Death has been swallowed up in victory!

Reflecting on Mark 6:17-29

“John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.” (Mark 6:29)
As a Jesus follower, I am thankful that Jesus is alive.
Both John’s and Jesus’s disciples were troubled by their deaths.
As disciples, their hope was in the rightness and goodness of their Rabbi.
For them to die like this – beheaded, crucified – was the ultimate shame.
For both the death of their Rabbi was the death of their dream.

Through history there have been many teachers of hope and of ‘the right way’.
People have put their hope and trust in wise and strong leaders.
Yet all of them eventually die, and in time their dreams do too.
Human nature has a way of ending the best hopes that humanity can produce.
The peace of the Roman Empire ends, collapsing from inside corruption.
The one holy catholic church splinters into thousands of denominations.
The hope for evolutionary progress gives way to WW1 and WW2.
The communist revolution against tyranny becomes an even worse tyranny.
The American Dream becomes a nightmare all over the world.

“Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.” (Psalm 146:3)

John was not a foolish or selfish teacher; what he said made sense.
His critique of Herod was not pleasant, but even Herod got it.
John’s message was like Jesus’s, both challenging yet compelling (Luke 3:7-15)
** for people to share food and clothing with the poor,
** for tax collectors to not cheat their people,
** for soldiers not to extort money or falsely accuse people.
The people were wondering if he was God’s promised messiah.
Even Herod liked him, though not enough to not kill him.

Nevertheless, John dies, and is buried, and that is the end.
This is true for all of us, from the weakest to the wisest.
People will mourn us and bury us, but we will remain dead.

This is where Jesus brings a different kind of hope.
His message was like John’s, and something was different.
He lived out God’s message of compassion and goodness fully.
Like John, He was killed by a sympathetic Roman Ruler (Pilate).
But unlike John, He did not remain dead.
His hope and message did not die with Him.
John’s disciples remained in their grief, but not Jesus’s disciples.
The resurrection of Jesus is what sets Him apart from all Rabbis.
The curse of death, the consequence of sin, has no hold on Him.
He breaks through to the other side, opening the way to life.
He invites all people to pass through death to life, life to the full.
His hope of a better world remains alive, the kingdom of God.

My hope in Jesus remains alive, my hope for His kingdom of love.
The dream that Martin Luther King shared is an expression of that dream.
And though MLK died, the dream did not, for it lives on in Jesus.
Today we live for love, compassion, mercy, like Jesus, because He lives.
We will all die one day, but because Jesus lives, we too will live!
There is a future, a better future, and so we live and die with hope.
We bury loved ones with grief, but not grief without hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:20-21)

We belong to Jesus in life and in death, and He is alive.
We see the misery and suffering in this world, yet hope still lives on.
Because Jesus lives, we give ourselves fully to His work.
For His resurrection assures us that our labour is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).
We can still grieve in this world, like John’s disciples.
But Jesus allows us to grieve with hope, and to carry on despite death.

“‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[Isaiah 25:8] ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ [Hosea 13:14] 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 15:54-57)

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, that You for a hope that outlasts the grace. Thank You for giving us a confidence to live in this sad, messed up world, and to trust that one day love and good WILL overcome evil. Today we will experience sadness as we bury our own hopes and dreams... but Your hope and dream remains!

Death has been swallowed up in victory!