Christmas can be a hard time for people who have lost a
loved one. Christmas is, bar none, the most nostalgic of all holidays. When a
person is missing from the Christmas get-together, there is a hole. With
Butch’s death coming so close to Christmas, and this funeral service coming even
closer to Christmas, it’s on our minds. There are a lot of people here who are
sad when they think of those difficult moments in the couple days ahead for
Butch’s family.
Because we do not want to remain sad, and we don’t want
others to be sad either, there is a tendency to chop some logic to make it seem
better. There is some truth in the gentle arguments that get made at such
times. Butch lived to be 72. We’d all like it if he had lived longer, but 72
years is nothing to sneeze at. He had fairly good health despite his very
serious disease until not long before he died. Regardless of whatever else gets
said, we might also add that the memories of him will live on even though he
has died.
Some more specifically Christian logic can be chopped at
such a time as this too. Biblical truths are taken in hand. The goal is the
same. We’d like to feel better—not feel so sad.
There is something that I’d like us to consider this
afternoon, though, that might surprise you. It has to do with what happened to
a friend of Jesus’s. What we find is that sadness is not taken away, even for
Jesus, who obviously knew all the truths of God’s saving will towards us, for
he himself is God.
The friend’s name was Lazarus. His sisters were Mary and Martha.
One day Lazarus fell sick, and his family sent word to Jesus in the hopes that
he could come and heal him like he had healed many others. Jesus, however,
didn’t come right away. He stayed where he was for a couple more days. In the
meantime Lazarus died, was prepared for burial, and by the time Jesus got to
where they lived, he was already in the tomb. This was not by accident. Jesus
knew what he was going to do.
When Jesus came near to the house word of this came to
Martha. She ran out to meet Jesus on the road, and she tells him what
undoubtedly had been on her mind the last few days. She said, “Jesus, if you
had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” Jesus said to her, “Your
brother will rise again.” “That’s true,” Martha replied through the tears,
“I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the Last Day.”
Martha knew her Bible. She also knew that Lazarus believed
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. She knew that through this
faith in Jesus, her brother Lazarus had received salvation from sin, death, and
hell, and that he was destined, therefore, to eternal life. Here are some of
those Christian truths I referred to before which are looked to to take away
sadness.
Jesus responded to Martha with some words that you will hear
as part of our service in a few minutes. He said, “I am the resurrection and
the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies. Whoever lives
and believes in me will never die.” Jesus powerfully confirms everything
that Martha has just said. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Whoever
believes in him will live, even though he dies. With faith in him, death hardly
even deserves to be called death anymore, for Jesus has defeated it. Here’s
some more truth we can chew on.
Martha then sends somebody back to the house to get her
sister Mary. Mary comes, weeping. Everybody else is weeping too. Now here’s why
I bring this up. When Jesus saw Mary it says that he was deeply moved in his
spirit and troubled. There was a tightness in his chest and a lump in his
throat he had a hard time choking down. He asked, “Where have you laid him?”
They said, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus could hold back the tears no
longer. He wept. And when he got to the tomb, it says that he was deeply moved yet
again.
If there were ever anybody who knew the saving truths of
God’s will, it would be Jesus. Indeed, Jesus even knew that he was going to
raise Lazarus from the dead twice. He was going to do it that day, and then he is
going to do it again on the Last Day. Even though Jesus knew all these truths—and
they are such fine and good truths—he was still deeply grieved and sad. To be
sure, when Lazarus was raised to life that sadness was erased utterly and
replaced with a joy that we cannot even comprehend. Until that time, however, Jesus
was full of sorrow even though he knew all truth.
And so we should not have the expectation that our sadness
and sorrow should be taken away by what gets said. If that is the thing that we
are striving after, then it’s likely that vain philosophy will provide more
comfort than Christian truth. These are the kinds of things that I mentioned at
the beginning, where we kind of argue our way out of feeling sad: “Soandso
lived a long life.” “Everybody has to go sometime.” “Death is just a part of
life.” “Treasure the memories.”
These sentiments might very well work better at relieving
grief than Christian truths do, precisely because these are easier to believe.
The reason why Martha and Mary were so sad is that they thought the time for
their brother to get better had passed. Maybe if Jesus had been there earlier,
then he could have done something, but it’s too late now. They had to wait for
the resurrection before they felt better. The same is true, surprisingly, even with
Jesus. But the truths of God won out in the end. All vain philosophy, on the
other hand, will prove to be worthless, or even to be lies, when Christ comes
to raise the dead.
In the days ahead, therefore, I want to encourage all of you
who have loved Butch to take to heart the truths communicated to us about our
God. Do this, not with the expectation that it will take away your sadness, but
with the conviction that you, most certainly, will not be disappointed in the
end, even if, for a season and time, you have sadness. The glorious promises
that God has made to us have not yet come to pass. These truths—the greatest of
which is resurrection—are waiting in the wings. One day they will come into
action and our joy will be full.
So what, exactly, are the truths about our God that are
communicated to us at Christmas? All three readings that I chose for today are
Christmas readings. The most direct is the reading from Luke chapter 2. God
sent his angel to the shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks by
night. When the angel appeared, the shepherds were terrified—and understandably
so. Whenever God shows up, even through one of his messengers, our thoughts
immediately turn to our uncleanness, our sin. But the angel says those golden
words that sinners love to hear from their God: “Do not be afraid.” I’m
not here to harm you. Quite the opposite, in fact. “I bring you good news of
great joy that is for all people: Today in the town of David a Savior was born
for you. He is Christ the Lord.”
Now wouldn’t it be nice to have someone like Jesus in our
corner? Some great friend who could do the kinds of things that he did even for
Lazarus, Martha and Mary? Well, there’s
no need for supposing. That is what the angel says explicitly. A Savior was
born. For whom? Not just for the guy in the Bible. Not just the guy down the
street. Not just for the guy who seems to have earned it by coming to Church.
Are you a sinner? Then Jesus is for you. He has been born to redeem you by his
holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. He has been born to
defeat death for you, so that when you are laid into the grave, it may not be
the end of the story. Nor will we have to be satisfied with mere memories and
other ghostly things like that. You will be raised from the dead like Lazarus
was, but it will be a better resurrection, for you will not be resurrected only
to die again, but you will be resurrected to a life where death is no more.
Today we lay the body of Butch into the grave. Wouldn’t our
moods change in an instant if he were raised to life—and even a better life
than the only one that we have ever known? Our sadness would be turned to
wonder and to joy, just like that. Well, this is true. We only have to wait for
it.
In the meantime, take to heart what God is saying to you
this Christmas. That Savior has been born for you.
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