Believe and you will see the glory of God.

 

O Lord, we are gathered in sorrow, yet not as those who have no hope.  We thank You for all the blessings bestowed on our brother, now fallen asleep and for all the blessings given through him.  But most of all, we thank You for making him Your dear child by faith in Jesus Christ.  Give us to have that same trust in Jesus always.  We ask this all in Christ’s holy name.  Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

For our words of comfort, we read of Jesus’ love in the Gospel of John 11:28-44

          After she said this, Martha went back to call her sister Mary.  She whispered, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”  ²⁹When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.  ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet gone into the village, but was still where Martha met him.  ³¹The Jews who were with Mary in the house consoling her saw that she got up quickly and left.  So they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to weep there.  ³²When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  ³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled.  ³⁴He asked, “Where have you laid him?”  They told him, “Lord, come and see.”  ³⁵Jesus wept.  ³⁶Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”  ³⁷But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”  ³⁸Jesus was deeply moved again as he came to the tomb.  It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.  ³⁹“Take away the stone,” he said.  Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, because it has been four days.”  ⁴⁰Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”  ⁴¹So they took away the stone.  Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me.  ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”  ⁴³After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”  ⁴⁴The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth.  Jesus told them, “Loose him and let him go.” (EHV)

Believe and you will see the glory of God.

Dear friends of Jim Munson, and especially you, his family: Sandra, Jeremy, Josh and Jill, Jason and Kristina, Sadie and Joe, Mother Phyllis, grandchildren and spouses, great-grandchildren, and all the rest of your family,

The wisest man who ever lived tells us that there is a time to live and a time to die, a time to weep and a time to rejoice.  The odd thing is that all four of these things come together in a funeral.  For those of us still living, who have known Jim and will miss him, for those of you who were so intimately connected with him, this moment feels exceedingly painful.  At the same time, through our tears but knowing that Jim believed in Jesus as his Savior, we are just as exceedingly joyful that Jesus has now welcomed Jim into the glory of eternal life in heaven.

It is thought that King Solomon wrote the words of Ecclesiastes toward the end of his life as he came to realize that no matter how fabulous or how horrible things seemed in this life, whether rich or poor, powerful or oppressed, life does come to an end and we have no ability to change that.  In much of the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, who had lived in luxury beyond imagination and with great power in his position, sounds a little depressed.  The truth is, however, that Solomon came to realize that there is something so much greater than anything life in this broken world could offer.

Now, in our text from John’s gospel, we are presented with the account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  Here, we see the full gamut of life.  A brother loved by his sisters, surrounded by a host of consoling friends, and a Lord who is far more powerful than they at the time realized.  And though we meet a host of the living and grieving, we meet death, and we are reminded that death is the way of the world.  Because sin entered our world, we all are subject to death and to its terror.

We see both Mary and Martha react in the same way when Jesus came to their mourning; they accused Jesus of failing them.  Both said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Perhaps, more than a few of us have felt the same way; if God had intervened, we wouldn’t be here this morning.  The reality, though, is that Jesus stayed away when the sisters first sent messengers to Him asking for Jesus to come and heal Lazarus.  Jesus stayed away because His Father had a greater purpose for Lazarus’s death.  Jesus stayed away until Lazarus was dead so that the disciples and the world could see that Jesus has power over death.  That would be shown most clearly when Jesus rose from the grave after His own death on the cross, but here we see that Jesus has the power to raise us, too, and to fulfil what He told Martha, Believe and you will see the glory of God.

Solomon tells us that there is a time and place for everything under the sun.  Mary and Martha thought Jesus should have taken the time to come and heal their brother.  It is common for us to pray that God intervene to heal our loved ones, and believe me, many have been praying for Jim to be healed.  However, everything must happen according to God’s time and decision for indeed God is both the Giver of life, and the God who calls us out of this life.

Now, that doesn’t mean we can know why God didn’t intervene in Jim’s illness and give us what we would call a positive answer to our prayers.  I can only tell you the reason for Lazarus’s death because the Bible gives us that information.  At the same time, I can promise you that God truly did answer our prayers by taking Jim out of this world of sorrow and pain so that, fully restored in body and soul, he may dwell in the glory and peace of heaven.  Through the prophet, Isaiah, God declares, “The righteous one perishes, but no one takes it to heart.  Men of mercy are being taken away, but no one understands that the righteous one is being spared from evil.  He will enter into peace.  They will rest on their beds.  He is walking in his uprightness.” (Isaiah 57:1-2)

This is the Christian faith and the trust the Holy Spirit had worked in Jim through baptism and the hearing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Bible tells us that we are all sinners who need a Savior.  Our experience in life tells us the same thing.  Every death is a demonstration that evil entered our world and brought us under the condemnation of the law and the bands of death.

