Death Defeated
I was sort of a fan of Evel Knievel. Well, I’m not sure “fan” is the right word. I guess I was intrigued with the guy, as millions were. He lived his life—not on the edge, but—over the edge. Especially early on in his career, Knievel had this real-life superhero kind of feel about him as he encouraged young people to keep their word and stay away from drugs.
Of course, there are millions to be made by those who put their lives on the line to perform death-defying feats for spellbound onlookers, assuming they survive the stunts. As Evel said in an interview with Bill O’Reilly, “In my business, all you needed to do was be alive to collect on it when it was over.”
The older he got and the more bones he broke, the more it seemed he came down to earth (figuratively speaking; no motorcycle) and showed his human frailties—his sins and scars. Then, after defying death so many times, on November 30, 2007, an apparent defeat. He spent a lifetime defying bodily death, but ultimately he did not possess the skill to defeat it. Suffering from a severe lung condition, he passed away at age 69.
We know physical death is inevitable; it eventually gets everyone. It’s what makes us sit up and take notice when a daredevil does something dangerous and unnecessary, thumbing his nose at it. Will he survive a challenge that would likely end a mere mortal’s earthly existence? Our fear of death piques our interest concerning those who seem to have mastered theirs. We watch with sweaty palms as they defy what Paul called, in 1 Corinthians 15:26, “The last enemy.”
On April 1, 2007, months before his death, Evel Knievel committed to the Lord and publicly announced that he “believed in Jesus Christ” and was baptized. It makes sense that someone like him would bow the knee to the One whose death-defeating act trumped all of man’s death-defying feats combined. Jesus defeated the enemy that Evel and his ilk could only temporarily defy.
Jesus has invited us to share in His victory over death. He wasn’t like Houdini or David Blaine, wriggling out of a straitjacket or escaping a water-filled enclosure. They go in alive, and the hope is that they come out alive. Jesus went in dead, completely deceased, expired, departed, lifeless, when He entered the tomb. But He burst forth alive! That is the accurate account of the Resurrection, the Easter story!
It doesn’t matter whether you are a daredevil or not. If Jesus’ second coming doesn’t happen first, physical death will get each of us. But just as Christ rose victoriously from the grave, we will rise! And the Bible promises that we “will not be hurt by the second death” (Rev. 2:11).
Today there is a full spectrum of “extreme sports,” many of which make Evel Knievel’s heyday look quite cautious by comparison. But the actual, somewhat unwitting daredevils are the ones who simply ignore what Jesus did through His death and resurrection. Instead, they believe that they can somehow defeat death on their own. They may hope that good works, or some vacuous philosophy, or a dead-end religion, will be their means of escape. They may trust that death is nothing more than an unconscious state, a vast nothingness. Putting hope in such things was a risk even Mr. Knievel wasn’t willing to take!
“Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power…” —Revelation 20:6