Sermon manuscript:
With the observation of All Saints’ Day we think of those
who have died with faith in Jesus. They have been made holy and are in heaven.
Since we are talking about people who have died, this gives us a good
opportunity to talk about the important topic of death. The world is full of
thoughts and teachings about death. The Bible teaches quite differently about
death compared to the world. So today I’d like to speak about what the Bible
says about death.
From the outset a person might expect that the Bible only
has one message to tell about death. That’s how we often think about things
that are true. 2+2=4. It doesn’t also equal 3 or 5. So we might think that the
Bible would just have one message. But the fact of the matter is that the Bible
speaks both very negatively about death as well as positively.
There are countless examples of God causing people to die as
punishment for their sins. This goes all the way back to the Garden where God
connects disobedience with the sentence of death: “In the day that you eat
of it, you will surely die.” The flood was a massive demonstration of God’s
wrath against mankind which had grown decadent and corrupt.
God brought about the death of people within his church as
well. God caused Judah’s son, Onan, to die for spilling his seed onto the
ground instead of doing his duty towards his brother’s widow. Under Moses, many
thousands of Israelites died in the wilderness for their disobedience and
grumbling against the Lord. This is also true in the New Testament church.
Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead before the Apostle Peter for lying about
what they put in the offering plate.
With these few examples (and there are countless more) you
see what Paul says in Romans: “The wages of sin is death.” The wicked
perish and are cut off from the land of the living.
But it is not just with those whose sins are black as coal
that death is spoken of negatively. Good king Hezekiah begged God to extend his
life when the prophet Isaiah told him that he was going to die. God granted him
his wish.
King David speaks bitterly about death in Psalm 6. He says,
“O Lord, deliver me! … For in death there is no remembrance of you. In the
grave who will give you thanks?”
Moses says to God in Psalm 90: “All our days have passed
away in your wrath; we finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are
seventy years; and if, by reason of strength, they are eighty years, they are
nothing but labor and sorrow. It is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows
the power of your anger?”
This is also not just an Old Testament thing. Paul says in 1
Corinthians 15 that the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Death is our
enemy.
These few examples (and there are many more) show us that
the Bible speaks very negatively and even distressingly and terrifyingly about
death. Perhaps this way of speaking has been surprising to you, and no wonder!
It is considered extremely bad form to speak this way about death in our day. No
one does it. Even pastors won’t dare to speak this way for fear of alienating
their flock.
Instead of speaking negatively about death, everyone wants
to speak positively about it. Everyone wants to be assured that everything’s
fine. There’s nothing to worry about. It’s all just natural and a part of life.
This, of course, is not true. It contradicts the Bible. We were not created for
the purpose of dying, but for living. Death is not natural. It is God’s punishment
for sin. Death is not just something biological. It is also tied up with our
relationship with God.
Since our death is tied up with our relationship with God,
it should not be surprising that the Bible also will speak positively about
death. A person’s relationship with God can be one of unbelief and rebellion.
Death is never a good thing in such situations. But a person can also be
reconciled to God and trust in him. This makes death into something that is
beneficial.
Let’s look at some examples of the Bible speaking positively
about death. Those kings of Israel who remained faithful unto death are said to
have been “gathered to their fathers” when they died. Being gathered
with those who have died in the faith is a very warm and happy thought.
Psalm 116 says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of his saints.” Psalm 49 says, “But God will redeem my soul from
the power of the grave, for he shall receive me.” Job says, “I know that
my Redeemer lives, and at the last he shall stand on the earth. After my skin
has thus been destroyed, nevertheless, I will see God. My eyes shall see him,
and not another.”
So also, Paul, in the New Testament, says, “To live is
Christ, but to die is gain. If I live on in the flesh this will mean fruit from
my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between
the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”
Death is something that is good, because the Christian departs to be with
Christ.
So the Bible speaks negatively and positively about death.
Someone might think that the Bible is simply contradictory. But that is not the case. As we’ve already
mentioned, whether death is negative or positive has to do with a person’s
relationship with God. Thus death being negative or positive also corresponds
to the distinction between Law and Gospel.
Death, according to the Law, is a dreadful punishment. The
only thing that is worse than death is hell, which is spoken of as a second
death, or an eternal death. Death, however, is also something that is overcome
by the Gospel. Death as punishment, death as God’s wrath, has been done away
with by Christ’s death and resurrection. These most horrifying aspects of death
were placed on God’s beloved Son and were carried out completely in him. It’s
no longer death with a capital D. All that is absolutely terrifying and
horrifying about death—namely, that along with everything else, death is also
God’s wrath and punishment—has been purged from death. This changes its
character to the point where we can speak of it as being a sleep.
It is one of those good sleeps. When a body is good and
tired and lays down, it feels good to rest. If it is a good sleep, the next
thing a person knows is that it is morning. The sun is shining. You’re well
rested and ready to get up and live.
That is how a good sleep of death in Jesus’s name will be.
