27 April 2014
Text: John 20:19-31 (Ez 37:1-14, 1 John 5:4-10)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Dear
Deb, Danielle, Holly, Lorraine, family, friends, brothers and sisters in
Christ, and honored guests. As our Lord
said to His disciples upon rising from the dead: “Peace be with you.”
I
know that for Doyle’s family, this has been one of the hardest and most trying weeks
of your lives. And I also know that it
has been a time of love and comfort and closeness within your family. Your church family grieves with you as well,
and supports you during this time of sadness and loss.
Sometimes
people will try to bring comfort to those who mourn by saying things that are
just not true. But here is what is true,
dear friends:
Death
is not a part of life. Death is not
natural. Death is not our friend. Death is the enemy. It is ugly and unnatural. It is the opposite of life. Death is the wages of sin. Death is what each one of us deserves because
of our own sins and because of the original sin of Adam and Even in the
Garden. For their sinful nature has been
handed down to us ever since. Death is
bitter and awful. There is nothing good
about it.
There
is an ancient statue that says all of this without a single word. It’s known as the Pieta. It shows Mary holding the lifeless body of
her Son Jesus in her arms. [The casket
selected by Doyle’s family has this powerful image on it, around the base]. The pain and anguish on the face of our
Lord’s mother captures the grief of a mother mourning her beloved Son. It powerfully illustrates the pain caused by
death – which even came to our Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason is sin. Not His, but ours.
For
as we all confessed together in the very words of scripture: “If we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And our only hope is to have a champion who
can forgive our sins and conquer death for us.
And that Champion is our Lord Jesus Christ, who died in order that we
may live. He paid for our sins at the
cross, and as St. Paul teaches us in the Book of Romans, when we are baptized
into the Lord, we are baptized into His death, and St. Paul then explains: “If
we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united
with Him in a resurrection like His.”
But
living in this fallen world as we do, dear friends, we all experience the loss
of our loved ones. There are no
exceptions. It is part of the world we
live in, a fallen world of sin and suffering.
And it comes to all of us, whether we are 27 years old, 107 years old,
or 7 days old. No-one is exempt from
death, and our loved ones will grieve – even as we will grieve our loved ones.
To
deal with this reality, some people just never think about it or talk about
it. Some people deal with it by making
up stories about people becoming angels or ghosts or by believing that death
simply ends our existence. Some people
believe in things like reincarnation.
But we have the explanation, dear brothers and sisters. We know why we die, and we know what
happens. And as sad as we are to lose Doyle
in this life, on this side of the grave, there is happiness and joy for all
Christians in eternity who die in the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ!
For
the same lifeless body held in the arms of His mother, the body of Jesus, was
laid into a tomb, and on the third day, He rose again. And He promises the same resurrection to His
redeemed people, as St. Mark teaches us in his Gospel: “Whoever believes and is
baptized will be saved.”
The
resurrection of Jesus is not a myth or a story.
Even the enemies of Jesus could not explain away the empty tomb. You can still visit it today, as today it is
a church. It’s still there. We celebrate something remarkable during this
Easter season, because it is not our common experience for people to simply
rise from the dead so as to live forever.
But this is true for Jesus, and true for us Christians. For the one who rose that first Easter
promises that we too will rise, that our bodies will be raised just like the magnificent
vision that Ezekiel saw of the dry bones being reassembled in the valley,
covered with flesh, and having the spirit breathed into them. “Thus says the Lord to these bones: Behold, I
will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live…. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I
open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you
shall live.”
This
is a promise from Him who rose from the dead and came back to tell us all about
it. He promises that we shall live.
But
it is hard to believe, isn’t it? To see
a casket closed makes it difficult to imagine our graves being opened. But that is the promise. And it is okay that this is tough to
believe. For think about Thomas, dear
friends. All over the world, this very week,
Christians have listened to the Gospel account of Doubting Thomas. In his own grief, he struggled to believe.
Jesus
came to Him, not to scold or condemn, but to save, saying: “Peace be with you”
and showing Thomas His wounded hands and side.
Thomas then believed in Jesus, saying, “My Lord and my God.”
Jesus
lovingly invited Thomas, saying: “Do not disbelieve, but believe.” And then Jesus, speaking about all of us,
says: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Jesus
is speaking of faith, of belief. That,
dear friends, makes all the difference.
Yes, we mourn, but not in the same way as unbelievers do. For we have hope. Hope of eternal life, hope of the forgiveness
of sins, hope of a reunion with Doyle and with all those who died in
Christ. That hope is borne of the Word,
as St. John said to us again: “Jesus did many other signs… which are not
written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His
name.”
That
same apostle John also testifies in God’s Word: “Whoever believes in the Son of
God has the testimony in himself.”
And
he says: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the
world – our faith. Who is it that
overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Dear
friends, Mary’s grief-stricken face was to be replaced by unspeakable joy as
her Son rose again from the dead. And better
even than that, Jesus offers eternal life to all who are baptized and who
believe. Jesus overcomes sin and death
and the grave. Jesus conquers Satan on
our behalf.
Jesus lives! The
victory's won!
Death no longer can appall
me;
Jesus lives! Death's
reign is done!
From the grave will Christ
recall me.
Brighter scenes will then
commence;
This shall be my
confidence.
“Peace
be with you.”
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
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