“Why, Soitenly!”

For years I jokingly told people that I used basically the same outline for funerals that I used for weddings. Maybe I was not far from truth.

I’ve not experienced the excitement of our daughter planning her wedding, but I hear it’s something else! The wedding of our son was very exciting for us, but we didn’t have to bear the brunt of the cost. It’s different with a daughter.

When all goes as hoped, weddings are great news. “So are funerals.” Says Jesus.

In his latest offering, Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear, Max Lucado has a chapter on facing death without fear … and it’s a rather good chapter.

He cites John 14:1-3 … a very familiar passage. I have used it in funeral talks but the context of the passage seems to have more to do with failure than funerals. At least that’s the way I see it. Peter had boasted that he was ready to die for Jesus and Jesus replied, “Really? You would die for me? Truth is, Peter, before tomorrow morning you will, in fact, deny me three times!” (My paraphrase) It was in that context that Jesus then speaks words of profound hope to his passionate disciple:

Don’t be troubled [Peter]. You trust God, now trust me. There are many rooms in my Father’s home, and I am going to prepare a place for you… When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.

Lucado says: “While Jesus’ words sound comforting to us, they sounded radical to his first-century audience. He was promising to accomplish a feat no one dared envision or imagine. He would return from the dead and rescue his followers from the grave.” He follows with a brief explanation of the prevailing beliefs regarding the afterlife, or lack thereof.

There is definitely a wedding metaphor behind those words. In that day, once the marriage contract had been settled, the groom would go to prepare a place for his bride and she was to be ready at any moment – day or night – for his return. The parable of the ten virgins (Mt.25:1-13) gives some insight. He concludes the parable with a warning: Watch! For you don’t know the hour when the Son of Man returns.

When the groom would go to prepare a place, the father would tell him when the “place” was ready. Otherwise, he would throw up a shack and run get his bride. Guys are that way when it comes to women and honeymoons! So when the father said the prepared place was ready and worthy, only then would the son go get his bride. And she was to be ready at all times lest he return to find that she was not ready, which would be grounds for canceling the contract.

Lucado writes:

We Westerners might miss the wedding images, but you can bet your sweet chuppah that Jesus’ listeners didn’t This was a groom-to-bride promise. Upon receiving permission of both families, the groom returned to the home of his father and built a home for his bride. He “prepared a place.”

By promising to do the same for us, Jesus elevates funerals to the same hope level as weddings. From his perspective the trip to the cemetery and the walk down the aisle warrant identical excitement… Jesus is your coming groom. “I will come and get you….” He will meet you at the altar. Your final glimpse of life will trigger your first glimpse of him.

Arguing for the fact of resurrection to an audience schooled in the Greek philosophy of a shadowy afterlife, Paul calls on more than 500 witnesses (1 Cor.15:6) to testify to the fact of resurrection! And not just a spiritual resurrection (which is what the Pharisees believed), they came out of their graves “in the flesh” to let us know: It’s safe to die.

Again, Lucado writes: So let’s die with faith. Let’s allow the resurrection to sink into the fibers of our hearts and define the way we look at the grave. Let it ‘free those who were like slaves all their lives because of their fear of death’ (Heb.2:15NCV).

At his funeral service, aviator / American hero, Charles Lindbergh had a minister read words he (Lingbergh) wrote for his burial service. In those words he called death “a new adventure in existence.”

There is great hope in resurrection life!! It is the only message I proclaim at funerals these days. I just hope the message cuts through the grief and touches some hearts.

Have a wonderful weekend. We’re celebrating our daughter’s 25th birthday on Sunday, Lord willing. See you next week.