Death and Taxes

“Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

– Matthew 28:7

The saying goes that only two things in life are inevitable: death and taxes. And the prospect of either one is a downer, to say the least.

However, there’s good news on both fronts. Due to the economic and social uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS has granted a three-month extension for filing and paying federal income taxes. And here’s something even better to contemplate: Death isn’t so permanent and inevitable after all.

If you’ve accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have absolutely nothing to fear! In fact, death is simply the transition between our relatively brief existence on Earth and an eternity of joy with Jesus. From Revelation — the final book of the Bible — we read that the troubles, tears and sorrows of life

will be a thing of the past. That sounds like something to anticipate rather than fear.

How is this possible?

In short, it’s the Easter story. After Jesus willingly accepted the death penalty on a Roman cross to pay for all our sins, he proved that he was indeed God’s son by fulfilling multiple Old Testament prophesies and rising again to life. The huge boulder that had just days earlier sealed his grave was rolled away. His tomb was revealed to be empty and hollow. And so also was the Devil’s greatest weapon against humanity: the threat of death.

It’s an image that reveals an obvious truth: one day, death will take you and me. But death can’t keep us because it’s been defeated through Jesus’ triumphant resurrection.

Regardless of what popular culture has made it, Easter is a special day that means much more than chocolate rabbits and colorful, hard-boiled eggs. It’s really a celebration about overcoming the inevitable and defeating the unbeatable. The apostle Paul sums up this reassuring news through Romans 6:5:

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

With death now out of the way, that list of life’s inevitables just got shorter. Happy Easter!