Killing Death

There is an interesting story in the Old Testament about a bronze serpent. Moses was commanded to make a serpent and put it on a pole. It was used to heal those who were being killed by the venom of snake bites (Numbers 21:4-9).  St. Gregory the Theologian taught that this bronze serpent did not heal just because the people believed in it. If that were the case, Moses could have just raised his staff up and told people to believe for their healing. Rather, the bronze serpent healed because it was dead on the pole and because it was dead its power to kill was also dead.

Imagine if you could take the source of what causes death and kill it. The problem for us is that the source of death is in us. We die because we sin and sin because we die. We are all born with a condition that kills(James 1:15). Even God, as St. Maximos the Confessor teaches, in the mystery of becoming a man, submitted to this condition that we are in. He took upon himself the same flesh that we have. In doing so, he assumed all our imperfections and limitations, the greatest being death. All though he never sinned, he did not hide from the damage done to our humanity from sin. As we all know, he died on the cross.

Death is our greatest enemy. It is the power the devil wields over us. As I said, we die because we sin and we sin because we die. No human being has ever been able to kill this cycle of death. However, God did kill death by sending his own Son who became like us in everything but sin. When death came to consume the body of Christ it encountered God. Death had no power over Christ. He rose from the dead. As St. Gregory of Nyssa describes it, the humanity of the Lord was like the bait on a fishing hook. When death came like a fish to swallow the bait it encountered the hook, which was the Lord’s Divine Nature.

The bronze serpent was nailed to a pole to kill the power of the venom. Christ was nailed to the cross to kill the power of death. The serpent had no power to kill because that which gave it power was destroyed by its death. Our fallen nature no longer has the power to kill us because what gave it power has been destroyed by death. For this reason, St. Gregory the Theologian exclaims, “what is the fitting epitaph for it from us?“O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” You are overthrown by the Cross; you are slain by Him who is the Giver of life; you are without breath, dead, without motion, even though you keep the form of a serpent lifted up on high on a pole”.

The Author of Hebrews once said, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil”. We were all once under the power of death and in slavery to the devil. Christ has freed us from this power by his death. As we soon will  proclaim in the Byzantine tradition, “Christ is risen from the dead, By death He trampled death, And to those in the tombs He granted life”. We were all headed for the tomb, hopeless, in bondage to the evil one, but Jesus Christ has set us free. Christ has killed death by his death. It no longer has any power over us. We will all face it! However, when it comes for us it will be killed once more by Christ who is in us, the hope of Glory(Colossians 1:27).