Tasting Death
Several years ago, my wife and I, together with our eldest daughter, visited some friends in Cambodia. During our visit, we took a trip to one of the many “killing fields” located throughout the country. (There are over 300 killing fields in Cambodia.)
Four years of totalitarian rule by Pol Pot, a Cambodian revolutionary, and politician, who served as Prime Minister of the country from 1975-1979, led to the extermination of one-fourth of Cambodia’s population.
After Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979 the killing fields were discovered and turned into memorials to honor those who died during the reign of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge (The popular name given to Pol Pot and his Communist Party.) Even today, when heavy rains drench these fields where thousands lie buried in mass graves, bone fragments and teeth can be found in the mud.
But most horrifying of all are the skulls of thousands of Cambodians preserved in glass shrines. It is a grisly scene, a museum of death, and a reminder of the inhumanity ushered into our world by sin.
There is a verse in the New Testament book of Hebrews that describes in the most graphic language the experience of Jesus on the cross. Here’s what it says -
But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:9, italics mine.)
I referred to this passage in one of this week’s podcasts on the “Darkness and Death” experienced by Christ at Calvary. It paints a vivid picture. Jesus tasting death for everyone.
As numerous as those bone fragments and skulls in the Killing Fields of Cambodia may be, they represent only a fraction of the misery and death that marks humanity’s days on planet earth. And it was at Golgotha, at the “Place of the Skull,” that Jesus feasted upon death in all its horror and finality. And when that ghastly meal came to an end, our Lord cried out, “Telestai!”
“It is finished.” It was a cry of triumph, an announcement of victory.
Years later, the apostle Paul would write these words - “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (I Corinthians 15:55)
Indeed it has! Jesus carried death with him to his garden grave and left it there. “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” the angels asked the women, “He is not here; he has risen!”
He is risen indeed!
In Christ,
Dan