“The Defeat of Death”

Scripture: John 19:1-30

INTRODUCTION

It has been a long journey from Ash Wednesday to Holy Week, but we have finally arrived at the foot of the Cross on a hill called Calvary. The 19^th chapter of John’s gospel, together with the old African-American spiritual “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”, brings us right into the heart of that sad and tragic scene long ago.

Most of the disciples have fled in fear and we now stand here with John and three Marys – Mary the mother of Jesus, his Aunt Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene, a faithful follower and close friend. As the thunderclouds roll in and we are surrounded by the darkness, it would appear this is the end of the line for Jesus.

The movement which began with such great promise in Galilee and gathered momentum over three years of remarkable, miraculous ministry, did not catch on here in Jerusalem and has finally run its course. For the One whom we thought was the Messiah, born to be king and coming to set us free, is now nailed down, hanging and dying on a cross.

The crowds that mocked and jeered and shouted for His demise have mostly receded into the twilight, and we are left in this God-forsaken place with some stragglers, the Roman soldiers and two thieves, also crucified, on either side of Jesus. It is quiet now…until suddenly, we hear Him cry out loud with the last breath left in Him: IT IS FINISHED! and so it was on that first Good Friday.

All these years later, we Christians who live this side of Easter, we know how the story turned out. But before we can move on to celebrate the resurrection, we’ve got to go back and stand there with those first century people to face the pain of the crucifixion and the reality of death.

It was then and still is today the last stage of our journey on this earth – “pre-destined” as our Presbyterian forbears would say, from the moment of our birth. In other words, sooner or later, we are all going to die and we don’t like it…which is why we try to avoid talking about it or sometimes tell imaginative stories about heaven to take the edge off of our fear of death.

A preacher friend called me on the phone during Holy Week and said, “I’ve got one for you. A man died and met St. Peter at the pearly gates and inquired about how to get in. St. Peter asked him, ‘Do you know how to spell the password?’ The man said, ‘I don’t.’ St. Peter replied, ‘That’s all right’ and whispered into his ear the word ‘Love.’ ‘That’s it?’ the man asked. ‘That’s it’ said Peter. So the man spelled the word ‘Love’ and was welcomed through the gates.

A few hours later, St. Peter asked that same man to hold down the station for him while he attended to some other business. The man was standing there alone when he saw a woman arrive whom he knew. It was his mother-in-law. She looked surprised and said, ‘What are you doing here?’ He answered, ‘I’m guarding the gates for St. Peter.’ ‘How do I get in?’ the mother-in-law wanted to know. ‘Just spell the password’ said the man. ‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘Czechoslovakia’ he replied.”

You see, in so many ways, we try to evade and avoid the pain and sorrow of death. But no matter how many humorous stories we tell about getting into heaven and staying out of hell, inevitably it is going to happen to you and to me and to all those whom we love. And when that time comes, what then? What assurance do we have as Christians that death is not the end and that life goes on with God in that majestic and mysterious place we call heaven?

II.

The promises of scripture point us in the right direction, and most of us know the words by heart.

Psalm 23: Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me…surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Romans 8: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? No, for in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am certain that neither death nor life, nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor anything else in all creation can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

And in John 14 – Jesus, speaking to His disciples at the Last Supper in the Upper Room said: I go to prepare a place for you. And someday, I will come again and receive you unto myself, so that where I am, there you will be also. My peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Therefore, let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Those promises were made a long time ago, and they still sustain us today, leading us toward life everlasting. John Bunyan described it this way for the pilgrim named Christian when “all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side” (From “Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan). And our most recent Presbyterian Confession of Faith confirms that promise with the words which have been embedded in the wall of our Chapel Memorial Garden: “In life and in death, we belong to God.”

CONCLUSION

With all of that said, there is one final promise that we must always remember and never forget, and it echoes, echoes, echoes down through the centuries to this moment in time for you and for me and for all of humanity. Jesus Christ, with the last breath of life that was in Him, looked down at those family members and friends, and even His executioners and enemies standing there at the foot of the Cross, and cried out to God and to them and to all of us ever since: IT IS FINISHED!

I think those words mean more than most of us can comprehend. Why? Because Jesus was declaring with His final cry that He was the victor, not the victim, and that the old structures of fear and death were passing away as God established a new kingdom – a kingdom on earth where hatred and revenge are transformed into love and forgiveness, a kingdom in heaven where death does not have the final word because the light has conquered the darkness.

That’s what the theologian Marcus Dods was trying to tell us as he wrote about those final and triumphant words from the Cross:

“The cry ‘It is finished!’ was not the mere gasp of a worn-out life; it was not the cry of satisfaction with which a career of pain and sorrow is terminated; it was instead the deliberate (word from God’s only begotten Son) that all had been done to make God known to human beings and to identify with them…Forgiveness and deliverance from sin were provided for them (for us), so that we might learn to know and to serve Him…All of that was secured when Jesus cried ‘It is finished!’ from the Cross.”

(From “Footsteps in the Path of Life, by Marcus Dods)

Do you believe that today? Dr. Fred Craddock believes it and bears witness that the promise is true through this closing story about a colleague and close friend who was dying of cancer and facing the end of her life on earth:

“Five years ago, she was in her room alone and she heard a knock at the door. She went to the door and it was old death. So she locked the door and went to the doctor and with some surgery and some therapy, she was able, after a while, to return to her colleagues and classes. She was doing just fine and we all embraced her and said, ‘Ha! You got him! You beat old death!’

Then, about two years ago, she was alone in her room and she heard a knock at the door. It was old death again. She locked the door and rushed back to the doctor and there was some more surgery and chemotherapy and she came through with flying colors. ‘Ha!’ we said, ‘You got him again!’

A few months ago, she heard a knock at the door and when she opened the door, it was old death. She slammed the door and tried to lock it, but the lock was broken. So she called her friends and family and we all came and took turns leaning against the door. Once in a while, we’d look out the window and that old yellow-faced thing was still out there waiting. So we leaned against the door all the harder.

Then one morning, she said ‘Back away from the door!’ So we backed away and the door swung open and there he stood. He reached down to get his poisoned darts, but suddenly, he was embarrassed. Old death was embarrassed because in his left hand was rest and in his right hand was peace. And he was whipped. Old death was whipped.

So the congregation gathered at her funeral, sang the great hymns of faith and rejoiced as she passed on through the door to life eternal.”

(From “Craddock Stories,” by Fred B. Craddock, Chalice

Press, 2001)

My friends, if you believe that today, or if you want to believe it, then listen again to what Jesus said at the end of His life on earth. It was and is a cry we all need to hear, a cry that can conquer our fear as we walk through the valley of the shadow. Listen again to the words He said when death was defeated on that Good Friday long ago:

IT IS FINISHED! IT IS FINISHED! And so it was, and so it is and so it shall always be, From Here to Eternity.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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