No matter what relationships we have made in the world, no matter what wealth we ve accumulated, no matter where we ve been born or what our station in this life has been, we too will be consumed by our world. We may die peacefully in our beds at a ripe old age, or we may be dragged fighting from this life long before we re ready to go, it doesn t matter. Our lives may have been joy-filled and productive, or one hardfought struggle after another, it doesn t matter. The end will be the same. No matter where we were born, no matter the gifts or the burdens life has given us.
Death is the one certainty.
We all will hang alone, naked from our own crosses. But this is good news. Because of Jesus Christ and his suffering, our lives and passing will not be the same. For as we hang from our crosses, we will look to our side, like the criminal from his cross and find Jesus Christ hanging with us. And we can rest assured in the promise of the one who defeated death, that not only is death not the end, but it is the beginning of a new creation.