Death: Our Enemy and Our Salvation
Revelation 7:9-17
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Revelation 7:13-17 13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” 14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. 16 They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… In 1 Corinthians 15, St. Paul writes that “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” We should be on guard against goofy new age spiritualities which try to portray death as a good thing, just another step in the journey, and other such nonsense. Death, Scripture declares, is the enemy. God did not create us to die. It is our fall into sin that brought the curse of death. Death is a destruction of the life and the body that was created by God.
However, Jesus has brought a new reality to our death. Though it remains the enemy, now that Jesus has embraced our death by His death on the cross, there is something good about death as well. The early Church Father Ambrose once said, “We should have a daily familiarity with death, even a daily desire for death.” Now, by that statement he did not mean that we should be morbid or suicidal; we should not be looking for ways to die, nor should we be careless with our health, or simply give up on life. What Ambrose meant is much more like the words of St. Paul in Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
In other words, we should not be too attached and addicted to the things of this life; we should never be living in the here and now as if we will never leave earth. We should never be thinking that death is the worst thing that could happen to us. Instead, we should always remember that in Christ death is a deliverance for us; it is a deliverance from the ravages of sin, a deliverance from being run by our passions, a deliverance from all sorrow, all grief, all sickness, all sadness, and all heartache. What is good about death is that our sinful nature will finally and forever be gone from us, and so also will all of the ravages and effects of sin’s curse as we await the resurrection of our bodies on the Last Day.
This is what the cross of Jesus has done for us. By Christ’s suffering and death on the cross during that very first Holy Week and on that first Good Friday, He has turned our enemy, death, against itself into something that ultimately works good for us in the end. For those who are in Christ, death is now the doorway to life – eternal life with Jesus in heaven.
So, let us be careful to get this right. Death is not just an escape from the harsh realities of this world. It is much more; it is an escape to the comfort of life in God’s eternal presence.
You often hear people at funerals say how the deceased is “in a better place.” Well, depending upon who’s saying that and what the spiritual condition of the deceased was at the time of death, that “better” place may not be better at all! Not everyone goes to heaven when they die. If you know me at all you know that I am not a fan of that cliché, for many non-Christians say things like that too. If the deceased was a Christian, why not say that they are WITH CHRIST! Yes, that’s a “better place” to be sure, and it is true, and it is comforting. What “better place” is there to be than in heaven with our Lord and totally free from all that this sinful existence does to us? That’s how St. Paul could speak of being hard pressed between wanting to live and wanting to die, for his desire was to depart and be WITH CHRIST, which is far better.
Today’s reading from Revelation gives us a beautiful picture of what that “better place’ is, what heaven is, and what we are escaping to, in contrast to where we are now. It is written that those who have died trusting in the Lord will live with the Lord forever. And, as John writes in Revelation 7, “He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not scorch them; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” No more sorrow; no more crying; no more pain. No more isolation or distancing or worrying about a hug spreading a contagion; no more fear, or sickness or death. Just perfect rest and contentment.
This is what we must learn to long for and set our hearts upon. And that vision should govern how we live now. For when it does, then our eyes will not be captivated by what we desire that really doesn’t last that long; and our minds will not be controlled by how much or how little we have; and our hearts will not be lusting after whatever feeds our appetites. Instead, when we live with the vision of John’s words in Revelation 7 and with the mindset of St. Paul, then we will live for others and for the things of the life of the world to come. We will live fearing nothing, except losing life with God and the kingdom of heaven.
Dear friends, our God saves us from death through the death of Jesus. His death is so good, His death is so strong, His death is so effective that it converts and transforms our death to be like His. St. Paul says in Romans 6:3-4, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
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And that is why we must not accept the rapidly growing movement away from calling funerals “Rites of Christian Burial” and instead calling them “Life Celebrations.” The vast majority of “life celebrations” are just that – celebrations with the only focus being on THIS life to the exclusion of how and why a Christian is saved and forgiven and the only comfort for the bereaved being in Christ’s resurrection. If the focus is only on this life – what a person did and how their lives affected others and how terribly sad it is that they died – if that’s all you’re going to talk about, then there can be no lasting comfort of the certainty of the life of the world to come. If Christ crucified and risen isn’t the overwhelming message of a funeral, then there is no ultimate point in gathering. So, don’t ask me to do a Life Celebration for your funeral; it ain’t gonna happen.
