Only then does the grave forego its victory. Death has spread its slimy fingers over our race from the very beginning, from Adam right on down to the present day. Like many others, I have stood beside many graves, have seen the heartbreak and anguish that death causes. I have stood beside the beds of those who were dying. And only in the case of those whose faith was fastened upon these words of Jesus, and upon him as a person, have I ever seen light and victory and trust and confidence in the hour of death.
Every individual awaits the certain coming of death.
Earth is rapidly becoming one vast graveyard, as generation after generation slips away. But there is one place where death has been met, and grappled with, and driven back, and it is that great theme which we celebrate today. If, by faith in the promise of Jesus, you, or I, stand with him in that place where he defeated death, then death need have no terrors for us. Many have felt that way, as they have come to the place of death. And when Martin Luther's daughter, Magdalena, was fourteen years old, she was taken sick and lay dying.