Death has been a reality for everyone who ever walked the earth except for Enoch (Genesis 5:24). Unless the Lord chooses to return in the meantime, death will be a reality for everyone reading this lesson and everyone sitting in our classes on Sunday.
The harsher reality may not be our own death but instead may be the deaths of those close to us. Our parents will die. Our family members and our friends will die. We may even live to see our children die. Some will die “naturally.” Others will die in accidents, in natural disasters, as a result of disease, at their own hand or as a result of foul play. Everyone will die unless the Lord comes back first.
To ignore the issue of death is to omit from our church life something that literally affects every one of us.
John 11:17-26
Jesus had to face the death of friends close to him just as we do. In this case, the friend was Lazarus. Jesus was moved by the death of his friend to the point of weeping (v. 35). That the divine Jesus knew how the Father would move in this situation did not prevent the human Jesus from missing his friend and mourning his passing.
Even through his tears, Jesus’ immediate reaction to the death of his friend was a certain hope. “Your brother will rise again. … I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (vv. 23, 25-26). In the midst of human emotion, Jesus’ own faith was real and sustaining.
Similarly, our faith is sustaining. There certainly are some circumstances that often surround death—especially when much suffering and pain have been involved or when the one who died was young—that prompt any number of questions among the faithful. Whether or not those questions are asked or should be asked, we can all rally around the substance of Jesus’ words to Martha—Christ is the resurrection and the life, and the faithful, though they have died, will live. In an eternal sense, no Christians ever will die.
This is not whistling past the graveyard. This is an eternal view of reality. European theologian Peter Kuzmic says that “hope is the ability to hear the music of the future” and “faith is the courage to dance to it today.” We face death, a caesura in the temporary movement of our life, because we hear and know the end of the symphony. We do not wish, guess or predict—we hear the music and we act based on what we know.
Romans 8:38-39
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The hope continues in this marvelous doxology from the Apostle Paul. If nothing—not even death—can separate us from the love of God, then we have nothing to fear from the ultimate. Yes, there can be pain along the way. And yes, we will be saddened by the loss of those whom we love. Ultimately, however, the love of God sustains us—whether we are the one who dies or the one who loses a friend or family member.
The secret to this hope, of course, is our imminent resurrection. Our bodies die; our souls live. These houses that age and ache and cannot carry us fast enough will give way to unimaginable forms that God has planned for us. These spiritual “bodies” are what Paul calls “imperishable.” Understanding that we will be resurrected means we know death is not final.
As we moved from the womb to this life through a then-unthinkable event called birth, so too will we move to our next, final, glorious stage through an event called death. It is this understanding that brings Paul to his marvelous declaration about the futility of death—it has no final sting. The last say belongs to God (1 Corinthians 15:51-57).
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
The truth of resurrection is a source of encouragement. The “whens” and “wheres” and “hows” are beyond us. We can know that God created humanity out of nothing, but that does not mean we can detail how it was done. Similarly, while we can debate how this transition from today to eternity will happen and we can disagree over where we will first see each other, we can joyfully agree that indeed we will join together in the resurrection of the saints. We encourage one another.
The words shared at a loved one’s death are not always easy. This lesson does not mean the uneasiness will go away, for separation is inherently painful. What this lesson does provide, however, is a reminder of the words that must be a part of how we encourage one another. Christ is the resurrection and the life, and his children—though they have died in the eyes of this world—will live forever. Nothing can separate us from God’s love. We will be with the Lord forever.
Encourage each other—and yourself—with these words.
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