This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the spring concert of Immanuel Lutheran College in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, presented by Director John Reim. I was looking forward to the concert because it is an opportunity to hear the powerful Word of God presented and proclaimed in song. Music is indeed a gift of God, whatever form it takes, but few things have a way of piercing the heart like the Word of God presented in song:
It was a strange and dreadful strife
When life and death contended.
The victory remained with life.
The reign of death was ended. Holy
Scripture plainly saith
That death is swallowed up by death.
Its sting is lost forever.
(Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands, Martin Luther, 1524.
trans. Richard Massie, 1854. Harm. J. S. Bach.)
The words are found in The Lutheran Hymnal (195) and are familiar this time of year. The words are striking because in our experience death never accomplishes anything. Death is but a sad period affixed to the end of every human life. Death is a constant reminder of sin, for without sin and the law, there would be no death. Still, it is asserted that by one death — Death itself was defeated — that being the death of God’s one and only matchless Son. He was delivered up because of our sins and raised again that we might be declared "not guilty" by faith in His living and dying.
In our experience the hero never dies. In our fairy tales, the hero is victorious and "lives happily ever after." The hero can't die! He just can't. In order that we might live eternally, the Son had to die. In order to make atonement for our sins, He had to shed His blood. But Jesus didn't stay dead. He arose from death to be the living receipt of our redemption. It is because He lives that we will rise again and live eternally. Hallelujah! |
