Hope for the day of your funeral

Sermon for Trinity 16

Deuteronomy 32:39-40  +  Ephesians 3:13-21  +  Luke 7:11-17

There have been some high-profile funerals in the news recently, one for a war hero and senator, the other for a famous singer. If you paid any attention to those funerals, you know that the antics and the eulogies and the speeches that took place there had absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. Those funerals were secular celebrations, even though they bore the stamp of superficial religion.

If you want to know what to expect at a Christian funeral—even at your own funeral someday—the Church’s lectionary provides you each year with a funeral to hear about, to watch, and to learn from. And while in some ways it may not resemble a modern funeral, all the basic elements of a Christian funeral are there: A dead body; grieving acquaintances, friends and relatives; Jesus; and the hope that Jesus gives.

Death had struck—again—in the small town of Nain. That was nothing new. In every town, in every place on earth, death had been striking for some 4,000 years at that point in history. Only two men over the course of those 4,000 years were exempted, for reasons that only God knows: Enoch and Elijah. Otherwise, death was universal and still always tragic. But this time, even more so, because it was a young man, in the prime of his life. We aren’t told how he died. It doesn’t really matter. His soul was torn away from his body; only his dead body now remained.

Even so, his body was cared for, placed lovingly in a casket of some sort and now being carried out of town for a proper burial. Why? Because his body still mattered. That was the body that God knit together in the womb of the young man’s mother, the body that God had provided for and cared for until it was time for the curse on our race to be satisfied, the body that God had brought into the people of Israel through the sacrament of circumcision. His body was being returned reverently to the earth by his grieving acquaintances, friends and relatives, not dumped in trash heap or scattered to the wind.

The saddest person there by far was his grieving mother. She had faced the curse of death many times over. Her parents were almost surely dead. Her husband had died. And now she was also childless—destitute and alone.

So we have a dead body. We have grieving acquaintances, friends, and one relative. But we also have Jesus at this funeral. The timing of His arrival at the gates of Nain was no accident. He planned to be there. It says in the Gospel that, when He saw the widow, He had compassion on her. Take those words to heart. Even though all the suffering and death in this world is part of God’s curse on our race because of the sin of our entire race, God doesn’t rejoice in it, nor is He apathetic or unconcerned about it. He says through the prophet Ezekiel, I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies. And that, He says about the wicked! About the righteous, about the believer He says, Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints. Precious—not because He rejoices in their death, but because their death matters to Him. It has value in His sight.

Now, as Jesus approaches the grieving widow, consider first what He doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “You know, you really shouldn’t be sad. Your son is in a better place! Don’t you know that? You shouldn’t be crying! You should be happy!” No, He doesn’t say that. Nowhere in Scripture is death treated as an occasion for joyful celebration. Nowhere is it treated as a “celebration of so-and-so’s life.” Nowhere. It’s not a celebration of the person’s life. It’s a time for grief and mourning, because death is still our enemy, not our friend.

What else does Jesus not say? He doesn’t list the sins of the young man. Death itself is very often the strongest preaching of the Law, at least to those who know the Law. We know that we’re sinners who deserve only God’s wrath and punishment. To those who don’t know that, it’s necessary to explain briefly the cause of the death, which is why you’ll often hear me say a sentence or two at a funeral about the unworthiness of the deceased. “So-and-so was a good person, but not good enough.”

What else does Jesus not say? He doesn’t explain to the widow the reasons why God took her son when He did. God practically never explains His actions. We may ask the question, “Why?”, at the death of a loved one, but we aren’t given any specific answers, nor are we expected to figure them out for ourselves. We don’t have to know why.

What we do have to know is what Jesus did say to the grieving widow. He simply said, Do not weep. Now, understand, there’s a certain sense to the Greek phrase that doesn’t come through in that translation. Not, “Do not ever weep,” but, “Weep no longer.” As St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. It’s fine to sorrow. It’s fine to weep. But not as those who have no hope.

Why? Because Jesus is there. And because of what Jesus is going to do. He is going to wake up the sleeper. He is going to raise the dead. That truth lies at the heart of the Christian religion. It’s the whole point, actually, as St. Paul reminds the Corinthians. Everything in this life is leading up to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come for all who believe in Christ.

But that can’t happen, as Paul also reminds the Corinthians, unless there is a sacrifice for our sins, unless the innocent Son of Man tastes death in our place and rises again. He’s done that. It’s over. He tasted death and defeated it, and now He has become, as St Paul writes, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

He speaks to the dead young man. Young man, I say to you, arise. And he did. And Jesus presented him to his mother. He ended the cause for her grief right then and there.

As you know, Jesus doesn’t do that for most people. He doesn’t raise the dead immediately. But He will do it, and He wants us all to remember that, in another way—the most important way—He has already done it for every believer.

Jesus says in John 5, Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.

You will hear at a Christian funeral how Jesus stepped into the life of a sinner, how He sent His Holy Spirit to call him or her by the Gospel and to bring that soul to repentance and faith in Him. You will hear how Jesus reached into that person’s life and baptized him or baptized her and gave them eternal life even here and now. You will hear how He sustained their life through the preaching of the Gospel and through the Sacrament of His body and blood.

And then you will hear Jesus’ promise: The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. And since a Christian funeral is for a Christian, for one who has received the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life already in this life, you have the assurance from Jesus that this person will experience the resurrection of life, not of condemnation. Even though they died for a little while, they will hear Jesus’ voice at the Last Day and live forever.

We see just a shadow of that great resurrection in the raising of the young man of Nain. Until the Last Day, death still surrounds us and touches us Christians, although not as harshly and certainly not as permanently as before. As Paul writes, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

Until then, we will continue to have funerals—Christians funerals, where there is still a dead body, where there are still grieving acquaintances, friends and relatives, but where Jesus also is, as He promises, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” He speaks through the ministers whom He has sent, with compassion for the grieving, and with a message of sure hope, a message that conveys the Holy Spirit of God to strengthen the weak, to comfort those who mourn, to convict the sinner and to kindle faith in the hearts of those who hear.

So know what to expect at a Christian funeral, whether it’s your own or of a fellow Christian. It won’t be a time for a eulogy, nor the time for much reminiscing, nor the time for frivolity. We will not be focusing on your favorite song or your favorite sports team or your favorite pastime. We will focus on the reality of death and on the reality of the grief that surrounds it. But Jesus will be there, too, and so we will focus on the sure hope of victory that Christ has given to all who believe. Amen.