In the summer of 2012, Sage Stallone, the 36-year-old son of actor Sylvester Stallone, died suddenly of a heart attack. Shortly after Sage's death, his dad told People magazine, "It's very, very tough. It's a horrible situation, but time hopefully will heal, and you try to get through it."

In 2016 The New York Times featured an article on Sylvester Stallone's role as an aging Rocky in the film Creed. The article noted that when production began, the actor was "still paralyzed by the devastation of losing [Sage]." Stallone said, "You just feel responsible. That you weren't there. Here you save all these fictitious people, and you can't even save your son."

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Control; Death; Easter; Grief—In the same way, we cannot control the power of death, but Christ has defeated death. (2) Christ, death of—God the Father and God the Son were in perfect control, and yet God the Father chose to not to save his only Son for our sake.