Whitney Houston’s death on February 11 at age 48 has dominated the headlines for the last week. Everybody from Fox News to MSNBC has weighed in on the meaning and importance and tragedy of her passing.Of course any death is a loss, especially for the ones left behind. For example, the day before Ms. Houston died, Lance Corporal Montes De Oca of North Arlington, New Jersey, perished in the service of our country. He was conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He was 20 years old.
Some deaths seem noble for their sacrifice. A father drowns rescuing his little child. A soldier falls on a grenade to save his squad. A pregnant mother refuses chemotherapy so her baby will have a chance at life.
Christ’s death did not seem noble at the time. It was a shameful death. Jesus knew, had always known, that His would be a cursed death. For the Jews, displaying a dead body on a “tree” was reserved for society’s scum.
Paul said it this way: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— (Galatians 3:13, ESV).
The Lord so identified Himself with sinners that our curse became His. I can’t imagine how awful it must have been for Him. When He hung there in shame, naked, dripping sweat and blood and spit, it didn’t seem noble or praiseworthy or even sacrificial.
For the Father as Judge, it was not just that Christ was cursed. He became a curse. He embodied it, defined it, epitomized it. “Look at the Curse, the divine reject, God’s damnation.” How could Jesus ever have had a happy day when He knew His road let to Calvary’s curse? That’s how He redeemed me.
No one ever died a death like my Lord. But in honor of Lance Corporal Montes De Oca, and of Ms. Houston, here's the best rendition of the National Anthem I've ever heard.
