Death is Served

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” (Heb. 2:9)

This meal is a feast, a joyful celebration of victory, but we should not forget what it is that we are eating as we celebrate. We are eating death together. We are sharing the broken body of Jesus and His shed blood. We are eating the death of Christ as a victory meal. This is because the death of Jesus was the death of death. When Jesus died, He tasted death for every man. He swallowed death from the inside, like a Greater Jonah.

This means at least two things. First, this meal continues to be a victory feast. Jesus swallowed up death forever, and now every Sunday is an Easter celebration until death is no more. We have been freed from the power and fear of death. Because Jesus died for us, we are not afraid of death anymore. We are not afraid of cancer. We are not afraid of airplane crashes. We are not afraid of terrorist attacks.

But second, this means that since we are not afraid anymore, we can gladly and courageously give our lives away for one another. Some people say You Only Live Once and justify whatever they want to do. But in Christ, we have forever life that cannot be lost or taken away. So we can serve now, we can suffer now, we can wait patiently now, we can give up everything now gladly. Jesus ate death, and now so do we. Cheers. Death is served, and we laugh and sing.