Today is a day we remember death of the One who bore our sin and shame. He was humiliated and mutilated for us. May we never ever forget how profound this is.
I was sitting in a parking lot today, having one of my many frequent melt downs (healing is raw business). I was mourning death. The reality that everything dies hit me square between the eyes. To hope in anything in this sphere is the most pointless effort we can make, because it will die. Our family will die. Our friends will die. Our lovers will die. Our children will die. Our systems will die. Our traditions will die. Our pleasures will die. We, ourselves, will die. That sounds so obscene and gruesome, doesn’t it? But you know that’s not the end. In the wake of this reality, we recall a truth that many of us claim to know and many more have never heard or believed — that Jesus died too… but he came back.
He came back to us in order to stand in his rightful place as the ONLY true and living hope of the world. Because He came back, nothing else we hope in can level up to His matchless grace, love, mercy, and power. As everything falls to rack and ruin around us, He remains. The Psalmist (102) said it best: “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but You will remain.”
Our bodies are wasting away; this season is a reminder of our inevitable end. But He will remain, seated at the right hand of the Father. He is interceding for us, giving us his Spirit of comfort and joy, and waiting to come back to us again.
If hopelessness has become your companion in these dark days, remember the One who defeated death. He is our Living Hope. He defeated not only his death, but yours and mine, and in a little while, we will be with Him again.