“But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” — Hebrews 2:9

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Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics was one of seven NBA players who tore their Achilles tendon during the 2024-25 season. All of the jumping and stretching involved in playing basketball makes this injury somewhat common, but last season was one of the worst outbreaks of this type of tear.

When the Achilles tendon comes apart, a loud pop can be heard and the athlete may immediately feel severe pain and experience swelling in the calf area. Surgery is required to fix the Achilles and a long rehabilitation is necessary before a player can get back into game shape. On March 6, Tatum did play in a game — almost 10 months after the injury — but will still work his way back to a full workload.

Our injuries are serious to us, but small in comparison to the incredible suffering of Christ. Jesus endured one of the longest and most agonizing nights in history. On a Thursday night, Jesus felt the sting of the betrayal of Judas — but that was just the beginning of His pain. When Jesus appeared before Pilate, the Roman soldiers were turned loose to torture Jesus before He went to the cross. They stripped Him of his clothing and tied him to a post and whipped Him with leather whips that had metal and bones tied to the ends in order to rip through His muscles and cause maximum pain and bleeding.

After the brutal beating, they wrapped a vine with thorns into a circle to push down hard on the top of His head as they mocked His spiritual Kingdom. The thorns dug deep through His temples and forced even more blood to flow from His veins.

As we try to understand His pain and suffering on our behalf, we’ll realize Jesus died as our substitute so that our sins could be forgiven. Hebrews 2:9 (above) reminds us that though Jesus was innocent, He willfully died on behalf of guilty sinners (which is all of us, as not one of us can measure up to God’s holy standard).

When Jesus explained His death to His disciples, He emphasized the necessity of the shedding of blood for the washing away of our sins. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). The disciples would have been familiar with the requirement of a sacrifice for the atonement of sin as part of Mosaic Law (Hebrews 9:22), but this took it to a new level.

Because of Jesus, the sting of death is removed for every believer in Jesus Christ. We still face death, but the end of life changed when Christ made the ultimate sacrifice. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write about the difference the death of Christ made: “‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

Now death is the door we walk through to get to enjoy life eternal because of the courage of Christ to wear that crown of thorns and allow nails to be driven through His hands and feet — all while thinking of us. His death is our victory!

— Bill Kent, Pastor of Memorial Baptist Church, Sylvania, Georgia

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