Christians grieve those that have passed away. We are like the world in this way, but in another way we are different for the world grieves without hope. It goes to funerals and regards those who lie their in their wooden coffins and it has no answers. It seeks to remember what was in the past for the future is empty.

Yet Christians have hope.

There is no greater tragedy than death. It is the great evil in this world, the one enemy, the wages of sin, which is its sting. So when death strikes we are right to grieve.

That death is so horrendous is demonstrated no more clearly than in our Lord's reaction to the passing away of Lazarus. Confronted with the tomb of His friend, Jesus weeps and is deeply moved (John 11:35, 38). His distress is not at the finality of death, since He is about to raise Lazarus from that cold sleep. No, it is simply death itself that makes the author of life cry out in anguish. He recognises that it is cuckoo in our world, an impostor in God's good creation.

The Scripture has much to say about death and our response to it but two things stand out for me today. The first is that God, being sovereign over all things, is sovereign over the time of our death. The second is that God's sovereignty over death should not cause us to despair because God is good and has prepared something wonderful for His children.

God is sovereign over death

Death is inevitable, it has been ever since Adam and the woman first ate the fruit and death entered the world. There is a time to live and a time to die, the latter being as sure as the former.

Job, who suffered terribly recognised the hand of God in all this:

Job 14:5 Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass...

For Job this was no abstract intellectual speculation, God had allowed a number of tragedies to befall him. Nevertheless, his response to God's sovereign action was remarkable.

Job 1:20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. ²¹ And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." ²² In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

It was not sin for Job to recognise that it was God who had taken the lives of those he loved. It was simply a recognition of who God was. Simply put, He is God. Job and you and I are not.

The reality of God's sovereignty is, in and of itself, enough to cause Job to prostrate himself.

Job 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD and said: ² "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ³ 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ⁴ 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.' ⁵ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; ⁶ therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

But, the Scripture does not leave us with this truth, sufficient though it is. For the God who is sovereign over life and death is also good. He is so very good.

God has prepared a good future

The Apostle Paul, writing to the new church that he had himself founded in Thessalonica, sought to calm their fears over those they knew who had died in the faith:

1 Thessalonians 4:13 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. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

1 Thessalonians 1:3 ... remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a hope that he shares with them for he knows that it involves their future.

1 Thessalonians 2:19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?

It is, of course, a gospel hope. Paul's great hope, his joy and crown, is that the Thessalonicans will be received by Jesus at his coming. They have gone from worshipping idols that could give them nothing to worshipping the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven (1:9-10). That day will be a terrible day for the world who does not know Him but for the Christian it will be tremendous for they have been delivered from the coming wrath, saved from judgement. Indeed, their salvation is their hope.

1 Thessalonians 5:8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

But this is not all. The other side of the return of Christ and the day of judgment lies the New Creation. A remade world in which God will dwell with His people and where

Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

It will be heaven on earth. Not simply heaven but heaven come down to a newly-made earth (Rev. 21:1-2). The language of Revelation is, of course, more of a vision than a video but that should not make us diminish the wonders of what is described. If this is simply metaphor (and the word "simply" does not do justice to the richness of what is being spoken of) then how much more will the reality be?

This is the real Christian hope and it means that our mourning for those that have died in the faith cannot be empty. It must not be empty for we have something glorious to hope for, something which those we mourn are already, in some way, experiencing. Wherever the thief on the cross next to Jesus went (and the scholars debate the matter), Jesus called it "paradise". Christian hope looks beyond this world to its remaking. So Paul, writing to the Christians in Phillipi, exhorts them

Philippians 3:20 ...our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. ^4:1Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

Again, the language of "joy and crown" for Paul has the same theme in mind. We are to Stand Firm, confident not in what we have now but in what awaits us in the future. A saviour from heaven, the transformation of our own bodies to match His. And a New Creation in which to use that new body and, of even greater joy, in which to be with and sing praises to our Lord for all of eternity.

Many of you will know that I am British. As I write this I am sitting at a desk in Sydney, Australia. I am a long way from home; in fact I am about as far from home as I could be. And yet even if I flew the 24+ hours it would take to arrive at the land of my birth I would not truly be home there either for, as Christians, there is a sense in which we do not belong here in this fallen world. It is God's good creation, that is true, but it is marred by sin and we were made for something far better. We belong somewhere far better. We are strangers in a strange land looking forward to the day that we will live in the place that is really home.

That is, then, the Christian hope. It is the certain longing for their real home with the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Creation.

I don't know what the arrangements are for Sean's mother's funeral. I have no doubt that it will be God-honouring, speaking not just of Sarah-Jane but more so of her Saviour who raises the dead and makes all things new. I like to think that at my own funeral the following would be sung. The words evoke the sentiments that I have sought to communicate here, despite the songwriter's (to my knowledge) not intending to do so.

Binky, and all those that mourn: Stand Firm thus in the Lord, our beloved.

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Thanks, David, for the reminder of the tremendous hope we all may have in the magnificent promises (ALL of which WILL come to pass!) of the LORD.

[1] Posted by Milton on 05-15-2007 at 09:10 AM • top

I have a neighbor who was diagnosed with a serious cancer a few months ago. Both he and his spouse were raised as Romans, but rarely participated as adults. He’s been trying the “positive thinking” route for the last several weeks. I’ve been encouraging them to pursue their faith. She finally made the effort to attend a local RC church. After the service, she asked the priest if he would visit her home to minister to her husband. The priest reported he “couldn’t fit it into his schedule.” I met with them this past weekend when this story was shared with me. Sensing their willingness to “hear,” they were led to and received the Lord into their lives. I left with them a copy of the very readable “Good News for Modern Man.” He reports he is at peace because he now understands. “O death where is your victory…”

[2] Posted by ama-anglican on 05-15-2007 at 10:29 AM • top

Bless you Ama@reno, for listening to the Holy Spirit! How awesome your neighbors listened. The Good News for Modern Man ws the vehicle that brought me to the Lord 35 years ago.

My father, as he was facing death, was at peace. He reminded me of how he had always been such a nervous person, and said that he was at peace in facing death showed God’s mercy and grace.

Although she did not tell us, and told a friend of ours, our daughter knew when her time was short, although to us she looked as though she was better. She never complained about the limitations the radiation damage did to her brain, yet she told our friend that there were things she had to do on this earth, but they were done, and it was time for her to go home. And she said, “And then I will be free.” Her life was used to touch many who otherwise may not have been touched, and at least one of them, an old retired Army Colonel who told at her funeral how her simple love for the Lord and her joy in Him despite her great losses, made a turning point in his life so that he gave his life to Christ, is there with her now. He was killed six months later.

David—it is as you say—this life is so marred by sin, and we do long for something better. On Heidi’s grave stone w put, “Dancing in the presence of God.” She has, as have those who have gone before her, that which is most glorious of all.

[3] Posted by Pat Kashtock on 05-15-2007 at 04:41 PM • top

That passage from Revelation especially resonates with me. My husband read it in church somewhere around the end of March and I happened to record it (I was working the sound up in the loft). It’s one of those readings (along with the verses prior to it) that really give me hope and something to look forward to when this life is past.

Sean, we’re continuing to pray for you and your family. May God’s comfort and peace rest on you and yours this week as you work through this difficult time.

[4] Posted by Jill C. on 05-16-2007 at 05:06 PM • top

To Binky and Kendall and many others, my heart goes out. Losing loved ones is so painful and involves other subtle losses which must be mourned as well. I pray that your tears will be healing. Nothing can take away your joy, since none can undo the Resurrection.

[5] Posted by Alice Linsley on 05-22-2007 at 06:36 PM • top

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