“I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” (I Corinthians 15:50)
Thoughts… I suppose I have conducted close to a hundred funerals as a pastor. I have another one today. And you have been to your fair share of them as well—or you will by the time you reach the end of your journey. Death is simply a part of life. It has been ever since the fall of Adam and Eve when sin entered the human race, and along with it, death.
And the fact of the matter is, you and I will die someday, too, because the last time I checked, the death rate was still hovering around 100%.
But I’ve got to tell you, there is an amazing difference between funerals I’ve conducted for non-believers and memorial services that I’ve led for Christians (I use “funeral” and “memorial” as a very purposeful distinction between the two). And I can sum up the difference in three words: hope, joy and peace.
Funerals don’t have much hope; unbelievers didn’t leave a lot of deep and lasting joy their loved ones that comes out at their death; people don’t leave a funeral service for a non-Christian with much peace—if any at all. I am not saying that a non-Christian didn’t leave good memories. In many cases, they did. They just didn’t leave eternal hope, joy and peace.
To be sure, in a memorial service, there is grief at the loss of a Christian loved-one who has passed on. But there is an amazing and undeniable sense of hope that pervades the atmosphere and sustains those who are grieving. It is the hope that Paul describes in I Corinthians 15 that at the death of a Christian, that dead body is transformed into an eternal, spiritual body. As the wife of the great preacher R. A. Torrey said at the death of their 12 year-old daughter, “I’m so glad Elisabeth is with the Lord, and not in that box.”
There is also a special kind of joy that just doesn’t make sense in the natural. I have often sat in amazement at such a service as songs of praise and gratitude are lifted to the God of all comfort. I’m telling you from a lot of experience, that doesn’t happen at the funeral of a non-Christian. Wailing, not worship fills the air. But at a Christian’s memorial, it is not untypical for worship and wonder to drown out the sounds of death.
And there is a peace that passes all understanding. It is the kind of peace that guards the hearts and minds of those whose lives have been touched by loss. It is peace that is a gift from God, and it makes such a loss endurable. It is the kind of peace that comes from knowing that our gracious God is in control—even in the death of a loved one—and that our God does all things well, and will bring good out of loss and glory out of grief. It is peace that the world cannot give and the world cannot take away. It is the peace of Christ that was purchased through his death and resurrection, deposited by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and will be finally and fully cashed in at our own resurrection.
Yes, there is grief at the loss of a Christian loved one—but it is a good grief. How can that be? One word: Jesus. Sin and death entered the human race because of Adam, Paul says in I Corinthians 15:45-48, but through Jesus’ death and resurrection, life by the Spirit neutralized the power of sin and the sting of death. Thanks be to God for our crucified Lord and resurrected Savior, Jesus. Through him, this Scripture is fulfilled,
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
Prayer… Thanks you God, you have given me victory power sin and victory over death through my Lord Jesus Christ.
One More Thing… “Death stung himself to death when he stung Christ.” —William Romaine
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