He Will Swallow Up Death Forever

April 10, 2021 Georgia Tanner

If the world wants to hate us, this should be the reason;

He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 25:8 ESV

This should be the offensive heart of the problem.

We believe this,

we believe this is true.

We believe God is a Truth-Giver and a Promise Keeper.

A Man of His Word, you might say.

He told His beloved Chosen People,

and they wrote it down through the Prophet voice of Isaiah

that there would come a day on the mountain of Jerusalem

when death would be swallowed up forever.

The Lord God would wipe away tears from the faces,

and the reproach, the disgrace, the shame of God’s people

would be taken away from all the earth

and all this would come through a man,

sent in the name of God.

We believe this is true,

as right as rain,

as solid and firm as the ground we stand on,

as precious and crucial as each breath we take.

God sent His Son to swallow up death

forever.

So if you hate us for anything,

hate us, please

for this.

This is absurd and extreme and illogical and unscientific

and just plain crazy.

Let me say it again,

We believe God has swallowed up, destroyed, forcibly removed, annihilated, pulverized, vaporized

Death

forever.

There are all kinds of good reasons to hate the people

who wear the name Christian,

sewed like a patch above our shirt pocket

worn like a little gold cross around our neck

tattooed like a bleeding heart upon our chest.

Christian.

One who believes follows, professes

Christ alone.

Jesus is our Messiah, our Savior, our Lord,

The Holy, Anointed Promised One.

The reasons usually given to hate us are mundane and expected:

we are self-righteous, other condemning, hypocritical, judgmental, narrow-minded, uneducated, mean-spirited,

hurtful, harmful, and hateful.

All of these things can be true,

but it is not enough.

If you really want to get to the rock-solid, ground-breaking,

earth-shattering, reality shifting fact of the matter,

it is this:

We believe that God accomplished exactly what He promised.

He swallowed up death forever.

If that isn’t enough, there’s the odd little story of Jesus, flogged, crucified, spear-pierced, his life-less body buried in a stone-cold cave, tightly wrapped in cloths and spices, sealed behind a stone, guarded by soldiers under the authority and watchful eye of the Roman government and the Jewish aristocracy, yet he turns up missing but found, announced by angels, talking with mere women and fishermen and a tax-collector and the likes of the first-ever doubting Thomas. And don't forget about the two on the road to Emmaus.

He was not making it easy to ignore that messy Passover weekend and move on.

No. He wasn’t. And there is yet one more story.

This Jesus shows up on the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. It is early morning as light slowly fills the sky and his friends are back to fishing. Again. He calls to them and recommends they let down their empty nets on the other side of their boat. You would think they should have recognized this story by now. Peter leaves the miraculous catch and the boat, jumps into the water, and swims back to shore to find this familiar stranger with fish already roasting over a hot bed of coals and freshly baked bread. He offers a simple invitation, “Come and have breakfast.”

Jesus eats with them again. He tells them stories again. He walks along the shore with them again. He hints that John will live a long life. He hints that Peter will not.

He asks a question, “Do you truly love me, Peter?” Peter answers with hurt staining his voice, “You know that I love you.”

Jesus asks the same question again. And he asks it again. Three times he asks so that three times this three-time denying disciple can affirm his love. It will be this conversation of love that will remain. It will be this gentle reminder that will strengthen Peter in the days to come, “You are forgiven. You are forgiven. You are forgiven.”

In the middle of this conversation, Peter is entrusted with the most important job of all; he would be a fisherman no longer. Instead, he would care for the sheep. He would follow the Shepherd.

So if they want to hate us, let this be the reason:

Two thousand years after that Passover night,

that Resurrection Morning

we are still clinging to that conversation on the shore –

“Do you truly love me? Feed my sheep.”

I think if this was only a fairy tale, all made up to amuse the children, couldn’t we have come up with a better last story?

Was this the best we had? A story of a miraculous last catch, breakfast on the beach, repeated questions about love, and reminders of hungry sheep?

Jesus came back for those who needed to be forgiven.

Can you relate?

They were only humble fishermen who had run away when the soldiers knocked on the door. They thought they had gambled everything on a charlatan who claimed to be a beloved son and king but had been disgraced and slaughtered on the eve of Passover like a sacrificial lamb.

But he came back. And his undeniable presence could only mean one thing:

Jesus was God’s plan to defeat death.

He came to wipe away the tear from every eye.

He came to remove the shame and despair from His people.

He came to die and be resurrected,

And swallow up death forever.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know Him who sent me.” John 15:18-21 ESV

North Point InsideOut ft. Seth Condrey - Death Was Arrested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwgWbIOt0ko

Christ Was Born In Bethlehem Tim O'Brien - Topic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPUEk79KQec

The story of Jesus cooking breakfast on the shore of the lake can be found in John 21.