Saints Triumphant
at Epiphany on
To all of you who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you
from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7)
Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
A man had sold his little restaurant
on
To all who knew them, it wasn’t a shock when death showed at their little house. What was surprising is that death came for him, not her. The whispered words of those who knew them were, "His dying is going to lead to her end as well. She won't last long." But the insurance man and his wife were Christians. They believed that Jesus, God's Son, had come into this world to carry their sins, die the death they deserved, and had risen so all who believe in Him will live forever. In the face of death, the wife's faith did not fail her. Two days after the funeral, she took some of her first steps, alone. It took what seemed like hours for her to walk from the bedroom to her husband's empty office. Surrounded by the memories of him, the clutter of him, the scent of him, she blinked back the tears, and with trembling hands found what she was looking for. Small, slow steps took her to the front door. There she hung up the sign her husband had used when he went out on his sales calls. It read, "GONE OUT--BACK SOON."
Weak in body, strong in spirit, she knew when the casket closes, it is not the end. She knew when you leave the cemetery's open grave, life is not finished. She knew the words of Jesus who said that those who acknowledge Him as Savior will be blessed in their mourning. And for this widow, hers was a good mourning.
Of course, this Lord's Day, you may not be a mourner. You may be among those few who have not yet been touched by the passing of a close person in your life. Enjoy it while you can. I don’t mean to be dark or dreary, but with human mortality approaching the 100% mark, it is likely you will someday mourn the earthly passing of someone you have loved. Death will, as time goes by, erase from this earth the faces of your spouse, children, parents, relatives and friends. When Adam ate of the forbidden fruit in Eden, death was set free to stalk each of us. (Romans 5:12) It is a task that death has taken seriously.
Death will come for those close to you and you will mourn. You may mourn like the young widower who is trying to raise his two children by himself. You may mourn like the mother whose daily footsteps have worn a path to the new grave in the children's section of the cemetery. You may mourn like the man who sadly sighs because he has, once again, started to speak to a life's companion who is no longer there. You may mourn like a young child who cannot grasp why Grandma no longer comes over for Sunday supper. You may mourn like a grown up child who picks up the phone on Sunday afternoon to call Mom, but the number is no longer in service. You will mourn when you receive Christmas cards addressed by a person who has not heard that death has come to your home. You will mourn when you wander through a house and bump into little memories, a piece of paper left there, a tool on the workbench not put away, a hamper filled with unwashed clothes. You will mourn as your mind is filled with little things, once shared, that will never be again. Yes, death will come. And mourning will come. The question is, "Will yours be a good mourning?"
A pastor visited the parents of a child who was dying. Dad was a member of the Lutheran church and had, thanks be to God, not neglected his Christian duty as a father. He had been the spiritual head of his household, and all of his children knew Jesus. Mother had never had much use for the Savior or the sacrifice he had made to save sinners. Now, with death coming, the pastor thought things might be different for her. Hoping the Holy Spirit would touch her and give her a good mourning, he spoke to them from the Bible: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)
After that, the pastor would have given other words of comfort from Scripture: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) The Gospel in a nutshell: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Then the wonderful words of the Savior, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)
The husband nodded when he heard the Bible's comfort. But the other resurrection comfort the pastor had planned to explain remained unspoken, at least for that day. The mother, who had no faith, interrupted: “You can stop right there. I won’t listen. When he dies, my son will be dead. We will go to the cemetery. We will walk away. My heart will break, and I will spend the rest of my life trying to forget him.” How horrible; how hopeless; how helpless were her words. How sad that things happened just as she had said. Death came. Their son died. They did go to the cemetery. And when last the pastor saw this mourning mother, she was still striving and struggling to forget. For her, every day was a bad mourning.
Maybe that mother's story is yours, as well. Do you see the arrival of death as an end to relationships, a time when you must burn from your brain all memories of those who have died? Do you see the cemetery as a final farewell? Is death for you something frightening, fearful, and final? Jesus can change that. Your Brother who was beaten and died for you, can dispel those feelings like the sun destroys a morning mist. When the Son of God rises in your life, death is dispelled and a good mourning can dawn.
