Living With Death In the Light of Resurrection

A prerequisite of resurrection is death; it’s simply unavoidable. But there doesn’t seem to be any subject that the world is more interested in avoiding than death. The Church has a compelling tale to tell about death, resurrection, and the life everlasting. One person that has done a commendable job of capturing the imagination of the world with the Christian message on these and other topics is Joanne Rowling. There is a section from one her books...

[Read John 12:1-8]

Prayer for Illumination
Most gracious GOD, our heavenly Father in whom alone dwells all fullness of light and wisdom: Illuminate our minds, we beseech you, by your Holy Spirit, in the true understanding of your Word. Give us grace that we may receive it with reverence and humility unfeigned. May it lead us to trust in you alone; and so to serve and honor you, that we may glorify your holy name, and edify our neighbors by a good example. And since it has pleased you to number us among your people: O help us to pay you the love and homage that we owe, as children to our Father, and as servants to our Lord. We ask this for the sake of our Master and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

[INTRO]
[Read John 12:23-25]

A prerequisite of resurrection is death; it’s simply unavoidable. But there doesn’t seem to be any subject that the world is more interested in avoiding than death. The Church has a compelling tale to tell about death, resurrection, and the life everlasting. One person that has done a commendable job of capturing the imagination of the world with the Christian message on these and other topics is Joanne Rowling. There is a section from one her books that I’d like us to hear this morning because it is useful as we consider death, grief, and resurrection.

Then Hermione’s voice came out of the blackness for the third time, sharp and clear from a few yards away.
“Harry, they’re here…right here.”
And he knew by her tone that it was his mother and father this time: He moved toward her, feeling as if something heavy were pressing on his chest, the same sensation he had had right after Dumbledore had died, a grief that had actually weighed on his heart and lungs.
The headstone was only two rows behind Kendra and Ariana’s. It was made of white marble, just like Dumbledore’s tomb, and this made it easy to read, as it seemed to shine in the dark. Harry did not need to kneel or even approach very close to it to make out the words engraved upon it.

JAMES POTTER
BORN 27 MARCH 1960
DIED 31 OCTOBER 1981
LILY POTTER
BORN 30 JANUARY 1960
DIED 31 OCTOBER 1981

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death
Harry read the words slowly, as though he would have only one chance to take in their meaning, and he read the last of them aloud.
“’The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death’ … ” A horrible thought came to him, and with it a kind of panic. “Isn’t that a Death Eater idea? Why is that there?”
“It doesn’t mean defeating death in the way the Death Eaters mean it, Harry,” said Hermione, her voice gentle. “It means … you know … living beyond death. Living after death.”
But they were not living, thought Harry: They were gone. The empty words could not disguise the fact that his parents’ moldering remains lay beneath snow and stone, indifferent, unknowing. And tears came before he could stop them, boiling hot then instantly freezing on his face, and what was the point in wiping them off or pretending? He let them fall, his lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones now, surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that their living son stood so near, his heart still beating, alive because of their sacrifice and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with them.
Hermione had taken his hand again and was gripping it tightly. He could not look at her, but returned the pressure, now taking deep, sharp gulps of the night air, trying to steady himself, trying to regain control. He should have brought something to give them, and he had not thought of it, and every plant in the graveyard was leafless and frozen. But Hermione raised her wand, moved it in a circle through the air, and a wreath of Christmas roses blossomed before them. Harry caught it and laid it on his parent’s grave. (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, p.327-329.)

Harry is disturbed by the inscription on his parents’ headstone. His friend Hermione, in an effort to comfort him, offers as a vague explanation of the inscription, that it meant living beyond or after death. Harry however finds no comfort in Hermione’s words because it’s obvious that his parents are not living but dead. Ms. Rowling confronts her readers with some very adult themes: death, grief, comfort, life after death, and resurrection. Yes resurrection, even though she never uses the word in the passage. We can be confident that she has this idea in view because we know that she has chosen a quote from the Apostle Paul as the headstone’s inscription. But Paul, unlike Hermione’s vague life-after-death explanation, is very clear that the destruction of death is the resurrection of those who are in Christ. Let’s look back at John’s gospel and notice how he brings out these same themes.

