Text: John 3:16-17
(Isa 25:6-9, Rom 5:1-5)
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Dear Ronald, family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests, Peace be with you.
Easter was almost six weeks ago, but the church is still in the Easter season. You might even say that we are always in the Easter season, because Jesus rose again from the dead, pointing us to our own resurrections, and the resurrections of our loved ones who confessed our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the first words that the risen Jesus said to His grieving disciples when He appeared to them that Easter evening was, “Peace be with you.” So I say again to all of you, “Peace be with you.” For we have all heard this famous passage, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” In the next verse, Jesus adds: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Jesus came into our fallen world to die, in order to destroy death. And He rose again to lead the way that shepherds His people from death to life. And this is why Christians all over the world greet one another in the Easter season with, “Christ is risen!” And the response is: “He is risen indeed, Alleluia!” This defiant note of life is meant for such times as these. For to lose a wife, a mother, a sister, a grandmother, a loved one, a friend, a colleague – is a crushing blow. It saddens us, and causes us to grieve. And when I lose loved ones, I am reminded of St. Paul’s words from 2nd Corinthians: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (4:8-11).
The words of Jesus comfort us in our worst times. And St. Paul reminds us to comfort each other with the hope that we Christians have of our confession of “the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” We take comfort knowing that our beloved ones who confess Jesus will live again, in the body, and we will be reunited never to be separated again.
For Paula is not an angel floating in the clouds. She is higher than the angels. She is a flesh and blood person created in the image of God, with a body that was redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ. Unlike angels, Paula will again eat and drink and embrace her loved ones in the flesh. As the prophet Isaiah reminds us about eternity, we look forward to: “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine” for “He will swallow up… the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces… for the Lord has spoken.”
The Lord has spoken, dear friends.
And though we mourn and suffer, we do not lose hope. We have the audacity even to rejoice, for Paula does not suffer. She has finished the race. Christ’s victory at the cross is Paula’s victory. Christ’s resurrection is Paula’s resurrection. Paula’s namesake St. Paul reminds us that “we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
So let us mourn, dear friends. Let us lay our sorrow upon the Lord, the Man of Sorrows, who was crucified, died, and rose again for Paula and for all believers, who promises to raise Paula and all believers on the Last Day. And even in our mourning and sorrow, let us rejoice in our hope. St. Paul reminds us that we grieve, but not “as others do who have no hope” (1 Thess 4:13).
“For God so loved the world,” dear brothers and sisters, “that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
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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