June 1, 2023

II Corinthians 4: 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. (NIV)

Death is an affront to our emotions and reason. Death is the curse of life.*

When we get vaccinated, substances are introduced to stimulate the body’s immune system to prevent or ease the symptoms of a disease. The antigenic material in the vaccine is actually a form of the pathogen itself.* In other words, in order to fight a disease, we must carry it around in our body.

Hmmm. Sounds like Paul might have understood the concept of vaccination when he wrote about carrying around the death of Jesus in our body. The way to overcome death is to be injected with the blood of someone who overcame it himself. We come in contact with the “antibodies” of death, not through a needle, but through washing in the blood of the overcomer. “We were . . . buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead . . . we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6: 4)

Wikipedia shares an interesting bit of information about vaccination: “When a sufficiently large percentage of a population has been vaccinated, herd immunity results.” No, those of us who have been vaccinated against death can’t spread our immunity to others by breathing on them; we can’t pass it to our children through our genetic material. But we should deliberately and diligently be spreading the good news about the cure to those who are still infected by the disease of death.

Jesus is not weak toward us, but mighty in us.*