[BODY]
Each of the gospels contains an account of Jesus being anointed with perfume by a woman: Matt. 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, Luke 7:36-39, and the passage we read today from John. Mathew and Mark’s accounts are virtually identical and are clearly parallels to John’s version of the event. Luke’s anointing story has been viewed as a parallel passage to our text by some but there are good reasons to reject that association which we’ll get to in a moment.

Drawing on the accounts of Matthew, Mark and John we can begin to describe some of the details that are common to all the stories. For the moment, we’ll also try to notice details that are present in Matthew and Mark’s accounts that are absent from that of John.

All three writers set their accounts of Jesus’s anointing at a period of time when the Jewish leaders are plotting to seize and kill Jesus. Significant also is that all three mark the timing of the anointing in relation to the approaching Passover. Matthew and Mark (unlike John) reveal that the owner of the home in Bethany in which Jesus is dining is a man named Simon the leper – who we suspect was someone that Jesus had healed. All three of the writers describe a woman anointing Jesus with a large quantity of a costly perfume (Matthew and Mark focus on the perfume being poured on Jesus’s head), and record an indignant claim that it would have been better to sell the ointment and distribute the proceeds to the poor than for the woman to waste it. Mark identifies this objection as arising from “some” in the crowd while Matthew connects the objection to the disciples. Matthew and Mark indicate that this is the event that immediately precedes Judas’s agreement with the Jewish leaders to betray his teacher. Finally, in each of the accounts Jesus explains that by her actions the woman has prepared his body for burial.

Luke’s story is set in the home of an unnamed Pharisee and features a woman known by all to be a sinner. The woman learns of Jesus’s presence in the house, comes in and anoints his feet with her tears and with perfume. The Pharisee views her actions as scandalous because he knows her to be a sinner, and views Jesus as a sham of a prophet because he doesn’t seem to divine the nature of the woman that is touching him.

In response to the Pharisee’s thoughts Jesus addresses the man and we find that the host’s name is also Simon. Jesus tells a story of a moneylender that graciously forgave the debts of two of his debtors, one owing 500 denarii and the other 50, asks Simon which debtor will love the moneylender most, and Simon correctly identifies the one who had the larger debt. Jesus reveals that the woman anointed him because she loves much because she had many sins to be forgiven.

Despite the coincidence that each of the anointing events occurred in the homes of men named Simon and were carried out by women; Luke’s story should be seen as the account of a wholly different event because:
• It lacks any reference to the Passover, plotting on the part of the Jewish rulers, or a charge of waste against the woman from among the dinner guests.
• It doesn’t mention Bethany and instead appears to have happened somewhere in Galilee.
• Jesus’s explanation for the woman’s actions centers on the forgiveness of sins as opposed to preparing his body for burial.

Now we’ll turn back to John’s account of the event and consider what he alone tells us about that night. John reveals that the woman who anoints Jesus’s feet is none other than Mary – the sister of Lazarus and Martha – and that both Lazarus, who was recently raised from the dead by Jesus, and Martha, again busy at work, were present that evening. John describes Lazarus (12:1) as he “whom Jesus had raised from the dead” which immediately causes his readers to recall the story of Lazarus’s death and resurrection. John had opened that episode by reaching forward in time and describing Mary (11:2) as the one “who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair.” So we ought to notice that John has gone out of his way to connect the death and resurrection of Lazarus to the anointing of Jesus by Mary.

