Passengers to the Grave

And he will swallow up on this mountain

the pall that is cast over all people,

the shroud that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, —Isaiah 26:7

“We are all passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." —Charles Dickens

We normally don’t think about death, which, as I think about it, is a very odd thing not to think about. Don’t we know that we’re all going to die someday? Six hundred thousand Americans die each year from cancer; six hundred thousand from heart attacks. If the Corona virus doesn’t get us, something else will. It’s just a matter of time. According to an unexpectedly philosophical one-liner I heard on Sports Center the other day: “He (a noted sports figure) is listed as day-to-day, but then again, aren’t we all?”

But not to worry Isaiah said, pointing up to Mount Zion’s summit just outside the walls of Jerusalem—a hilltop later called “Golgotha,” and “Calvary. “ On that mountain, Isaiah said, “the pall that is cast over all people, the shroud that is spread over the nations” will be swallowed up forever.

Indeed it was: Jesus, beat death by dying on that mountain to bring us life and immortality. Death was “swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54). 

“Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never, ever die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25,26).

David Roper

4.1.20