb shook with fear because of the angel, and they became like dead men.
5 The angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus, who has been crucified. 6 He is not here. He has risen from the dead as he said he would. Come and see the place where his body was.
7 And go quickly and tell his followers, ‘Jesus has risen from the dead. He is going into Galilee ahead of you, and you will see him there.’ ” Then the angel said, “Now I have told you.”
8 The women left the tomb quickly. They were afraid, but they were also very happy. They ran to tell Jesus’ followers what had happened. 9 Suddenly, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings.” The women came up to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.
But where was John Waller?
He wasn’t about to simply disappear from a race.
A little more than halfway around the track on the third lap, of this mile race Matt was still in the lead. But then he heard that inevitable sound… of footsteps. Matt knew what that meant. John Waller pulled up next to Matt on the right side. And he said, “Did you hear those split times?”
Matt thought, “You’re talking to me now? You’re supposed to be trying to beat the pants off me in this race! This is mighty weird!”
John said, “We’re right on pace for a five minute mile but we’ve got to pick it up a little bit. Here, let me break the wind for you.” We were at the third curve on the track, where the wind was hitting us the hardest. So John effortlessly took the lead away from Matt but stayed right in front to block the wind. The pair finished that third lap with John still in the lead, and all of the other members of our track team, who had been watching this race with a great deal of interest seemed to be looking at Matt as if to say, “Well, Rogers, good effort. But we knew it was only a matter of time.”
Shortly into the 4th lap John Waller had already built one of his notoriously big leads over Matt, and Matt now without the pressure of setting the pace and maintaining the lead, simply focused on trying to better his time.
Death is the enemy of life
“Joseph Bayly knew what the loss of a child was like. In fact, he and his wife Mary Lou lost three sons – one at eighteen days, after surgery; another at five years, with leukemia: the third at eighteen years, after a sledding accident. So when Joe Bayly wrote about the death of a child people listened. Here is a part of what he had to say:
Of all the deaths, that of a child is most unnatural and hardest to bear. In Carl Jung’s words, ‘it is the period placed before the end of the sentence,’ sometimes when the sentence has hardly begun.
We expect the old to die. The separation is always difficult, but it comes as no surprise. But (what of) the child, the youth? Life lies ahead, with it’s beauty, its wonder, its potential. Death is a cruel thief when it strikes down the young. The suffering that usually precedes death is another reason childhood death is so hard for parents to bear.
Children were made for fun and laughter, for sunshine, not pain….. In a way that is different from any other relationship, a child is bone of his parent’s bone, flesh of their flesh. When a child die, part of the parents is buried….
I met a man who was in his seventies. During our first ten minutes together, he brought the faded photograph of a child out of his wallet – his child, who had died almost fifty years before.” [As quoted by R. Kent Hughes p.261]
Death rapidly becomes the strongest predator on the face of the earth -- relentlessly tracking down each victim, catching and wrestling him down to the… grave! Death is seen day and night going to and fro throughout the earth stalking his prey. He is seen lurking in the shadows of night, with the souls of men in his grasp. He is the terror of the night. He plays no favorites and is not prejudiced: He leaps upon you and old, man, woman, and child alike. Red, yellow, black or white! He rides the wind gaping and screaming for the body and soul of man.
But Death has been defeated by our resurrected Lord. He has made a way for us to defeat Death through him
1 Corinthians 15:51-57
51 But look! I tell you this secret: We will not all sleep in death, but we will all be changed. 52 It will take only a second—as quickly as an eye blinks—when the last trumpet sounds. The trumpet will sound, and those who have died will be raised to live forever, and we will all be changed.
53 This body that can be destroyed must clothe itself with something that can never be destroyed. And this body that dies must clothe itself with something that can never die.
54 So this body that can be destroyed will clothe itself with that which can never be destroyed, and this body that dies will clothe itself with that which can never die. When this happens, this Scripture will be made true: “Death is destroyed forever in victory.”
55 “Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your pain?”
56 Death’s power to hurt is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But we thank God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
It was now near the end of the 4th lap
Matt was approaching the home stretch.
With only 100 yards to go John Waller dropped back and he and Matt were now once again running side by side. Matt had never been this close to John so near the end of a race.
Stride for stride. Matt was running as fast as he could, and John seemed to glide effortlessly. Matt wanted to win, but how could he? With one final burst of power Matt knew that John could easily pull ahead.
But he didn’t. And within 20 yards of the finish line, John turned to Matt and said, “OK. Take it.”
“What?” Matt asked. And John repeated himself, “I said, take it!”
And with that he slid right behind Matt. Matt crossed the finish line in first place, with John Waller only a second behind.
He had let me win. His teammates were kicking dust. Yelling at him. His coach was furious. Matt’s team was screaming and going crazy. The shot-putter on Matt’s team, Jeff Schleder, picked him up in the air and paraded him around while people applauded. Matt was confused – embarrassed. When Jeff put him down Matt told the coach, Mr. McGraw, “It’s not what you think. He let me win.”
The coach slapped Matt on the back and said, “Yeah, right he did. Way to go!”
No one understood. Every person there thought he had just run the race of my life. The only people who knew any different were John Waller and Matt.
The next morning at school, over the intercom system in every classroom came the announcement. “In yesterday’s boys track meet, Matt Rogers defeated John Waller in the mile run.”
Jesus lets us win
Jesus is the resurrection of believers who die and the life of believers who live. He promises not that you will just survive, but that you will be resurrected. When he says, “you will never die,” it doesn’t mean that you will escape death, but that death will prove to be a trivial episode, a transition to the fullness of life.
John Stott(Stott, Cross of Christ, p. 244)
Friends, I want to tell you that on the day Christ arose from the grave, Death (for the Christian) died. Scripture tells us:
- I am He that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore ... and have the keys of hell and death. (Rev 1:18)
- And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it (Col 2:15)
- ... Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory!!
Death need hold no more terror in your life. For Christ "Tasted of Death" for us, and triumphed over it on that First Easter Morning. That first Easter morning will ever be know as THE DAY DEATH DIED!!!!
Jesus not only defeated death - he opened up a pathway that was closed. It had been closed by an angel with a flaming sword at the garden of Eden. Today the way is clear and Jesus has led the way.
Why?
Matt watched John Waller get back on the bus that day, and wondered, “Why did he do it?” Matt today, now an adult of some 30 years, still doesn’t understand why John Waller did it.
So why did Jesus do it? I guess it’s something impossible to explain – you can only experience it.
It’s called love and I’m dead without it.
I hope you don’t get in your car and drive off today without realizing what Christ has done for you. He defeated death and he’s willing to give you the victory if you’ll take it.