Because of Christ, even through our tears of sadness we are able to rejoice at the death of those who are in Christ. We celebrate their victory which is Christ’s victory for them. We praise God for their Homegoing, and we look forward in certainty to their resurrection and our reunion with them there. Those who worship Jesus are not gone forever. They have just gone before us; as we sang in the hymn, “We feebly struggle, they in glory shine.” So, death is no longer something to be avoided at all costs, for the Son of God Himself did not think of it as being beneath His dignity, nor did He seek to escape it. Like our Lord, then, we also can embrace death when it comes, for He is the One who brings good out of evil, joy out of pain, and life out of death.
The saints know this. And when I refer to saints, I am referring to all Christians. A saint simply means “a holy one,” one who has been forgiven and made holy in Christ. Saints are not only those who have died and who are with the Lord, but also we who are still alive, who believe in the Lord. All Saints Day refers to the saints in heaven and the saints on earth: all Christians Day.
However, usually when we talk about the saints, we do mean those who have died, and especially those whose lives were illustrations of God’s grace and who gave us an example of faith to follow. In particular there are two kinds of heroes of the faith whom we usually refer to as saints. The first are those who were put to death because of what they believed and taught, because they clung to their Lord more than to this life. These are the “martyrs,” a word which literally means “witnesses.”
The second group are those who were not put to death, but who still suffered ridicule or persecution for righteousness’ sake. These are “confessors” because they confessed the Faith. Like the martyrs, the confessors also suffered much for the Faith. The martyrs gave testimony by how they died and what they died for, while the confessors gave testimony by how they lived and what they lived for. The martyrs witnessed to the Faith with their blood; the confessors witnessed to the Faith with the purity and steadfastness of their confession. Because of their blood, the martyrs are commemorated with the color red; and because of their pure confession and steadfastness, the confessors are commemorated with the color white, as we have on the altar today.
Yet the colors red and white are both the same in the end, aren’t they? Remember what Revelation says of the saints in heaven: “These are the ones who washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Here in Revelation 7, red makes everything white. Robes are made white because they have been washed in red blood. And not just any red blood; it must be and it is the red blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who was sacrificed and shed His blood to pay for the sins of the whole world; the same Lamb of God who “will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters.”
That is what the martyrs and confessors and indeed all Christians have in common: the red blood of the Lamb which makes them and us white and pure, cleansed from all sin, before God our Father. It is this blood of Christ – poured over you in Holy Baptism and poured into you in the Lord’s Supper – it is this blood, which was shed and poured out for the salvation of all men, and even the whole creation. It is this blood that binds all saints together in the one holy, Christian and apostolic Church, and which gives us the courage to follow in the train of those who have gone before us. This red blood clothes us in white, as it is written in Isaiah 1:18, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” The Lamb’s wool, his robe of righteousness, covers us.
That is how we are blessed according to Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel. We are blessed because we are wrapped up in Him who is the fulfillment of all of these beatitudes. Jesus was “poor in spirit” by giving His riches to take on the poverty of our sin and death. Jesus mourned, especially when He wept over His people who turned away from Him. Jesus is the meekest of all men. Jesus continually hungered and thirsted after true righteousness. Jesus is the very definition of mercifulness and purity in heart. Jesus is the peacemaker, who reconciled God and man in Himself. And finally, of all men who ever lived, Jesus was indeed the most persecuted and reviled for the sake of righteousness.
To be blessed, then, is to live in Christ by faith; it is to have your life look like Christ’s – to be poor and humble in spirit, to mourn the sad state of this world, to be merciful even to those who don’t deserve it, to be persecuted for the sake of the Gospel, and ultimately to die. In Christ, even death is now a blessing, for through Him, yours is the kingdom of heaven.
And that kingdom of heaven, dear friends, is here for you now in the blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Christ, the very embodiment of the Kingdom of Heaven, is here with you and for you with His true body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. By partaking of His Supper, He is most definitely in you and with you, and you are with Him. And to be with Him is heaven on earth, for we are gathered with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven here at this very place. Here is literally where heaven and earth meet. Here is where all who are in heaven with Jesus and all who are in Jesus here meet, for we partake of the same Jesus who is in heaven and with us.
So, fellow saints of God, let us endure in the faith in this time of tribulation. For the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. Thanks be to God who makes it possible for us to embrace death in Christ, that we may also be embraced His life forever.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
