Christ saves us from the fear of death

Friends in the Lord, consider a man who did something illegal, trying to solve his financial problems, but he makes a bad mistake, and gets involved with a criminal group. So he’s – an accomplice, with this criminal network, and they tell him, that if he doesn’t continue to cooperate – well, there just might be “consequences.” If he goes to the police, he will be surely convicted of the death penalty. So he’s stuck. Those thugs hold it over his head, he lives in the fear of death.

.

Well, this is life without the redemption of Christ. By our sins, we have colluded with the devil, and he holds our guilt over our head every day. We have a crime on our record, and the penalty waiting for us is death.

.

Deep inside of each person is the fear – the dread – of death. It is the root of the uneasiness of mankind. The root of every worry: someday I will die.

.

But what has Jesus done. He has taken our part. He has joined with us, to be one of the guilty. Just like us, his sentence is death. Christ dies a most brutal death, and as with every human being before him, when he dies the devil laughs. But this time its different: this Brother of ours, who takes our part, he rises and conquers death.

.

So here now is this man we spoke of, who has gotten himself aligned with a criminal network – he is us. Let’s say he leaves these criminals, turns himself in, and accepts that he will receive the death penalty. Sitting there in his prison cell, he is waiting his death.

.

But then a visitor comes. It is Jesus, and he asks this man: ‘Have you ever thought about how you could survive death?’ ‘Lord, in order to conquer death, a person would – would have to have your resurrected Body in them. But then Jesus reaches into a gold pyx, and holds up a white Host; ‘this is my Body’, he says. ‘I give you the antidote to death and the secret of the Resurrection.

The early Church called the Holy Eucharist the ‘Antidote to death.’

.

Friends, the Book of Hebrews today says that Jesus came, that he might destroy the one who has power over death and thereby, free us from the fear of death. The fear of death is the root of the angst in humanity; Jesus came to free us from the fear of death. He has given us the antidote.