The Sinner, in my re-modification of Nietzschean Parable of the Madman¹, ran up to the place called Golgotha, and cried incessantly: “I seek Life! I seek Life!” As many of those who did not believe in the accuracy of a mocking but ironically true description, ‘This is Jesus the King of the Jews’, placed above the head of a Nazarene hanged on the Roman cross, laughed at the insanity of the Sinner’s words.
“Where is Life?” the Sinner cried; “I will tell you. We have killed Him – you and I. Death have finally and victoriously won. Hope is lost. It stung and killed Life at the cross. Men forever lost. Wretched men that we are! Who will rescue us from this perishable body of death?”
The theological study of last things presents an eschatological hope to the Sinner. The death of Life at the cross was the death of Death. It was impossible for Life to be held by Death. The resurrection of Life was the confirmation that the Sinner and the Church, who are found in Life, would also put on the imperishable body of life. Life has already but not yet rescue His Church. Death was swallowed up in victory by Life. The Sinner and the Church can now rejoice with a new song: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
This two parts article sketchily and theatrically compared the eschatological hope of N. T. Wright in Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, The Resurrection, and The Mission of the Church (2008) with Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave in Foundations of Pentecostal Theology (1983) would provide the Sinner, a fictional Christian character in search of answers on the nature of the last things in 20th and 21st century, I created.
Next: Parable of the Sinner: Eschatological Rapture, Hell & Heaven
[1] From Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Gay Science (1882, 1887) translated by Walter Kaufmann (1974) New York: Vintage, 1974 p. 181-82)
Wright, N. T. (2008). Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, The Resurrection, and The Mission of The Church. San Francisco, CA: HarperOne.
With All I Am 
“The death of Life at the cross was the death of Death.” Brilliantly stated!
Life did not die at the cross!
On the contrary, “the kind of death Jesus suffered” was the revelation of his divine nature, a.k.a., “life-giving breath”, the declaration of victory over death and the final act of creating human beings in God’s image now that their “descendants live all over the earth” as intended. (Gen 1:26-28; 2: 7-9)
Thanks Richards.
Are you thanking Richard for his irony or contradiction?
I was merely quoting Prayson’s statement in his third paragraph. Since Jesus is the Prince of Life, His death at the Cross was the “death of Life” so that death itself would die in Christ’s resurrection. It is neither ironic nor contradictory. It is historical fact and attested to by the Jewish leaders who accused Him, the Roman authorities which carried out His death, and more than 500 other witnesses at one time. Jesus died on a cross and three days later was raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven. Death died in Christ’s life.
You are in the company of Simon Peter in raising an obstacle against the knowledge of God by means of the death of Jesus. (Matt. 16: 13- 28)
The kind of death Jesus suffered is about a litmus test of the Messiah, whom “not even death will ever be able to overcome”, rather than about being raised from the dead on the third day although both options are served on the menu for our free choice.
(Luke 9: 28-36; Matt. 27: 50-56)
“I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:1-4).
“It was accounted to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for Abraham’s sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our offenses, and was raised for our justification” (Rom 4:22-25).
“If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain” (1 Cor 15:14).
Christ’s death and resurrection cannot be separated and the faith still be called Christianity.
Learning from Paul (1 Cor. 15: 1-4, 14; Rom. 4: 22-25) contravenes the following:
1. The terms of the “new covenant” (Jer. 31: 31-34),
2. The promises by other prophets (Isa. 54:13; Mic. 4:2; Heb. 8:10) and
3. The commandment from a voice from the cloud which said, “This is my own dear Son with whom I am well pleased—listen to him!”(Matt. 17: 1-13).
In short, the issue is about personally revealed knowledge of Jesus Christ’s synchronized death and resurrection, a.k.a., “the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead”, among many brothers. (Matt. 27: 50-53)
The last Station of the Cross, like all the steps leading to it, demonstrate the exercise of Jesus Christ’s dual rights of “giving up life of own free will” and “taking it back”, viz.: the LITMUS TEST of his divine identity and absolute authority, which “not even death will ever be able to overcome.”
N.B. Obedience is required.
(Matt. 27: 50-56 based on 16: 18-28)