C, Commemoration of All Saints - Rev 14:12-13, Lk 6:20-26, Eph 1:11-14 "When Death Looms Large"
At this time all peripheral issues are moved off the
table. We think about our loss, and we
ask ourselves, “What has become of our dearly departed loved one?”
This can be a time of great grief and great joy, all mixed
together into one. Sadness and loss blended
with remembrance and joy!
Amongst the confusion of emotion, questions of, “Why? How?
Where? What?” all sit unanswered
as the reality of life and death looms large, pushing all other things off the
agenda.
At some point during our search for answers to questions
about life and death we ponder our own mortal reality, the hidden reality of
the future. What will happen to me? What will my death look like?
This reality bears too much for some to consider. The inability to control one’s future
reality, sends them scurrying back into their peripheral world, away from what
they cannot control.
Are you one of those who hides in the busyness of
day-to-day distractions, controlling things and others, working so you don’t
think about your mortality? Busying yourself,
trying to forget you’re just a mere blip in a sea of eternal something?
When life and death issues loom large in the face of one’s
transience, one’s transitory human state, some are led to ponder things
transcendent, spiritual, and the like.
Knowing control is not an option once death arrives, some turn to the
greatness of someone or something else.
Within Christendom, that someone or something else is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Sent by God the
Father, he entered humanity’s culture of death—your blip, your reality, your
uncontrollable deadly state—to bring an eternity of light and life.
Have you ever found yourself asking, “Will I go to heaven? Is there really a heaven and a hell? Is God real?
Is Jesus the Son of God or is he just a person who claimed to be ‘the
Son of God’? Should I take back control
and turn away from God’s promises? That
is, if God is real, and, if his promises are really true?”
For some, the transcendence of God’s love, seems too much
for them, since the mere blip of their transient reality seems too small,
unimportant, or dark, for God to shine the greatness of his love on them.
All at some time struggle with some sort of thoughts and
feelings like these.
As God’s children we should expect this kind of testing. Why?
Because we are told to expect all sorts of trials and tribulations that
tempt us as they did Jesus.
In fact, Jesus told his disciples, and he says to you, “Blessed
are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you
shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who
weep now, for you shall laugh. “Blessed
are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn
your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for
behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the
prophets.” (Luke 6:20–23 ESV)
But with this Jesus also warns his disciples and us who
chase after peripheral things and not the kingdom of God, saying, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have
received your consolation. “Woe to you
who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you
shall mourn and weep. “Woe to you, when
all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:24–26 ESV)
So, hearing the blessings and woes, one is tempted to use
their own knowledge to decide where they stand, “blessed or cursed”. But Jesus spoke the beatitudes and the woes
for a greater purpose. He seeks to
propel you to the cross, to his cross, to your cross of death, to not only seek
his kingdom and his righteousness, but to believe it and receive it too.
In seeing one’s good name, laughter, fullness, and
richness, one will also see the reality of one’s poverty, hunger, tears, and
rejection. A knowledge of one’s
blessings and curses, goods and evil, must give way to seeking a knowledge of
Jesus Christ, if we are to have any hope of going to heaven.
With his word, Jesus leads us from a knowledge of ourselves
to a knowledge of himself, exchanging our cross of death and destruction, with
his cross of death and resurrection.
As we ponder our brief transient life here on earth, in the
reality of God’s transcendence over all things, God calls us to endure. But not to endure in the temporary peripheral
things of death. Rather, he sends the
Holy Spirit to lead us to his eternal word and revive us in what he promises us in it.
John relates to us in Revelation what God’s will is for us,
saying, “Here is a call for the endurance
of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying,
“Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed
indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labours, for their
deeds follow them!” (Revelation 14:12–13 ESV alt)
Here there is a “yes” from the Holy Spirit who concurs,
that dying to the self, and resting in Jesus’ faithfulness, is the best good
work which he produces within.
Paul also calls the Ephesians, and us, to see that our
destination is a preordained inheritance sealed by the Holy Spirit, who leads
us to hope in Jesus. Saying…
In him we have
obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of
him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in
Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until
we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11–23 ESV)
At times when death looms large, let the Holy Spirit lead
you to hear the word of truth. Let the
Holy Spirit clear all the peripheral issues off the table and impress on you
the guarantee of your inheritance with all who have been hallowed, with all the
saints. Amen.
