Bringing life out of
death – you could say that’s God’s specialty. Through the death
of His Son Jesus Christ, God brought life to those dead in
trespass and sin. Jesus went into the grave to bring us up out
of the grave, restore us to God, and make us live eternally as
God’s own children. Death no longer has any ultimate hold on
us, because by His death and resurrection our Savior Jesus
Christ demolished the prison house of death.
And yet, despite all
that, people still die, don’t they. And not just people in the
abstract, but Christians still die. And not just Christians in
the abstract, but Christians you know and love die. Death comes
to all people because all have sinned. Even you. Even me. Sin
pays its wages, and those wages are more than sufficient to buy
each of us a grave plot, a headstone, a casket, and cover the fees
for a funeral home’s services.
The saying goes that
there’s nothing certain but death and taxes. If I had to bet on
which is more certain, my money would be on death, because it’s
been around a lot longer than the tax man has. Death swallows up
the tax man too, because he too, like us, is a sinner. That’s all
it takes to die – one sin. Adam’s sin, of course – that got the
ball rolling – but our sin too. Behold, I was brought forth
in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Because the curse of Adam’s sin has fallen on each one of us, the
alarm clock starts ticking down at the moment of our conception.
And who knows when the bell will sound?
When you’re young, death
seems almost hypothetical – theoretically true, but with no real
bearing on your daily existence. Ah, just wait a few years, and
the hypothetical becomes possible, the theoretical becomes actual,
that which was distant draws near, until one day, as an old
English prayerbook says – Look not so high, low you must lie.
No silver or gold, from death can you hold. That’s true for
rich and poor alike. It’s true for the powerful and the lowly,
the famous and the nobodies, the intellectually gifted and the
intellectually challenged. There are no exceptions.
Not even our Lord Jesus
Christ was granted an exception. He too died. As God Incarnate
Jesus is entirely without sin, and yet He still died on account of
sin. But the sin He died on the Cross for wasn’t His. It was for
our sin, the sin of every son and daughter of Adam, that Jesus
died. It was our death He died. You could think of it this way –
every murder, every lie, every rape or adultery, every act of
thievery, every blasphemy -- it all became Jesus’ on the Cross.
He bore the guilt of all these sins just as though He was the
murderer, He was the liar, the rapist, the adulterer, the thief
and the blasphemer. On the Cross He bore the penalty of all sins
– death! – in order to take the guilt of sin away.
So now, when we die, the
Jesus who died for us is with us in our death. In the Intensive
Care unit of the hospital where a saint quietly slips away – there
is Jesus and His Cross. On the highway where a young person’s
life is snuffed out in a horrendous car crash – there is Jesus and
His Cross. In the family home, where the head of the household
collapses suddenly with cardiac arrest – there is Jesus and His
Cross. In Iraq where the young soldier is cut down by a hailstorm
of bullets – there is Jesus and His Cross.
How can this be? How
can we be sure that Jesus is with us in our death? Well, if
you’re a Christian, you can be absolutely sure. Do you not
know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by
Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness
of life. That’s Romans 6. That’s the promise of our
Baptism, that it unites us to Jesus’ death on the Cross for the
world’s sins.
And this union with
Jesus is an everlasting union. Trouble can’t erase it. Death
can’t break it. I have loved you with an everlasting love,
God tells His people; therefore I have continued my
faithfulness to you. Everlasting means that not even
death can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus. In
the death of Christ God’s love for the world is on prominent
display. And through our death we enter into the fullness of
God’s love forever.
Listen again to these
words from today’s epistle reading:
Now we know that
if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building
from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly
dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found
naked. For while we live in this tent, we groan and are burdened,
because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our
heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by
life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has
given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
What is this “earthly
tent” Paul refers to? He’s talking about our earthly body, a body
susceptible to sickness, accident, disease, the ravages of time,
and death. A tent isn’t a permanent dwelling place, is it? It
leaks in a heavy rain. It can be blown down by a strong wind.
It’s bleached by the sun, mildewed by dampness, and eventually
deteriorates and has to be thrown away. Sin has done the same
thing to our present earthly bodies. They don’t last forever
either. They too deteriorate and must be disposed of.
But as Christians we
know that death is not the end. We know that thanks to our Lord
Jesus Christ, when this earthly tent is destroyed we have a
building from God, an eternal house in heaven. We know
that the body that is sown in the grave perishable will one day be
raised up imperishable. We know that as long as we are at home in
our earthly body we are away from the Lord, and that when we are
away from our earthly body we will at last be at home with the
Lord. That is the goal and hope of the holy Christian Faith. To
be at home with Jesus. To be glorified and made like Him in the
perfection of His humanity. To be forever done with sin, trouble,
disease and death because we will then be with the One who makes
all things new, us included.
That is our hope in
Christ. That is what God has promised us who’ve been baptized
into Jesus’ death and resurrection. But we aren’t there yet, are
we? We have not yet arrived. The saints in glory may shine, but
here in this world we feebly struggle, and sometimes the struggle
seems more than we can endure. We groan, Paul
writes in today’s epistle, longing to be clothed with our
heavenly dwelling. While we are in this tent, we
groan and are burdened. Burdened by sin and temptation.
Burdened by sorrow. Burdened by misfortune. Burdened by sickness
and trouble and death.
And so we Christians
groan -- but not in despair. We groan inwardly,
Scripture says, as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons,
the redemption of our bodies. We groan in hope, knowing
that though we have trouble in this world, we can still be of good
cheer, because Christ our Savior has overcome the world. He
overcame sin by His Cross. He overcame the wrath of God by
bearing the judgment our sins deserved. He overcame death by His
resurrection on the third day. The strife is o’er, the battle
done. Now is the Victor’s triumph won. And by the grace of
God through our Baptism into Christ’s Easter triumph, we share in
His victory.
When you’re hurting,
groaning is appropriate. When you wake up in the middle of the
night with the pain of an abscessed tooth knifing through your
jaw, groaning is an appropriate thing to do. And when the
troubles, sorrows, sickness, and death that are everywhere in this
ruined and fallen world come upon you, groaning is appropriate.
When you groan as a Christian, it shows you’re looking forward to
the new heavens and the new earth that await all who are in
Christ. It shows you want to be fully, completely and finally
home with the Lord. It shows you can’t wait for God to wipe away
every tear out of your eye and make you completely new and perfect
for Jesus’ sake.
And so we groan in hope
awaiting better things to come. We groan in hope knowing that
Christ our crucified, resurrected Savior has won the victory for
us, and through the Gospel shares that victory with us. We groan
in hope for we are baptized. We groan in hope for Jesus gives us
His Body and Blood, the medicine of immortality, to eat and drink
as a foretaste of the heavenly banquet to come. And we live out
our lives in this world as God’s redeemed people in Christ, making
it our goal to please Him. Because we have hope, don’t we? We
have hope because we have Jesus!
And today, Jesus comes
to you in His Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. To
you, Tom, and to you, Lina, as you’re admitted into communicant
membership in this congregation. To you who confess the Faith
confessed at this Altar Jesus gives His Body and Blood offered up
on the Cross for the remission of all your sins. So that no
matter what you face in this world, no matter what hard blows you
endure and struggles you pass through, you can do it in hope and
confidence, because your Savior Jesus Christ has overcome this
world. He has overcome it for you. And in Him, you will overcome
it too.
In Nomine Patris. . .
