Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (1
Thessalonians 4:12-13)
But we
do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that
you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him
those who have fallen asleep.
Prayer: Let
the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
There’s a wonderful passage in the book of Genesis, in the Old
Testament, which speaks about Jacob, who sends his family across to the other side
of the river Jabbok, and while he is by himself, he wrestles with God.
In the same way, just as Jacob sent his family across that river, we
also send those we love ahead of us to the other side of death, to meet us
there one day. And also, just as Jacob was left behind to wrestle with God, so
also when a person dies, we are left behind to wrestle with God.
But there’s a very important part of this passage in Genesis which I
haven’t mentioned yet. Jacob doesn’t wrestle indefinitely with God. He says to
God: “I will not let you go until you bless me.”
In the same way, sometimes many people think that it cheapens the
memory of those who have died if we are actually comforted in the face of
death. And so people wrestle and wrestle and are never blessed. They are open
to all sorts of things, and let in all sorts of cold draughts but never shut
the door to stay warm—always striving, and never resting—having open minds and
open mouths and never shutting them on something solid.
This is not the message and truth of Christianity in the face of
death. This is the pagan answer—the answer of unbelievers. This is what it
means to grieve without hope—wrestling with God indefinitely, but never seeking
from God his blessing. Jesus says: “Seek and you will find”. “Blessed are those
who mourn for they will be comforted.”
And so what about Herbert? We have come together to pay our final
respects and give thanks to God for this man, whom we loved—a husband, a
father, a grandfather, a brother, a friend.
And in the face of all of this: we hear these words from St Paul’s
letter to the Thessalonians: But we do
not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you
may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who
have fallen asleep.
Today, we are living in a time where the churches are not responsible
for conducting many funerals any more. Many people have civil funerals—and so
at the time of death, many people in our country today make attempts to comfort
people, but only with things that are half-true—and are actually lies. These
things sound like Christian comfort, but actually are not, and at the end of
the day, only leave people without hope. Even many churches have forgotten this
hope. Many people today seek the pagan answers in the face of death, and grieve
without hope.
This hope, though, does not come from inside of us. This hope needs to
dwell in us, and needs to take root in us, but it doesn’t start there. This
hope comes from the Word of God. We read in Isaiah 40, one of the prophets: The grass withers, and the flowers fade, but
the word of our God stands forever.
The comfort of the Word of God is the only comfort that lasts: all the
other half-truths fade away. But St Paul wants to encourage us, so that we do not grieve as others do who have no
hope.
So what are some of these half-truths at the time of death? Let’s take
a few of these things and think about them one by one.
Firstly, it is often said that a person has “gone to a better place.”
Christianity does speak about a “better place”, in some sense. But it
doesn’t speak about a better place without a name, without a certain structure,
and without the promise of Jesus. Jesus says: “In my Father’s house there are
many rooms, and I will go to prepare a place for you.” The thief says to Jesus
on the cross, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom”. And Jesus says,
“Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
So instead of saying that a Christian has gone to a better place, a
non-descript, untouchable, empty hope, let’s take hold of these words of Jesus
and say that he has gone to “our heavenly Father’s house”, to “the kingdom of
Jesus” and “to Paradise”: to heaven. This better place has a name and a
structure and a loving and living Saviour who promises it.
Secondly, people sometimes say that “death is a good thing”. Death is
not a good thing. Especially in our situation where Herbert had been suffering
for a long time, we might say that death was good for him. But death doesn’t do
anything good in itself. The only thing that death does is take the person’s
life away, and leave us without him anymore. Death is a terrible thing. Romans
says: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life.”
Here again, people often say something that is half true. Death is good for
Christians, because Jesus himself is waiting on the other side, and if a person
is set free from their sufferings and their pain and their sin, it is because
Jesus himself gives it. And so St Paul says: “The sting of death is sin, and
the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
So death itself is not good, but Jesus’ victory over death and his
resurrection make death a good thing for us as Christians and something even to
look forward to. Romans 8 says: “I consider that the sufferings of this present
time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” So
instead of saying that death is good, we should say that Jesus’ victory over
death is good.
