Death and Taxes
I would rather do windows. Or dig ditches. Or eat dirt. Than to do my taxes. But it comes round every year on April 15, whether we like it or not.
What kind of coincidence is it that this cruel slap of reality always comes during Lent?—the season in which we face the final reality of death itself, the limitations of life, the losses we endure, the suffering we face, the dead ends we encounter on life’s journey. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world nothing is certain except for death and taxes.”
But those who are looking for an escape hatch will not find it in the Christian faith. It provides no easy way out. For the God whom we worship is not a “happy face” God untouched by struggle or suffering. This is a God who has been to Gethsemane and Calvary. This is a God who has “borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” And so the Easter we proclaim is not just about baskets and bunnies. It is the triumph of the resurrection over nothing less than the power of death itself. There may not be a way out of reality, but there is, by the grace of God, a way through…
One of my favorite cartoons shows a picture of the empty tomb on that first Easter with the stone rolled back and two Roman guards standing outside scratching their heads in disbelief, one of them saying, “Well, I guess that leaves only taxes as being certain.”
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy victory?
O death where is thy sting?
Thanks be to God who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
–1 Corinthians 15:54-57
Plan to be present in worship this week as we proclaim the good news of life victorious over death!
Grace and Peace,
Callie
