day no. 15,599: mastering the art of dying and mastering death

"Socrates mastered dying; Christ overcame death." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

A man may rise to the ranks of manliness and face his death by playing the man, but even that is the most a man can aspire to achieve. He may live a life worth living and a give a life worth remembering, but being good at dying is the best a man can do.

Jesus did not merely live and die in order to join the ranks of those who lived and died well. He did not live and die even in order to be the best at living and dying, although He certainly was.  He lived and died in order to deal a deathblow to death itself. He did not merely face His fate like a man, He changed the fate of men. He didn't merely do the best a man can do concerning death, He did what no man could ever do... He killed death. He reversed the curse and left death in His grave.

Hebrews 2:14-15
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

We don't merely need to be better at living and dying, although we could all benefit from being better with respect to both, we need salvation from lives that fall short and death that never does. Jesus did not come simply to say, "You're doing it wrong." He came to live in a way that no one ever had and die in a way that no one ever did.