Lenten Meditation #1:

The Last Enemy to be Destroyed is Death.

(First Corinthians 15:26)

Haven’t had much to say lately. Still moping around. Maybe Lent will help. Still thinking of the Apostle’s strange words of comfort—especially that last verse (1Cor 15:26):

For Christ must reign

        until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

        The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

That death is an enemy. Maybe that’s the first thing to be said—that the Gospel sees death as an enemy. An enemy that met its end on Good Friday and Easter Morning; but, an enemy that still has its sting (vs 55) until “the last trumpet sound” (vs 52).

During our forty days of Lent, we are invited to enter into “the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings” (Phil 3:10). Here’s the whole of it:

That I may know Christ

        and the power of his resurrection,

        and the fellowship of his sufferings;

becoming like him in his death,

        that if possible I may attain

        the resurrection from the dead.

Remarkable, isn’t it? To know Christ, is to know the whole of him. It’s Easter Morning that makes the whole of Christ worth knowing. Without Easter, we wouldn’t bother. But the whole of Christ, is not just his resurrection, but his sufferings and death as well. If we were to sneak out of his sufferings and death, we wouldn’t know Christ. Lenten Season, with the help of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, helps us enter into the “fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13):

      -Advent                 Our longing for God to show up

      -Christmas             Immanuel, God with us in a manager

      -Epiphany              The appearance of God in Christ—Jesus’ earthly life among us

      -Lent                     How he suffered for us

      -Holy Week           How Easter turns Calvary into Good Friday

      -Eastertide             How Christ’s resurrection changes everything

      -Pentecost             How the Holy Spirit makes Christ present among us

      -Ordinary Days     How we live our ordinary life within the sphere of knowing the whole of Christ. The whole of Christ frees us to engage in the whole of life—with all its sorrows and joys. Then, after Ordinary Days, we do it again: Advent and Christmastide, Epiphany and Lent, Good Friday and Easter Morning, Pentecost and Ordinary Days. There’s a rhythm to it.