Text: Luke 8:40-42a, 49-55 (Job 19:23-27a, Rom 6:3-11)
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Dear, Neal, Alexis, Andrea, Brandon, Chuck, Janet, Corey, family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests: Peace be with you! This greeting “Peace be with you” is used by Christians all over the world. These are the first words that Jesus spoke to His disciples when He first appeared to them that first Easter as they were mourning His death. They were hurting, confused, and apprehensive about the future. But the risen Lord Jesus Christ appeared to them in His body and said, “Peace be with you.”
This word “peace” points us to the Garden of Eden, before our fall into sin, when there was no suffering and no death. Jesus has come into our world to restore that “peace that surpasses all understanding.” And so I say it again, “Peace be with you.”
When we experience the death of loved ones, many people say things that are well-meaning, but don’t provide much comfort. One such thing that some people say is that death is natural, and just a part of life. We Christians do not believe this at all. God created a perfect world. Yes, we corrupted it, but death is unnatural. It is not normal. It is not our friend. It is not a solution to anything. It is our enemy. But by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is a defanged and defeated enemy.
Sometimes people will say that our loved ones live on in our hearts and in our memories. Sure, our memories are there, but we want our loved ones back. We want Casie back. You want your wife, your mother, your daughter, your sister, your dear friend, your colleague back. We want to see her again. And we Christians believe that this is exactly what will happen.
Some will try to comfort us with the idea that our loved ones are spirits floating around in heaven forever. We Christians also reject that belief. Again, God created a physical world and called it “very good.” He made us bodily and in His image. We are human beings, not spirits, not angels. And who would want to live without a body, dear friends. With our bodies, we embrace our loved ones. We talk. We laugh. We feast. This is why the last line of the Apostles’ Creed is: “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” Job said: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not another.”
We confess a physical, bodily resurrection, where we will live forever in a new heaven and a new earth. In her flesh, dear friends, Casie will see God. She will see Him for herself, with her own striking blue eyes. That is the promise of Jesus. She will be the same Casie, the same joyful, loving, and funny Casie, the same Casey that everyone loved to be around – only perfected: without sin, without suffering, without sorrow – and without death.
We heard St. Paul from his letter to the Romans: “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death…. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His…. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.” And as Jesus Himself promised at the end of Mark’s Gospel: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”
Chuck and Janet, I know you remember Casie’s baptism. You were there. And Neal, you were there when we sat around the table, and we all confessed our faith together and heard the promises of the Word of God. Casie confessed Jesus as her Redeemer, her Savior. And so she enjoys the promise of “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”
We Christians mourn our loved ones. We most certainly do, dear friends. But as St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, we do not grieve “as others do who have no hope.” And this is why we Christians can mock death with Paul: “O death, where is your victory. O death, where is your sting.” Once again, death is a defanged and defeated enemy. Jesus destroyed death by dying and rising again.
In our Gospel reading, a man named Jairus prays to Jesus to help him. For his only child, his twelve year old daughter, is very ill. Jairus has faith in Jesus. He believes that He can help. And Jesus accompanies him to the house. But then comes the bad news: she has died. Undeterred, they continue to the house. The funeral has already started. But Jesus has come to ruin the funeral: “Do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping.” And “they laughed at Him.” They laughed at Jesus, dear friends. Many still laugh at Him. But on that day, they were to laugh for joy instead of mockery. For Jesus took her by the hand and said, “Child, arise.” “And her spirit returned.” And I love how Jesus told her parents to give her something to eat.
Chuck and Janet, I’m sure you have many memories of Casie as a twelve year old girl. Corey, that may be stretching the limits of your memory of your big-little sister. But this girl that Jesus raised represents Casie and all Christians. For this is what He promises to do for all of us: to awaken us from the slumber of death. For once again, death is a defeated enemy. For the Christian, death is like a nap, and Jesus will awaken us. And so Jesus ruins all funerals.
In the words of the hymn that I sang with you in the hospital as we were saying our goodbyes to Casie:
And in its narrow chamber
keep
My body safe in peaceful
sleep
Until Thy reappearing.
And then from death awaken
me,
That these mine eyes with
joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious
face
My Savior and my fount of
grace.
Dear friends, the sure and certain hope of the resurrection, as promised by God Himself, is what gives us the strength to face each new day – one less day until we are reunited in the “resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”
We Christians have another ancient greeting. It goes back to the resurrection of Jesus. Today, it is said by Christians around the world in every language, typically at the time of Easter. One Christian says: “Christ is risen.” And the response is: “He is risen indeed, Alleluia.”
And so we can live our lives in joyful hope and expectation of resurrection, knowing that Casie is in good hands. By God’s grace we will see her again. We will once more look into her blue eyes, laugh with her, and enjoy the blessing of her existence, which God willed before the foundation of the world. You will embrace her again, never to be separated. That is what Jesus meant by saying: “Peace be with you.” And I say it again, dear friends, “Peace be with you.”
And that is why we are also bold to say with defiant joy: “Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!”
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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