Most readers have probably heard of the killer bees that arrived in the US in 1990. This Africanized honeybee is a cross between the East African Lowland honeybee and different European honeybee subspecies. In 1957, 26 swarms of the African bees escaped quarantine and began moving northward and they still are.
The result of this hybrid is a bee with an attitude. It reacts to threats much more quickly and will chase people further. They also gang up on intruders, and most humans have ten times more stings than from European bees. To date, they have killed over 1,000 people as well as horses and other animals. Thankfully, they haven’t made it to Virginia, but they are expected to arrive at some point.
Not everyone who is stung by killer bees dies, at least not from those stings. Like every other person, they will eventually die from a different sting, the sting of sin. Sin has stung every single person on the planet, and we will all eventually die from it. It is 100% fatal and affects 100% of the population. The killer bee of sin stung Adam and Eve first in Eden’s Garden and has chased their offspring wherever we’ve gone.
Thankfully, there was One who avoided this sting. Jesus of Nazareth was born of the virgin Mary and escaped congenital contamination and also resisted every temptation that came His way. He was a totally sinless Individual who not only evaded sin’s stinger, but He also swatted this bee for us!
When He went to the cross on Good Friday, Jesus took on Himself all the sins of the whole world and in that moment, He felt the sting like no one else. Instead of just one stinger or even those of a whole swarm, Jesus endured the stings of every person who ever lived. The stings of pride, theft, murder, adultery, gossip, and profanity were laid upon Him along with all hatred, lust, selfishness, greed, etc. It’s impossible to imagine one body enduring so much venom but His did.
Second Corinthians 5:21 says that “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus exchanged His sinlessness and immunity to sin for our susceptibility and allergy to it. It was the grandest of swaps that resulted in us receiving everlasting life instead of everlasting death.
Paul asked in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, ““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. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Praise God, Jesus not only conquered the killer bee of sin, but He also swatted it to Hell and gave us bee spray for whenever it comes around!
While Jesus’ death on Good Friday paid for our sin, His resurrection on that first Easter Sunday granted victory over death and sin’s sting to all who trust in Him! Some at His crucifixion mocked Him by saying, “If you are the Son of God, prove it.” And he did. Not by coming down from the cross and whooping them all, which he could have easily done, but by hanging there and fulfilling every prophecy perfectly. And then by doing one better; by rising from the dead, also as prophesied!
Sin’s stinger has injected us all with its poison and unless Jesus comes first, we will all physically die as a result. But Jesus removed its full potency so that His followers can enjoy resurrection and life eternal! If you’re not a Christ-follower, become one today that you might claim this promise! If you doubt His bodily resurrection, I challenge you to disprove it. And if you can’t, you must deal with what it means! Jesus did rise again and He lives forever with victory over death’s sting! Easter Blessings, George