The sad mourning of the unbelieving mother was so very different from the good mourning of the Christian father. The father had also gone to the cemetery. Yet, because of his faith in the resurrected Savior, when the pastor saw him again, he was having a good mourning. Loss? Yes. Pain? Yes. Emptiness? Yes. But he did not mourn as those who have no hope. He knew that a living Lord Jesus would someday, on Judgment Day, raise his son to life and grant them a family reunion that would never end. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14) For him the words of Jesus had been fulfilled: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
How can your mourning be a good mourning? How can you be comforted when every sight, sound or smell reminds you of your loss? How can you be happy when the empty bed, the empty chair, the empty feeling in your heart makes it hard to go on? How can life be any fun anymore when, according to you, your best friend was taken too early?
To help you have a good mourning, continue to look to God’s inspired Word for comfort in your grieving. Remember where your Christian love one is and what he or she is now enjoying in the paradise. God said through Isaiah: “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.” That's the way it will be when believers are face-to-face with the glory of God. We can take comfort that our Christian loved ones are no longer remembering their former frustrations, difficulties and troubles.
Isaiah adds: “The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.” Sin will be removed. Revelation 21:4 says: “[God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." The saints who have gone before us are no longer weeping or crying. The pain of the cancer, the weakness from the diabetes, the suffering from the memory loss are all gone.
God also promises through
Isaiah, “I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people …” In heaven,
God will delight in his faithful. Not only will we be excited to be in heaven, God
will also be excited to have us in heaven. Compare it to when you move into a new
home. You finally have all the walls painted, the pictures are hung, the carpets
are cleaned, everything is in its proper place, and you can finally fit your car
into the garage, so now you want to have all your friends and family over for a
house-warming party. You have a new home. You are excited to show it off. God is
throwing a party, too – for eternity! That’s why Jesus promised: “In my Father's
house are many rooms. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John
14:2-3)
Isaiah mentions still another benefit that our Christian loved ones are already enjoying: “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain.” As Christians we have a peace that nobody else in the world has. As Christians, we have a spiritual peace with God - just like a wolf and a lamb eating together. Both the church on earth and saints in heaven fall under this peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. (Philippans 4:7) Our peace comes from the Savior’s forgiveness. While we are still enduring terrorism, war, natural disasters, hunger, greed, hatred, and all the other ills of this world, our sainted loved ones are already enjoying peace in God’s presence. Thank God for this peace they are now enjoying and will soon be ours.
We can have a good mourning because we know that our Christian loved ones have been transferred from the saints militant who are at war on earth to the saints triumphant who are at peace in heaven. One day this will happen to you. Jesus, who entered this world to live for you, die for you, rise for you, and save you, is waiting for you.
Look at what Jesus can do. When Jesus bumped into a funeral procession, he stopped the march of mourning and restored that young man to his mother, turning grief into gladness. (Luke 7:11) When Jesus’ presence was requested at the house of Jairus, a man whose daughter had died, Jesus told the weeping and wailing crowd that the little girl was only sleeping. Then he proved that death is nothing more than sleep to the all-powerful Son of God, and raised her from the dead. (Luke 8:41-56) Even Jesus grieved at the grave of his friend Lazarus. But he who first created life, has no difficulty in restoring life. Standing before the dead man's tomb, Jesus called, "Lazarus, come out." Transcending all human hope, contrary to all human knowledge, beyond all human power, Lazarus came out. (Luke 11)
Those words of the Lord, first spoken in the little town of ancient Bethany, will be spoken again one day by Jesus from the clouds. Those words will echo into all the world's cemeteries, carry into all the mausoleums, descend into the unmarked graves of the sea. Jesus will say, "Come out," and those who have died will rise to life. The same power that brought Christ back from the dead still works for those who are called by his name. Jesus' own resurrection on Easter Sunday turns the human question mark of death into a divine exclamation mark of eternity.
Because this is true, let the Holy Spirit give you a good mourning. Cling to the promise of the Savior who said he will not leave you comfortless. (John 14:18) Hold fast to the Lord's promise that says "not even death can separate you from the love of God which comes in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:38-39) Let yours be a good mourning, because by Jesus' death and resurrection, our heavenly Father has swallowed up death forever. (Isaiah 25: 8,9) You can confidently confess, "Surely this is our God, we trusted in him, and he has saved us." (Isaiah 25:9) Our friends who have died will come out of their graves. Our spouses will come forth. Our children will come forth. Our parents will come forth. And on that day of resurrection, when the Son of God appears, a day will dawn when you shall never mourn again. Amen.
“Praise be to the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth
into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4
and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-- kept in heaven for
you.” (1 Peter 1:3-4)