We die tired and sluggish. We die sinful and unclean. In this life those things
that we want to do we do not end up doing. Those things that we don’t want to
do are the very things we end up doing. It is not just our bodies growing old,
tired, and weak. Our souls, also, grow weak and hard and brittle. It’s time for
a rest.
When we awaken in heaven from having fallen asleep in death,
and when we awaken with the resurrection, everything is changed. The old has
passed away. Behold, the new has come. Our bodies will be renewed. Our souls
will be renewed. All the sluggishness, boredom, apathy, and bitterness will be
gone. All our natural and sinful blindness and deafness towards God will be
healed. We will see and hear and know God like we never have before, because
sin will no longer get in the way of that anymore.
In our first reading today, from Revelation, the Apostle
John is given a view of heaven. What is heaven like? He tells you: There’s a
multitude of people there from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They
are standing before the throne of God and before the Lamb. They are clothed
with white robes and with palm branches in their hands. They call out with a
loud voice (I wonder what that voice of millions might sound like?) They say: “Salvation
comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb!”
Then all the angels, and there are four living creatures,
and the elders fall on their faces before the throne and before the Lamb. They
burst out from their innermost being: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanks and honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever!
Amen!”
Adam and Eve are among that number. Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob are among that number. Moses is among that number. David is among that
number. Mary is among that number. Peter and the twelve are among that number.
Paul is among that number. If your loved ones have remained faithful until
death, then they are among that number too: Grandma, Grandpa, aunts, uncles,
mom, dad, brothers, sisters.
But let’s be on guard here so that sentimentality does not lead
us astray. We will not go to heaven to worship and commune with our fellow
human beings, no matter how much we have loved them, but with our God, with
Jesus. We will love each other like we have never been able to before, but only
because we love God more.
Death (or how it should really be thought of among
Christians: falling asleep in Jesus’s name) is the way that we will enter into
this reality unless Jesus comes back while we are still alive. Entering into
this life, this healing, this whole-hearted worship makes it obvious why the
Bible can speak positively about death. It is positive, because death is no
longer really death. Jesus has made it so by defeating it. He knocked the
stuffing out of it, you might say, so that it is hardly a shell of its former
self.
We must be crystal clear, though, about to whom this
applies. It doesn’t apply to everyone. Jesus has defeated death for everyone.
He has made full atonement for everyone’s sins. Everyone is forgiven. But not
everyone believes. Jesus says, “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be
saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
There is a very strong compulsion in us to absolve everyone
who dies. Nobody wants to think of others going to hell. We certainly don’t
want to think of that for those whom we love. And so we are tempted to say of
everyone who has died that they are now in a better place. That’s not true for
those who do not hold fast to Jesus the only Savior. They are not in a better
place, but in a worse place, and time of grace has passed away.
It is also not the case that only a tiny fraction of people
fail to enter heaven and end up in hell. Jesus was quite clear about this. “Narrow
is the gate and hard is the way that leads to eternal life, and few there are
who find it. Broad is the gate and easy is the way that leads to destruction,
and many enter therein.” So we should not think that it is uncommon for
someone to fail to enter heaven. This is especially true in our society where
God is turning us over to our desires. Few can be troubled to hear God’s Word.
Few can be troubled to receive the Sacrament that is the remembrance of
Christ’s death. Outside of Christ, death remains the horrible, terrifying thing
that it always has been. It is God’s punishment. In Christ, death is the door
to everlasting life.
This shows how important faith in Christ is, and how
important the Gospel and the Sacraments are. If all dogs go to heaven and
everybody ends up in a better place regardless of the Son of God, then who is
Christ and what has he done? It is a denial of Christ to say that everyone goes
to heaven. Then he would not be a Savior. The prophets and the apostles would
all be liars. God, if he is even acknowledged at all, would be entirely
different from the one that is revealed to us in the Bible. This is absolutely
intolerable and furthers what is number one on devil’s agenda—that people
should not believe in Jesus. But this is precisely what we are doing if we do
not distinguish between those who die with faith in Christ and those who do
not.
Standing up for faith in Christ in order to have a blessed
death will not make you very popular, but Jesus wasn’t very popular either. He
told us beforehand that if we are his disciples, we shouldn’t be surprised if
we are treated like our master was.
Instead of denying Christ, we should confess him. We have a
simple message to tell. No human being can be justified before God. All have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Anybody who hopes to have a good
relationship with God apart from God’s own reconciliation and atonement in
Christ will be horribly surprised and defeated.
But God sent his Son for all people and every individual.
All who are weary and heavy laden should come unto Jesus and he will give them
rest. Whoever believes in him will be saved. Jesus himself says, “God loved
the world in this way, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not sent
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved
through him.” Jesus is powerful to save. Whoever puts their trust in him
will not be put to shame.
[Over the past year, Linda Meyer has departed to be with the
Lord. Blessed be her memory.]
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