We are dealing with death these days. In fact, we always have, but the numbers in recent years have been noticeably different. I hear this too from my friends who work at funeral homes. What happens to people when they die? One friend of mine believes when he dies that will be the end. There will be nothing after that for him. I always tell him, “If we live like there is no God, we had better be right.” He is not correct in his calculations. Still others in our world think they will come back through reincarnation into another life-form. The scriptures disagree, teaching we will die one time and then face God. What do Christians believe?
After Paul started a church in Thessalonica, some of the believers there passed away. The Greek culture did not believe in resurrection so this was especially troubling to these gentile believers. Where were there loved ones? How should they feel? Paul starts by reminding them that they are in a family. His information will not keep them from grieving but it will give them hope.
The basis of Christian hope is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our Savior found his way out of the grave. This uniquely qualifies him to raise our bodies back to life. When he returns he will raise the bodies of those who have fallen asleep. Christ himself will return, loudly. There will be a loud command, the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God. Jesus will literally wake the dead. As a result, the bodies of the dead will rise and be reunited with their spirits. Then those who are alive will be caught up with him in the air. We will always be with the Lord. So we encourage each other with these words.
The poet John Donne lived in a time of pandemic, too. He wrote a poem which defies death to do its worst. Do you know it? “Death be not proud tho some have named thee mighty and dreadful for thou art not so.” Donne ends the poem with these words, “The ones thou thinkst thou dost overthrow die not poor death. Nor yet canst thou kill me. . . . One short sleep past, we wake eternally. Death shall be no more. Death, thou shalt die.”
Death is not the end for believers. Absent from our bodies we are present with the Lord. Those who have gone ahead wait for the moment when Christ returns and we are reunited with them. This does not keep us from grieving. But it does give us hope. So we live in that hope. Someday we will leave the land of the dying to live forever in the land of the living. Hold on to this hope.
