Isaiah 25:7-8 “On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth.”

Isaiah lived and wrote his prophecies in Jerusalem. The city was built on the same mountain where 700 years later Jesus’ enemies put him on trial, condemned him to death, crucified him, and buried him. There he paid for the sins of the world. And when he rose from the dead three days later he accomplished what no doctor, no scientist, no researcher can ever do. He destroyed death. “Swallowed it up,” Isaiah says. He broke it, stomped all over it, and it will never work the way it used to work again.

He changed death from permanent condition to temporary condition. He reconstructed what was once the gateway to hell, making it the door to our true home in heaven. We have gotten used to calling his victory day “Easter,” but Isaiah is describing “The Feast of the Resurrection.” There is no bigger or better feast of God’s saving work for us to celebrate than the day the Lord destroys death.

This makes all the difference. It destroys “the sheet that covers all nations, the shroud that enfolds all peoples.” What terrorizes people more than death? Isn’t that why we are so concerned about healthcare, and we pay the doctors so much? Isn’t that why people all around the world weep and wail at their funerals? Death is like a dark sheet, this shroud of gloom that darkens life.

But then there is the truly Christian funeral. We still shed some tears as we say goodbye. But it is not despair. And underneath the tears there are often smiles, even a note of joy. Gathered with those we love we often find laughter as we remember those who have died. We consider where they have gone. We know our Lord Jesus Christ has destroyed death, and we can celebrate the new and perfect life they now enjoy.

Isaiah understood why death’s destruction gives us reason to feast and celebrate. “The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth.” The great disgrace of our race, the whole human family, is the death our sin has introduced into the world. It spoiled everything. We didn’t just infect ourselves with the disease. The whole planet is dying, and our own sins perpetuate the catastrophe.

But Jesus Christ has erased our sin by his death. Our Lord has destroyed death by his resurrection. He has removed our disgrace, and we celebrate as we wait for him to come and make everything new.