John’s account has Mary’s ministrations focused on Jesus’s feet which she anoints and wipes with her hair. Mary’s actions are both tender and extravagant. To comprehend the magnitude of Mary’s gift, imagine a friend spending $10,000-20,000 – just for you - on something that is consumed in almost less time than it took to buy it. We have already noted that Matthew and Mark record that a charge of wastefulness was applied to her actions. John reveals that the charge had its origin in none other than Judas Iscariot. He protests that the perfume should have been sold for 300 denarii with the proceeds going to the poor. Judas’s objection however was not righteous but arose from a wicked, greedy heart. Judas was a thief who was used to lifting the money box and “lifting” its contents as well.

Instead of exposing Judas’s theft and corrupt motives, Jesus explains that Mary has prepared his body for burial. Jesus goes further and places the worthiness of benevolence shown to the dead on par with benevolence shown to the living poor. Christ’s judgment is that “she has done a good deed to Me.”

Our Lord’s response might sound odd to us because it focuses on death. The anointing comes on the heels of God’s glory and power being revealed in the death and resurrection of Lazarus. Why doesn’t Jesus comfort everyone by reminding them of Lazarus’s resurrection? But Jesus doesn’t comfort his friends. Instead he seems to almost callously emphasize that they will not always have him.

Mary’s actions are those of a mourner. If we could step back in time and do Jesus’s neglected job of cheering up his friends, how would we console Mary in her grief? Might it not go something like: “Mary I know you mean well. Yes, Jesus is going to die … he’s going to be buried … but it’s only going to be for three days and three nights. And that body isn’t the ‘real’ Jesus anyway. His spirit can never die and he will be in a better place during the time that he’s gone. Best of all on the third day he is going to rise from the dead so that our sins can be forgiven. Mary, if you look at the big picture you would see that ... well ... that death is not so bad. You don’t need to be grieving at all what we need to do is celebrate.”

Mary, continuing to clutch at the Lord’s feet, looks at us with puffy eyes and just starts crying again. We stand there wanting her to stop hurting and thinking that if she would just really believe what a Christian is supposed to believe about death the pain would go away.

I don’t deny that I have probably exaggerated a lack of sympathy in our consoling of Mary. But at the same time I don’t think it unlikely that in essence something like that guidance will occur at a great many Christian funerals that we could attend throughout this week. I’m concerned that in many cases the treatment that we typically give to death, grief, and resurrection falls consistently short of the comfort we ought to offer to fellow Christians and of the fullness of the gospel that we should proclaim to the world. I would like us to consider that concern by thinking about three questions. First, what is the significance of death for the Christian? Second, should we grieve over the death of other Christians? And third, what is the Christian hope in the face of death?

What is the significance of death for the Christian? I believe the verse Ms. Rowling inscribed on the headstone of James and Lilly Potter’s grave, 1 Corinthians 15:26, is one that we are in sore need of some reflection on. Let’s read that verse in its context: [Read 1 Corinthians 15:20-28]

Sean preached a few weeks ago from the preceding portion of chapter 15 and it’s on this foundation that Paul builds the section we just read. In verse 20 he reaffirms the historical fact of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. He goes on to describe Christ as “the first fruits of those who are asleep.” Jesus was not the first to rise from the dead historically but his resurrection was unlike any that had ever occurred before. All the others, like Lazarus, that had risen from the dead returned with the same type of corruptible body that they had before dying. Jesus was the first of what Martha describes in John 11:24 as “the resurrection on the last day.” His resurrection shows us that in comparison to the “grain of wheat” that “falls into the earth and dies” the fruit brought forth from that death is transformed and glorified. The glorified body is in many ways like the old body. But the new is also very unlike the old in strange and wonderful ways.

Paul tells us that, for those who are Christ’s, the resurrection of the dead will occur at his coming. Then the end – which is Christ’s handing over the kingdom to God the Father – comes. Christ’s coming is the abolishment and subjugation of the last evil power that has arrayed itself against God. The bottom line is that Death is an enemy - an enemy of God and of His Christ and therefore an enemy of those who are Christ’s. We ought to loathe the power called Death just as much as we do the world, the flesh and the Devil.

