This week we begin worship with:
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
With gleeful shouts, kids taunt "You can't catch me!" to start an imprompto game of tag. That is not our relationship with death. For, if the Lord tarries, death will surely tag us.
Here our taunt with death is instead "Where is your sting?". To understand, we must read on . . .
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Though death will tag us, the sting of the law will not be present. The author of Hebrews puts it beautifully:
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
The eagerness with which we wait should be more akin to a different schoolyard cry "Pick me, pick me!".
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