A third thing that people often say that leaves people without hope is
that the person who has died has gone to be with “grandma” or with his dead
relatives. This will be much more of a temptation in future generations to say
things like this, because Herbert was the oldest in his generation. So often in
the newspaper, you see people write things like “gone to be so-and-so” or
“reunited with this person”. Once
again, death doesn’t reunite anyone. Romeo and Juliet have no way of knowing
that their deaths will reunite them. But if people will be reunited on the
other side of death, there needs to be someone to organise the reunion. Those
whom we love who have died in the faith will be reunited because they are
together with Jesus and he does the reuniting himself. In our reading from 1
Thessalonians today we read: “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen
asleep.”
So instead of saying, that he has gone to be with our dead relatives,
we should say that a person has gone to be with Jesus.
Another half-truth which is often said at the time of death is this:
that a person is with God because of the good things that they did, or because
of their qualities and even because of their faith. But as soon as we say
things like this, we condemn ourselves, because we can see our own hearts much
better than the person who has died, and we then we might start to think that
we are unworthy and undeserving of eternal life, and maybe not as worthy and
not as deserving as the person who has died. But then, you’re right. You don’t
deserve it, you’re not worthy of it. In fact, nobody is. We’re all sinners.
Even Herbert, and he would have known that much more deeply than any of you.
It’s a very sad thing, when it’s the other way around, and other people know
that someone else is a sinner much more deeply than the person himself!
We’re not saved by our own works. We’re not deserving and worthy of
eternal life. We are saved through God’s works. We’re not even saved by our
faith, if by that we mean some quality in us that makes us worthy of eternal
life. God sent his Son Jesus Christ to be born of a virgin. Jesus suffered and died
on the cross. On the third day he rose again. We are saved because of those
things. And in our lives, God applies those things from history to us through
Holy Baptism, through the preaching of the forgiveness of sins in the church,
and through the Lord’s Supper, where we receive the true body and blood of
Christ. Those things are God’s works and we are saved by them. We receive them,
and stick our empty hands – and that’s what we mean by faith.
Herbert was brought to Holy Baptism as a small child, and God did his
work there, without any contribution from Herbert. God was the one who saved
him. Herbert heard the preaching of the Word of God and received the Lord’s
Supper—he didn’t make these things for himself. And in his last couple of
years, when Herbert’s mind deteriorated, we see that Herbert was even more
unable to make any contribution to his salvation. But it is Jesus who promises
life and salvation! It is Jesus who does the work. It is Jesus who has promised
to gather Herbert to himself, so that he will sit at his Saviour’s feet,
clothed and in his right mind.
So instead of saying, that the person who has died was good, or
faithful: we should say Herbert’s Saviour, Herbert’s Lord, is faithful: he is
good. He will do what he has promised. Romans says: “We were buried with Jesus
by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
But one last thing: Often people say that a person lives on, or they
live on in our memories or in our hearts. Or we say that we will remember them
forever.
A person who has died
does not live because of us. We are dying. A person lives because of Jesus and
his resurrection. Jesus is living. He is alive. He has defeated death. The
resurrection is given to each person through Holy Baptism—and that promise
given there, through the water and the Word of God, is brought to completion
when Jesus himself will restore each person’s corruptible body and breathe new
life into them.
And so St Paul says: “But we do
not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you
may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who
have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we
who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede
those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven
with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of
the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are
alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore
encourage one another with these words.”
A Christian funeral should never be a truly sad occasion. Why should
we be sad, when all the desires and hopes of the person who has died have been
brought to fulfilment? Why should we be sad, if we know that Herbert is so
happy and so blessed with his Lord? Why should we be upset, if Jesus has
promised to bring about a great work in this person?
We do not want you to be
uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as
others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen
asleep.
Do not let your Saviour, Jesus Christ, go until he blesses you.
Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, we know that you have prepared for us a room in our
heavenly Father’s house, in paradise, in your kingdom. We know that you have
won the victory over death. We know that those who have died in the faith are
safe with you. We thank you that you are our Saviour, and not ourselves! We
know that because you have risen from the dead, we will never see death! We
place Herbert into your hands with love and thanks, and we ask that you would
comfort us at this time with your words and your Holy Spirit. Amen.
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