Just yesterday it was my honor to conduct a service in witness to the resurrection and in thanksgiving for the life of a member of the church I serve. While I would not say that I enjoy funerals, I do appreciate them and find them to be among the most meaningful things I do as a minister because they are centered on the most profound aspects of the faith we profess as Christians.
In my meditation yesterday I said that we had not gathered because the deceased had died, we were there because though she died, she lives. And we were there because in Jesus Christ she has been freed from sin and death in the light of Easter. And we were there because though she is no longer with us in body, she is most certainly a part of that great cloud of witnesses. We were, I said, gathered at the place where the believer and the one in whom she believed are united in the light of glory, at the intersection between death and the one who defeated death, between the loss and sorrow we feel at the death of a loved one and the great joy that claims those who have gone to their eternal rest.
In Galatians Paul also speaks of an intersection of sorts. “I have been crucified with Christ;” he says, “and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:19b-20). To be united with Christ in his death is to be completely changed. No longer must we fear death, no longer must we face the future with a sense of dread, no longer must we live as though we are lost. It is no longer we who live! It is Christ who lives in us, the same Christ who gave himself for us and was raised to eternal life.
The relationship between believer and Jesus Christ is one of the great mysteries of the faith. But there is no doubting the love of God at work in and though us nor the hope that we have been given through faith and by which we are able to live and––perhaps most importantly––by which we are able to die.
Prayer: Lord, help us to live in this day in faith, and to trust in your promises for the days to come. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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