The Shadow of Death (Sermon Illustration)

The gospel changes the way Christians think about death. Jesus took the punishment that we deserved.

For all followers of Christ, death has lost its sting. It is not the end, but the beginning.

In his book, Christ-Centered Preaching, Bryan Chapell shares the following illustration:

As he drove his children to his wife’s funeral Barnhouse stopped at a traffic crossing. Ahead of them was a huge truck. The sun was at such an angle that it cast the truck’s shadow across the snow-covered field beside it. Dr. Barnhouse pointed to the shadow and spoke to his children: “Look at the shadow of that truck on the field, children. If you had to be run over, would you rather be run over by the truck or by its shadow?” The youngest child responded first, “The shadow. It couldn’t hurt anybody.” “That’s right,” said Barnhouse. “And remember, children, Jesus let the truck of death strike him, so that it could never destroy us. Mother lives with Jesus now—only the shadow of death passed over her.”¹

1. Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, Kindle ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), Location 4356.

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