Victory Day
Sunday 11th May 2025
But thanks be to God!
He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:57
The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
1 Corinthians 15:26
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:14
(NIVUK)
Victory Day
Many of us will have marked the 80th anniversary of VE-Day this week in some way – perhaps joining in the silence at 12 noon on Thursday, or watching or listening to programmes retelling the story of how the Allies’ victory over the Nazis was finally assured.
However, with war in Ukraine rumbling on, Europe probably feels more unstable than at any point since the end of World War II. And countries in eastern Europe feel differently about VE-Day; while they celebrated the end of Nazi tyranny, they went on to endure decades of Soviet domination.
It makes us realise that, important and necessary as they are, and greatly to be rejoiced in, such victories as the one in Europe in 1945 are only ever partial and temporary. They are never universal and permanent, even if they take in a great many countries and last a very long time.
There is, however, one victory which is truly universal and permanent, and that is the victory that Christ has won over sin, the death and the devil by his own death and resurrection (as the verses above remind us). Just as D-Day and the Normandy landings in June 1944 were the decisive battle in defeating the Third Reich, and yet we had to wait until May 1945 for the fighting to cease and for peace finally to come in Europe, so the death and resurrection of Christ were the decisive ‘battle’ (although it was a most unequal contest) which has secured for us the victory which we will finally enjoy in full when Christ returns and Satan and then death are thrown into the lake of fire.
I don’t know what President Trump had in mind when he declared that he was renaming VE-Day as Victory Day, and I wouldn’t normally expect to borrow his ideas, but Victory Day would be a good name to give to Easter Day:
Thine be the glory,
risen, conquering Son;
endless is the victory
Thou o’er dear hast won.
Prayer
Lord, I praise you for the victory you have won over sin, death and Satan, a victory which is permanent and universal, and which I will enjoy in its fulness as the fighting ends when Christ returns. Amen.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)