A little boy and his father were driving down a country road on a beautiful spring afternoon. Suddenly out of nowhere a confused bee flew in the car window. The little boy was deathly allergic to bee stings and he became petrified with fear. His father however, instinctively reached out, grabbed the bee, squeezed it in his hand, and then released it. As soon as he let it go, the young son became frantic once again as it buzzed by the little boy.
Glancing over the father saw his son’s terror. He reached across the car and held his hand in front of his son. There, stuck in his palm was the stinger of the bee. “You see this? You don’t need to be afraid anymore. I’ve taken the sting for you.”
Paul wrote to the Church on Corinth these powerful words of encouragement in 1 Corinthians 15:55-56: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”
As Jesus extends his hand toward us the evidence of the cost of sin still remains imprinted there, but death and sin have no mastery over him He faced sin without failure and has faced death conquering mankind’s ultimate enemy. Christ’s victory over the grave gives us assurance of our own victory through his power demonstrated so humbly all those years ago.
