` Life and Death: What It's All About

Life and Death: What It's All About



Life and Death: What It’s All About

As many of you know, my grandmother, Ardis Peperkorn, entered her eternal rest on March 25th this past month.  There are always mixed feelings when it comes to death and the Christian.  On the one hand, I am happy and rejoice that her suffering is over, and that she has gone to be with her Savior.  On the other hand, she has been a part of my life since the day I was born, and my family and I will miss her terribly.

How do we as Christians reconcile these two feelings?  For many, it is inappropriate to show emotion at a funeral, or at the death of a loved one.  There in heaven, what do we have to be sorry about!  The Christian should be happy, defy Satan and rejoice at the death of a loved one.

Now, in one sense this is true.  Death for the Christian holds no power, because Christ is the Easter Victor over death and the grave.  As the hymn puts it,

Triumphant From the Grave,
Rose Jesus Strong to Save
He crushed, O Christian, mark it well
Sin, Satan, Death and Hell
Now Sing your Glad Song
and Joyous praise to Him prolong! (LW #144, v. 1)

But on the other hand, remember when Jesus came to Mary and Martha to find out that their brother, Lazarus, was dead?  What did Jesus do?  Did he berate them for being sad?  Did he tell them to be happy?  No, the text says very simply, Jesus wept (John 11:35).  Remember, this is Jesus.  He knows full well that Lazarus was just about to rise from the dead.  So why did he weep?  The next verse says that the Jews exclaimed, See how he loved him!

This makes it clear that the Christian can and should grieve in the face of the death of a loved one.  It’s okay.  It’s not a sign of weakness or unbelief.  It’s a sign of being human.  And Jesus, in his humanity, shares our griefs and sorrows.  He knows our troubles.  He knows that every death reminds each one of us of our own mortality.  He knows that death is the result of sin, and even though he has taken the sting out of death, it still hurts and smarts, because we are so very human.

My grandmother’s funeral also reminded me of the incredibly important role that the Church plays in the face of death.  The world gets death all wrong.  Death is normal.  Death is a part of life.  Death is just one part in the “circle of life,” as they sang in The Lion King a few years ago.  But this is all wrong.  The wages of sin is death, and even for the Christian, death is a result of sin.  Not some specific thing we did wrong, no.  Death is a result of our sinful nature that clings to us.  But because Christ has won the victory, that is not the end of the story for the Christian.  Death for the Christian becomes the entryway into a new life, an eternal life forever with Jesus and all the saints in heaven.

So how do we as Christians help the world around us, and our closest family and friends interpret death?  The hymns, the music, the sermon, the care we place on the body, a meal after a funeral, all these things can and do point to the resurrection of the dead.  In some ways you could say that all of life is a preparation for death.  Life is a pilgrimage, where we travel from one place to another.  The end of our pilgrimage is heaven, where we join with Jesus and the heavenly host in singing the eternal song of Victory through the Cross.

As we continue our Lenten journey, and look to the victory of Easter, remember that this is the victory of life over death, of God over Satan, and that this victory allows us to look at death aright.  We can both grieve when we lose a loved one, and rejoice that our loved on is now in heaven with Jesus.

+ The Lord be with you +

Pastor Peperkorn

From the April 2000 Messiah’s Messenger
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This page was created on 02/08/2007 and last edited on: 02/08/2007
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