Because Death is a hostile power set in opposition to God’s sovereignty we ought to see each death as an injustice committed against God Almighty. But how often are we tempted, for example, to be thankful for death’s appearance at the end of a long painful illness? Rather we ought to see it as the final injustice in a long line of injustices. Death is sin’s partner in injustice, not our savior from sin. Our thankfulness ought to be to God who is setting all things right through Christ.

Looking at this from a slightly different slant, we can remember that in Genesis 1:31 God declared on the sixth day that His whole creation was “very good.” When that declaration was given, man was in a living state. How can we ever conclude that man, in either a state of spiritual or physical death, can be considered good?

At the same time the state of death holds no fear for those who are Christ’s. [Read Romans 8:31-39] Our trust is not that death really isn’t that bad – the power Death is horrible – our trust is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing can separate us from Christ’s love and in Christ nothing can separate us from God’s love.

Should we grieve over the death of other Christians? One of our problems in dealing with the grief that comes from death is that we’ve read the end of the story. Jesus doesn’t remain in the clutches of death; he is resurrected from the dead. We combine that with the knowledge that we shouldn’t grieve about the Christian dead “as do the rest who have no hope” and that “to be absent from the body” is “to be at home with the Lord.” We’re then tempted to think that with this knowledge we should be able to plow through grief as if it weren’t there; instead of comfort and grief being in tension we imagine there should only be comfort.

Let’s look back at John chapter 11 for a moment. Jesus has been notified that Lazarus is sick. Jesus intentionally tarries an additional two days where he is at and Lazarus dies. [Read John 11:17-24]

Martha gives a clear, orthodox statement of belief in the resurrection of the dead. She was firmly convinced that her brother would “rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” We also know from Jesus’s story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16 that the expectation for the faithful dead was to be comforted in Abraham’s bosom between death and the resurrection. The Jews in Jesus’s day had the same elements of comfort that we have but they understood that these comforts did not rule out grief. [Read John 11:32-38a]

Because of Lazarus’s death Martha is crying, Mary is crying, the Jews that had come to console them were crying, and … Jesus is crying. Jesus knows the power and glory of God. He knows that the Father has heard his prayer for Lazarus. He has just told Martha that “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” And he knows that he is about to call Lazarus out of the grave in mere moments. Yet He sorrows over the death of his friend. With such a clear example of Jesus sorrowing for his dead friend, how can we do any less when we experience the death of those that are both our friends and the friends of Christ? However we are to understand the comfort offered to us in scripture in the face of death we should not be tempted to suppose that grief is an un-Christian emotion. We just aren’t at liberty to come to a conclusion that overturns the clear words of the Preacher, the son of David: “there is a time for every event under heaven—A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4)

What is the Christian hope in the face of death? If we answer in the words of The Creed we would say “we believe in … the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” However, looking at widespread opinions I have to wonder if this isn’t just a bit of inconsequential trivia for many Christians. If we look at polls on “Christian” religious belief, belief in resurrection, if it’s analyzed at all, centers exclusively on whether or not a person believes in the historical bodily resurrection of Christ. In place of questions about belief in the future bodily resurrection of the saints, or the characteristics of everlasting life, we have questions about belief in the immortality of the soul, and going to heaven when we die. I don’t doubt that as a point of orthodoxy many would affirm that the saints are raised from the dead on the last day. But practically speaking that belief is relegated to the status of irrelevance behind the concern for going to heaven after death.

At the outset of this section I want to affirm my full commitment to Chapter 32 Paragraph 1 of our Confession. From the chapter titled Of the State of Men After Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead:
The bodies of men, after death, return to dust and see corruption: but their souls (which neither die nor sleep) having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God, in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies: and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. Besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.

As we emphasized earlier, for those in Christ nothing can separate us from His or God’s love. The confession’s summary of the scriptural teaching on this point is that the souls of the dead have an “immortal subsistence” and that “the souls of the righteous … are received into the highest heaven.” But the confession also points out that those souls are not in their final state but are “waiting for the full redemption of their bodies.”

