How the mighty have fallen! As a boy, I studied the lives of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. The parallels between their lives and deaths caught my attention. Both died as President of the United States, but nearly 100 years apart. Both of their deaths evoked seasons of deep grief in our nation. The sound of these mighty men falling reverberated around the world.
Israel grieved the loss of their first king. Ever since Eli died and the Ark of the Covenant was lost, the glory of God seemed to have departed from Israel. Samuel appointed Saul and then watched the young king disintegrate through disobedience. Saul lost his sons and his life on the same day. Then the Philistines stole his dignity and attached him to a wall in Beth Shan. What do you do when your king dies? The Israelites fasted before the Lord in deep sorrow.
In the New Testament, we read about the death of another king. His enemies mocked him and put a crown of thorns on his head. They nailed him to a tree and left him there to die. All hope seemed to be lost. The sun went out when the Son died. Isaac Watts captured it in verse, “Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in, when Christ the mighty Maker died for man, the creature’s sin.” They took Jesus’ body down and placed it in a borrowed tomb. His disciples didn’t buy a tomb, because, as it turned out, Jesus only needed it for three days. Unlike Saul, King Jesus, the greatest of Israel’s sovereigns, stubbornly refused to stay dead. Early on the Lord’s Day, the first Easter Sunday, Jesus awakened. “Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o’er his foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign. Hallelujah! Christ arose.”
