See You At The Resurrection

 Not too long ago a co-worker of mine informed me that her mother was taken off life support and her family was waiting for her to pass.  Because she knows that I am a Christian she turned to me for a word of comfort.  I could see the impending grief was weighing on her.

At the time I wasn’t sure what to say other than to offer my sympathies and to share with her Psalm 139, the scripture passage that my mother had shared with me after the death of my cousin Eric.  It has always held a dear place in my heart as I have grieved over the deaths of loved ones, brothers in arms, and friends. 

 One specific section really speaks to me in these types of situations:

“Where shall I go from your Spirit?  Or where shall I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!  If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me.  If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”

Here in this passage, we see the unrelenting love of God in action.  No matter where we may go, God follows.  Even in Sheol, Hebrew for the place of the dead, God is with us, relentlessly pursuing our redemption.  Ultimately this Psalm is fulfilled in Christ. 

In Christ, we see the Son, who created all things, and through whom all things have their being, came down to us and became incarnate by the virgin Mary.  He lived among us in our very presence.  And when the time was right, he subjected himself to death, even death on a cross, as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.  The Son even made his bed with us in Sheol, when he died, and was buried for three days, in total darkness, in accordance with the scriptures. 

And yet, even the darkness is not dark to Him.  On the third day Christ rose bodily from the dead breaking the darkness and the hold it has on us.  It is in Him and in the resurrection that we take hope.  For Christ has promised that we too shall rise from the dead and dwell with Him. 

Paul, in his First Letter to the Church in Corinth, describes the hope of the resurrection so well.

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  But each in his own order.  Christ the first-fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.  Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” 

Even though we grieve for the loss of a loved one, we know that through Christ we have hope in the resurrection of the dead.  We are not to be permanently parted one from another.  We shall be made alive with Him. 

I have the certain hope that just as Christ rose from the dead, and we have the empty tomb that we can point toward giving us tangible evidence of this fact, we too shall rise at His command and death will be no more.  The one who has demonstrated his power over death has made this promise and we can trust it. 

Even though I know that someday all my relatives will die, and that I too shall pass away, I have Christ as my hope. 

My hope is that one day as I lay in bed, hopefully surrounded by my wife and children, with my last breath I will be able to impart to them one last word of comfort, “See you at the resurrection.”

May you experience the peace of Christ and the certain hope of the resurrection of the dead.  Amen.