On Presidents Day, four NDSU students were killed in a car accident due to bad road conditions. The campus community has been in a state of shock and grief. There was a nice memorial service held the week of the accident with over 800 students in attendance. My campus pastor gave the message for the service.
Two weeks before the accident my campus pastor had asked me to give the message for our campus worship service the Sunday after Presidents Day. We were using the film Courageous to do a four week sermon series. In the movie, the main character’s daughter is tragically killed in a car crash. I was asked to use this scene and talk about death. This was a week before the accident! I was wondering how I would approach the topic since I have not really experienced such tragedy, nor had many of our students. But when I heard about the accident I knew that all of us in the campus community now had experienced death! It’s crazy how it worked out that I was already planning to speak about death. I shared the following message with the students that week:
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57
Death is not always fair. It does not always make sense. We have no answers as to why such tragedies occur. Even when we know how a tragedy occurred, we still ask “why”? “Why God”? Some may say that God had a plan and that this tragedy happened “for a reason”. I do not agree! The Bible says that God “does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men“(Lamentations 3:33). God loved these girls who died tragically. Their death was not by design. I’m not saying that God cannot still shine through the darkness of this tragedy, but I cannot believe that God willingly had these girls die for some greater purpose.
Death causes us to have many different reactions. We have regrets. In the movie, Courageous, the father wishes he had been a better father. But he is quickly reminded that he still IS a father, that he has a son to take care of and a relationship to strengthen with him. His regrets turn to action as he makes an effort to grow closer to his son and be a better father.
Tragic deaths, like the one NDSU experienced, remind us how fragile we all are and that life is a gift. It causes us to examine our lives and reorganize our priorities and rejoice in the life we do have. We are not invincible, but thanks to Christ we have the gift of eternal life with God!
We were born a slave to sin and death. But God sent his only son to die in our place so we could live with forever with God. Jesus conquered death when he rose from the grave. I love how Paul mocks death because of his faith in the grace of God: “O death, where is your victory. O death, where is your sting? In the movie the pastor says, “we have a living hope! Because Christ lives the broken, grieving heart has hope!”
Death, where is your sting??? Christ has redeemed us!!!!
Amen
fargobro 