The Only Thing Sure In Life Is Death and Taxes
When Was It Written
2007 was one of those strange years when Easter Sunday and Tax Day fell right on one another's heels. This article, written for the weekly worship guide on Sunday, April 15.
Who Wrote It
Kevin Wood, Pastor
THE ONLY THING SURE IN LIFE IS DEATH AND TAXES
I don’t know about you, but this week will be a weird one for me. You see, for the past few days I have spent my time preparing a message about Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Afterall, that’s why we have gathered here this Easter morning – to celebrate that meaningful moment. I buried myself in books. I gathered all the information. I mustered all my inspiration. I immersed myself in writing and rewriting each point. It’s been a week marinated in the miraculous.
But here is why the week will be a weird one for me. Because sitting on the edge of my table, barely a few inches from the Bibles and commentaries, is another thin little booklet. Its cover reads “2006 Federal Income Tax Return”. And there in little italicized Times New Roman letters it says, “Returns Due by April 16, 2007”.
We begin this week with the miracle of Easter. We end it with the monster of the IRS. On this Sunday morning, we celebrate that incredible early dawn event that changed our world forever. Next Sunday night, I will burn the midnight oil trying to squeeze in every little deduction and write-off I possibly can. This Sunday morning is all joy. Next Sunday night will be all job – one, miserable, tedious job.
I, for one, can’t stand when Easter and Tax Return Day fall within the same week or close to the same week. I wish they could be months apart. But there is something appropriate about Easter and the IRS being neighbors on the calendar. Because when I fill out my tax return, I cringe over every little penny that I send Uncle Sam’s way. And at the end of the day, when I see that little bottom line number that says, “I owe him this much”, I begrudgingly take out my checkbook and do my civic duty. The real reason my wife Traci and I got pregnant again was just to claim another deduction and an extra child tax credit.
Now, use your imagination with me for a second. Here’s why Easter and the IRS go together. The same “lump in my throat” feeling I bring to my taxes must be in some way the same feeling Christ felt the week leading up to Easter. For Jesus, Easter week was a week to really count the cost. There was the debt of sin to pay. There was the looming deadline of a bloody cross. Certainly Easter week taxed him like no other week in his life. And therein lies the true miracle of Easter and the IRS. When Jesus faced the debt, when he stared at the bottomline of the world’s total lostness, Jesus said with relentless joy “I will pay the price.” And pay it he did. Not with cash. Not with a check. With his life.
Maybe that thought will help me next Sunday night… then again maybe not. It does feel good to know this though: I owe nothing because Jesus paid it all.
All To Him I Owe,
Kevin