Stung by Grace

I wonder if bees are conscious of the fact that once they sting someone, they will die?  Do you think that this is something that they instinctively know?  Like little kamikaze pilots that fly in for the kill, but just destroy themselves and their plane, and maybe putting a dent in the landscape in the process.

But, in hearing someone try to make a round about connection between wasps and bees and Jesus, which was a great analogy that was lost a little in translation, it did lead me towards my own thought.  Whether or not bees know that they are going to die when they sting, they sting someone and die.  In fact, once the stinger of the bee is stuck into someone, their abdomen is torn and it kills them. Ripping them apart. It is the reality of the act.

The whole idea of it leads me to thoughts of Christ.  Christ, knowingly, went to His death for us. He took all of the pain, the hurt, the weight of our sin and died for us. He was torn apart on a cross for us. Like the bee, he stung for us.  Thankfully, in the case of Christ, his sting wasn't full of Apitoxin - the venom from a honey bee's sting - it was full of grace.  Christ's sting pierced the world with grace. And boy, did it hurt. It hurt in an incredible way.  Christ's followers, friends, and family mourned his death. God caused the earth to shake and tore the curtain of the temple in two.  It was so exciting that it woke the dead from their tombs! But the actual pain of the sting for his followers, friends, and family was short-lived, as Christ rose again three days later, the impact of the sting radiates still. 

But like the way a bee stings and is ripped apart, Christ stung us with grace and was torn to shreds. He was mocked, beaten, and insulted. He could have stopped it. Could have called it quits.  But he didn't.  He knowingly stung. Knowingly died for us. He infused the world with God's grace through his death.  And by his sting, we were saved.