Death Is Death

We have all been there next to a casket, we've said a prayer, cried some tears,we've tossed a flower or some dirt onto it before it's lowered into the hole and sealed, never to be seen again.

It may have been a parent, a child, a sibling, a husband or wife, a good friend, but now they're gone, and an emptiness comes upon us as we realize that whatever hopes we may have had for, or with that person will never be fulfilled.

So imagine what it must have been like for Jesus' followers to have Him brutally ripped from their lives after being so sure that He was the One; God's Messiah.

I'm sure that to the disciples, the women who discovered that Jesus' tomb was empty on resurrection Sunday sounded like a bunch of hysterical fools trying to wish away the facts. He was dead. Only when they saw for themselves did they begin to ask, "Could it be?" When Jesus appeared to them they began to hope for real.

Jesus has changed the world by not only overcoming His own death, but by defeating death entirely. He said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life."
Paul says, quoting the Psalms, "Death is swallowed up in victory." The victory he speaks about is the one Jesus wrought on Easter morning when He defied death and rose again. Now the impossible becomes possible to all who put their trust in Him.
Because of Jesus victory over death, He says, "Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.
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