“We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.” (Romans 6:9)
This past Christmas, as we prepared for company, I offered to get the relish tray for my wife. “You can’t,” she said. “It broke last year. Remember?” So it goes: after 20 years, some of our wedding gifts are wearing out or breaking, a little reminder that most things don’t last forever.
Yet one thing does: the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Can we even imagine it, a life utterly free of death? Death sets the boundaries of our life in ways that we don’t even stop to consider, yet Christ’s life has no limits—“death no longer has dominion over Him!”
What such a life really is, we do not yet know. Yet we know this: the gifts that Jesus gives, coming from this deathless Man, endure forever. The Name He gives you in Baptism, the forgiveness He declares to you, the feast He sets for you—these things remain true, even at the graveside. They are eternal life.
LET US PRAY: Immortal God, who became our flesh that we may rise in the flesh and live forever: by the Spirit of Your resurrection, grant us courage. Banish our fears in the face of death, and free us for faithful service in Your Name, by which we pray. Amen
Pastor Steven K. Gjerde
Zion, Wausau
