02/27/2021
We go to funerals of friends and family with hearts aching, or broken, suffering in our loss, but in times such as this we are led back to the Sermon on the Mount, and the words that Jesus delivered in the Beatitudes... specifically the second of these when He said: “Blessed are those who mourn.” Our tears are never to be held back, nor is our pain to be trivialized because in this place and at this time we are to receive the comfort of God.
““Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Matthew 5:4 ESV
Today I mourn with my family. We will say a momentary goodbye to a man, father, husband, family member, and friend, who was taken from us by the COVID-19 virus. I remember being called to his beside by his wife on the day before he passed from us. I went to him, and after anointing him with oil, I prayed with him. I recall placing the oil on his forehead and how I could see the light come into his eyes, and recall feelIng the calm well up in him, as I did so. Then, while holding his hand, I felt the fear subsiding as we prayed softly together. He was preparing to go somewhere that he had never been before, and there is always a natural sense of anxiousness in such times. So I held and gently rubbed his hand as we prayed, and I watched his eyes release the fear as I helped him face that unknown journey with the calm of Christ; a calm and peace that he was truly understanding for the first time. Then before I left him our eyes joined, and I ever so softly placed my hand on his feverish forehead and face, and caressed him as I told him that it was going to be alright... and as I left his bedside I knew it was.
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
Psalm 116:15
My friend and brother in Christ was going where I had once been, where Jesus had met me as I was drowning, and told me not to worry about those that were being left behind because they were His, had always been His, and that He would be with them throughout their lives just as He had always been with me... they were His not mine to keep until we were joined again.
So today, knowing that this man, father, husband, friend, and all he is to us, is with Christ, and having felt the joy, peace, and exhilaration of my own brief moment with the Lord , I weep, and mourn the loss. I weep for the broken hearts that miss him so terribly, whose sadness we all feel in our own individual loss, and even though we know as believers that this time of desperate sadness is fleeting we still feel this way... but that is love, and this is our blessing of which Jesus spoke on the Mount. There is no shame or doubt in our tears and mourning... only love.
“Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep.”
1 Samuel 30:4 ESV
Our brother knew Jesus as his personal Savior, and God as his Heavenly Father, but death gives us who have been left behind a glimpse into how completely God mourns those who are not only momentarily lost to Him, but who are forever lost to Him, and who could not bring themselves to love Him as He had loved them.
“So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”
Matthew 18:14 ESV
When I was a boy my father was in the army, and he was given a new assignment in Germany. So he traveled there ahead of us to secure a home for our family to live in, and prepare a place for us. I knew that in six months time we would get on a ship, and rejoin him there, yet I cried desperately when he left us. I knew I would see him again soon but I cried nonetheless... not because he was gone forever, but because I would miss him. This is death to us as believers; we weep and mourn, not because our loved ones are lost to us forever, but because we will miss them for a time. Our tears are the tears of Jesus as He wept for Lazarus...
“Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!””
John 11:35-36 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the heartbreak and mourning we feel at the death of a loved one because this is the true evidence of our love, and a reassurance of the love you have for us... it is the moment in which you comfort us. Thank you for the tears that Jesus wept for Lazarus, and for His words on the Mount that assure us that our mourning is a blessing. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who gives us tender hearts with which to love, and tears to wash away the pain when that heart breaks. Praised be your name for the times when we mourn and feel your hand upon us. Merciful are you in the comfort you give, and the promises you have made. Hear our prayers Father, as we reach out to you in these, our hours of need. In this time of hurt and loss reveal yourself through us to those who are yet to know you, and let our tears, heartache, and your comfort, give them hope as it leads them onto the way to you. Take this our loved one into your arms Father, and seat him at your table in glory as we wait here in Christ to join him there.
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.”
1 Thessalonians 4:13-15 ESV
Rich Forbes