Now some, in the midst of this pain, might surmise that God doesn’t care about us.  That simply isn’t true.  In fact, the Bible says, “Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His saints.” (Psalm 116:15)  We see that in our text in the reaction Jesus had to Lazarus’s death and the pain it caused His friends.  “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled.”  Death troubled Jesus, and in fact, stirred up some anger in His belly.  Jesus hated death and the trouble and sorrow it causes us, just as He hated sin and the devil’s accusations that so torment us.  Thus, “Jesus wept.”  He wept for the grief of the mourners.  Jesus wept because He felt the pain of their loss.  He wept because He loves us.  Therefore, Believe and you will see the glory of God.

In Jesus’ emotions that day, we also see how urgently Jesus desired to fulfill the main purpose of the Bible which is to show us our Savior—A Redeemer sent by God to rescue us from the chains of the deceiver who led mankind astray in the beginning and accuses God of being our enemy.  You see, as Solomon said, there is a time for everything under the sun, and at the appropriate time according to God’s plan, God sent His Son into the world to live perfect holiness on our behalf, but then also, to take upon His completely innocent and perfect self, the guilt and shame and condemnation for all of our sins, for Jim’s sins, and for the sins of the world.  Bearing all the guilt of the human race, Jesus made Himself the ultimate sacrifice that would set us free from the curse of sin and the devil’s control.  Therefore, because our just condemnation has been accomplished in Jesus’ death, God now counts everyone who believes in Jesus as righteous.

Because Jesus died on a cross to pay for Jim’s sins, and because Jesus rose triumphantly from the grave victorious over the devil and death, we can now have full confidence that because Jim believed in Jesus as his Savior, he now sees the glory of God.  Never again will Jim suffer pain, or sorrow, or illness.  Never again will sin trouble him.  And likewise, because almost no one leaves this troubled world without going through death, not even Jesus, there will come a day, when you and I who also believe in Jesus will be taken out of this cruel world and when we see Jim in heaven, it will be to him as though not a moment has passed. 

The people in our gospel account, including Lazarus, eventually had to face death.  Though Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead that day, it wasn’t the end of his story on earth.  Though the Bible doesn’t tell us the story of the rest of their earthly lives, or how they died, it does proclaim the future story for each believer in Jesus.  Jesus declared, “The Father loves the Son and has put everything in his hands.  The one who believes in the Son has eternal life.” (John 3:35-36)  Jesus also promised His followers, “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. … Because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:18-19)

God’s Word also confirms for us that physical death is not the end, for we too will be raised from the dead for life everlasting.  Just as Jesus commanded, “Lazarus, come out!”  And, the man who had died came out.”  Likewise, the Holy Spirit tells us through the writing of St. Paul, that on the last day, “The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)  In that moment on Judgment Day, all those who died in Jesus will be raised from the dead, fully restored and glorified, and the bands of death will be removed forever.

My friends, today we mourn the passing of a loved one and friend.  Today, our eyes may be wet with tears, but the day is coming when, just as Jim is now enjoying the peace of heaven, so we too will experience personally the salvation of our Lord Jesus forever.  At that time which only God knows, we will experience what Jim now sees, just as John excitedly reported in his Revelation, “Look!  God’s dwelling is with people.  He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.  God himself will be with them, and he will be their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain, because the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)

Toward the end of his life, the apostle, John, was given a vision of our place in glory.  He reported,

After these things I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing in front of the throne and of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and with palm branches in their hands.  They called out with a loud voice and said: “Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb.”  All the angels stood around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures.  They fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying: “Amen.  Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever.  Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12)

In light of all the promises we are given by God, who gave His Son into death and resurrection so that we might live, we confidently say, Believe and you will see the glory of God.  Amen.

The peace of God, established and won for you and for all by the sacrifice of God’s own precious Son, be with you always to the very end of the age.  Amen.