I lost a friend this week. Eleven years ago I officiated at her wedding. Four years ago I prayed for her and her husband to have children. God blessed them with two little girls in the last three years. On Facebook I heard she was in ICU. I drove to Conroe on Monday and stood with her husband beside her hospital bed. Yesterday her faith turned to sight.
In Jesus’ day the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. In fact, historians tell us they were disinterested in the supernatural in general. They had reduced their religion to something secular. They still went to the temple, but they denied all the power of God to act in their lives. So they tried to trick Jesus with an absurd question about marriage in heaven. Jesus saw right through them and pointed out that the righteous live after death. Modern-day skeptics abound in our world. They claim to be spiritual but they do not really believe in the power of God. So what do they do in the face of death? Without faith, there is only despair and emptiness.
What does one say to a young man who has lost the love of his life? Pardon me for avoiding any platitudes. I had no easy answers for hard questions. In the end, what does God offer to people like us who go through the agony of death? Resurrection. Our God knows his way out of the grave. So we grieve but not without hope. The days ahead will not be easy for my friend, but he will see his wife again. Our God is the God of the living. Absent from the body, God’s people are immediately present with the Lord. So we hold on to this hope. And God holds on to us.