The doctrine of the resurrection, both of Christ and His people, is perhaps the centerpiece of the New Testament scriptures. We ought to be bothered about what we’re left with if we’re content to let the resurrection of the saints slip gently off into the night. The near unanimous belief of every pagan that has ever lived is that men have a soul or spirit that continues to exist after death and that this part of a man, depending on the quality of his previous life, enters into either a place of restful pleasure or toiling torment. Every pagan believed in “life after death” as we’ve just described. But as Tom Wright has pointed out, as well as Ms. Rowling through Harry Potter’s protests at his parent’s grave, viewing this as “life” is nothing short of redefining the terms life and death. Besides Christians and Jews no one believes that the dead come back to life. For the pagan, death isn’t the end but it’s definitely a one-way street.

We should be longing for David’s son to destroy this “Philistine” giant named Death that taunts the armies of the living God. But we’ve painted such a soothing and pleasant picture of the state between death and the resurrection that we’ve forgotten God’s intentions for us. His intention is not to let Death do what he will with the body and fill heaven with the rescued disembodied souls of His saints. His intention is for the bodies of His saints to be raised from the dead and made both incorruptible and immortal. His intention is nothing less than the death of Death through Christ Jesus. That is our hope – seeing God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven.

[APPLICATION/CONCLUSION]
After answering our three questions, what should we be encouraged to do? First, hate the power of Death but don’t fear the state of death. Hear John again:
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:15-19.

When you think about death: trust Christ and His love for you, not the supposed harmlessness of Death. You believe in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection; believe God’s word that those things were His love for you and abide in God by abiding in love.

Next, whether you know someone grieving because of death or you are the one that is grieving, comfort and be comforted by one another. Moses tells us in Genesis 24:67 that Isaac was comforted after the death of his mother by Rebekah. Yet none of us wants to be a miserable comforter like Job’s three friends. Nicholas Wolterstorff, a Christian philosopher raised in the Dutch Reformed tradition, had his 25 year old son Eric die in a mountain climbing accident in 1983. Nicholas wrote a book titled Lament for a Son in which he reflected on his tragic loss. Listen to a bit of wisdom from Mr. Wolterstorff’s book on this point:
“Death is awful, demonic. If you think your task as comforter is to tell me that really, all things considered, it’s not so bad, you do not sit with me in my grief but place yourself off in the distance away from me. Over there, you are of no help. What I need to hear from you is that you recognize how painful it is. I need to hear from you that you are with me in my desperation. To comfort me, you have to come close. Come sit beside me on my mourning bench.” (Lament for a Son, p. 34.)

In our Western culture, isolation, whether self-inflicted or at the hands of others, is common for those who grieve. Don’t be tempted to turn away from God’s family in your grief and don’t be tempted to withhold comfort when you know someone is grieving; let’s draw close and share our benches with one another.

Finally, contemplate resurrection. The New Testament writers use the fact of resurrection, both of Christ and of those who are Christ’s, as the foundation for all sorts of instructions about how to live life now. Hear John yet again:
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 1 John 3:2-3

Let’s cultivate a desire to be clothed with a body that is both immortal and incorruptible, put aside our sins, and remember that our glorification is the completion of the Father’s victory through His Son, our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of Consecration
Most gracious God and merciful Father, may those whom You have called by Your grace, and enlightened by the knowledge of Your Word, grow in all goodness, enriched by Your spiritual blessing, so that together we may all worship You with heart and voice, giving honor and homage to Christ, our Master, King and Lawgiver.
Father, grant also that we, who are gathered here in Jesus’ name to hear His Word, may, gladly and with steadfast trust submit to our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior and Redeemer. And may He so live in us that, our old Adam being put to death, we may rise to a new and better life, to the praise and glory of Your name. Amen.

Delivered 4 May, 2008 at Grace Covenant Church of Texarkana, Arkansas