The last word is not “Cancer,” or “Absence;” it is not “Loss,” or “Death.” The final word is Christ crucified, that most foolish of words which is simply, as Paul says, the “power of God unto salvation.” Christ crucified is, to the ears of the faithful, the ultimate word of hope, for it is nothing less than the King of the Universe defeating death by death. Our beautiful King refused to meet the world of sin and death on its own terms, refused to fight in a tit for tat struggle for supremacy. Instead, he simply died bearing our iniquity, that deathliness of sin. No games, no struggle with death, for death is not worth the effort. Instead, he died with nothing but love for us and the whole of creation. And, having borne our sin and folly into hell itself, it is in the power of that love that he was raised on the third day, with death behind him. - Thomas of Endlessly Rocking