Checkmate

There is something about the word final that unsettles us. The final exam. The final notice. The final diagnosis. The final goodbye. Human beings are not very good at facing things that feel final. Because when something feels final, it feels like the game is over. And that’s exactly how the enemy likes us to think about life. The enemy loves to convince people that if your life were a board game, it has reached its final move. “You’ve gone too far this time.” “You’ve messed up too badly.” “This situation is too broken.” “Nothing is ever going to change.” And the enemy whispers a single word into our hearts: Over.

I remember watching a video of a basketball game where one team was losing badly with just seconds left on the clock. The crowd had already started leaving. Fans were walking toward the exits because everyone assumed the outcome had already been decided. The losing team had the ball, but there were only a few seconds remaining. They passed the ball down the court, one desperate shot was taken from half court… and somehow the ball went in as the buzzer sounded.

The arena erupted. The game everyone thought was over suddenly wasn’t. And the truth is, we’ve all had moments in life where it felt like the clock had run out. A diagnosis comes that changes everything. A relationship breaks apart. A mistake catches up with us. A door closes that we thought would stay open forever. And in those moments the enemy leans across the board of our life and whispers: “It’s over.”

You see this pattern all throughout Scripture. Joseph thrown into a pit by his brothers. It looks over. Israel trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea. It looks over. Daniel thrown into a den of lions. It looks over. A young boy standing in front of a giant. And when we come to the story of Jesus, it looked more final than anything humanity had ever seen. Jesus nailed to a cross. He had spent three years healing the sick, restoring the broken, preaching the kingdom of God, and showing people what God was really like.

Crowds followed Him. Lives were changed. Hope was rising everywhere He went. But then everything seemed to collapse in a single night. One of His own disciples betrayed Him. Soldiers arrested Him in the darkness. The disciples scattered in fear. The religious leaders condemned Him. The Roman government nailed Him to a cross. And on that cross Jesus breathed His final breath. The sky grew dark. The earth shook. And the Son of God died. His body was taken down and placed in a tomb. A massive stone was rolled in front of it. And if you had been standing there that day, the word that would have filled the air was the same word the enemy loves to whisper. Final.

The disciples thought it was over. Rome thought it was over. The religious leaders thought it was over. Death had made its move. And for thousands of years, death had always been the move that ended the game. No one escapes it. No one defeats it. No one reverses it. Death always seemed to have the final word. But then Paul writes these astonishing words in 1 Corinthians 15: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O de ath, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Paul almost sounds like he’s mocking death. He’s taunting it. How can Paul speak like that about the one enemy humanity has never been able to defeat? Because Paul knows something the world didn’t expect.

On the third day, the stone rolled away. The grave opened. And Jesus walked out alive. In that moment, the move that looked final… wasn’t. Death thought it had ended the game. But the resurrection revealed something shocking. The enemy had misread the board. And that reminds me of a painting that has fascinated people for years. The painting shows a young man sitting at a chessboard. Across from him sits the devil. The board is almost empty. The young man looks defeated. The devil looks confident, leaning back in his chair. And at the bottom of the painting are two chilling words: Checkmate.

The message seems clear. The devil has won. The game is finished. But the story goes that one day a chess master studied that painting very carefully. He examined the board. He studied every piece. He looked at every possible move. And after a long moment he said something surprising. He said, “The artist made a mistake.” Someone asked him why. And the chess master said, “Because the king still has one more move.” It wasn’t checkmate after all. And when you think about it, that painting perfectly captures what happened at the resurrection.

On Friday afternoon it looked like Satan had finally cornered the Son of God. Jesus was nailed to a cross. The crowd walked away. The tomb was sealed. The enemy leaned back in his chair and thought the game was finished. Checkmate. But early Sunday morning something happened the enemy never saw coming. The King moved. Jesus stepped out of the grave. And in that moment the entire board changed. That’s why Paul can stand here in 1 Corinthians 15 and declare: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Because the greatest weapon the enemy ever had—death itself—has been defeated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Paul says the sting of death is sin. Sin is what gave death its power. Sin condemns us. Sin separates us from God. Sin creates a debt we cannot pay. But when Jesus went to the cross, He carried our sin with Him. The punishment fell on Him. The debt was paid by Him. And when the payment was made, death lost its claim. That’s why Paul ends this passage with these powerful words: “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Notice Paul does not say we earn victory. He does not say we achieve victory. He says God gives us victory through Jesus. Because the decisive move has already been made. And that changes how we see the moments in our lives that feel hopeless. There will still be times when the board of life looks bleak. A diagnosis comes. A relationship breaks. A failure weighs on your heart. Grief settles in. And the enemy whispers again: “It’s over.” But the enemy has made the same mistake he made at the cross. He forgot something. The King is still on the board.

And if the King is still on the board…the game is not finished. God has a long history of making moves nobody sees coming. Joseph emerged from that pit, Israel walked through the Red Sea, Lions turned from predators to pets and Daniel walked out of the lion’s den A shepherd boy takes the sword of a dead giant that once stood before him. A crucified and dead Savior walks out of a grave. Again and again God proves the same truth: What looks like the final move…is often just the moment before the King moves. One day the victory of Christ will be seen completely. Paul says the day is coming when death itself will disappear forever. Graves will open. Tears will end. And the resurrection life of Jesus will fill all creation. And when that day comes, the whole world will see what has already been decided since that first Easter morning. The enemy thought he had won. But the King always had one more move.

Life may make you feel like it’s over at times and you may have the feeling of just giving up, that there is no hope for you and the situation that you’re dealing with. Your situation may seem hopeless, you may feel like giving up and that there is no help but you need to remember that when you feel that way that puts you in some good company. The Bible is full of people and situations where people didn’t see any hope, felt like their life was beyond repair but they were not beyond the help of God and neither are you. There is always one more move but it’s not your move, the move belongs to God but you have to stay in the game. If you stay in it, keep trusting, keep loving, keep the faith then you keep winning. Keep the faith, stay the course

And in the end, checkmate belongs to Jesus.