Hopeful Grieving

Hopeful Grieving.

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, and we don’t want you to be in the dark about this question any longer. First off, you don’t have to grieve over them as others do who have no hope. When you mourn, you don’t need to carry on over them like people who are hopeless, who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep… Therefore, encourage each other with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13, 14, 18).

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5:3). Perhaps this is another way of saying this… You will sigh with satisfying relief when your heart is broken by the profound pain of loss, shame or sin. You are fortunate! You are not alone! For the deeper your sorrow, the more room there is for God’s healing presence and comforting grace.

“Blessed” = makarioi; a rich Greek word with many nuances, all in the context of enjoying God’s favor: fully satisfied; deeply joyful; delightfully content; profoundly happy; blissfully fulfilled. When Jesus declares that you are blessed, He is congratulating you, confidently affirming that God is active in your life. You are blessed when you put yourself in the position to be transformed by God. You are blessed, you are most fortunate, you are to be envied, because you now have the unexpected privilege of participating in the Kingdom of God. When you are blessed, you are aware that your blessedness does not depend on your outer circumstances. You are thus filled with hopeful joy. So when Jesus says that you are blessed, it is time to celebrate, for He is looking upon you with favor. In His beatitudes in Matthew 5 and elsewhere, Jesus is saying that God wants us to be blessed, He is for us, He wants good to happen to us.

Joyful Lament? The wisdom of Jesus is sometimes perplexing. In this Beatitude He seems to be essentially saying “Happy are you when you are sad! Celebrate when you grieve!” It seems, doesn’t it, that just as there is a peace that passes understanding, there is also a grief that is too deep for words and beyond our understanding as well. Those who mourn are grieving with tears of brokenness:

• lamenting over one’s own sinfulness in repentance and confession;
• a painful awareness of the brokenness of the world, the soiled creation, the presence of sin in other people;
• a grieving over someone else’s pain or difficulties;
• overwhelming sorrow over one’s own loss of something or someone dear.

Man of Sorrows. Yes, there are many reasons for those tears. Those tears were called the “Second Baptism” in the early church. Those tears can be cleansing and the start of new life. In these tears one finds that the soul is in pain with an open wound. Sometimes the wounds of loss and sin are healed rather quickly. Most often the wound is deeper and only gradually is healed. But there is a promise here. God will bring comfort in the form of His presence. Being the “man of sorrows,” He loves to be gracious to those who grieve. He knows what it means to suffer loss and to grieve over sin.

We’re Speaking His Language. When we are in painful circumstances like those mentioned, God promises that we are in a position to welcome the Lord and start the healing process. The deeper the grief, the more profoundly God will reveal Himself in our broken heart. So when we mourn, somehow we are to be envied, for we are now in a position to be comforted. As Robert Smith once said, “Tears is a language God understands.” We see clearly from Jesus that God fully identifies with those with a broken heart. The Lord will collect tears of brokenness as “liquid prayers” that reach to the throne of heaven. “Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness – Take it to the Lord in prayer!” (Joseph Scriven).

“Rivers of tears gush from my eyes, because people disobey your instructions.” (Ps. 119:136).

O God, listen to my cry! Hear my prayer! From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelemed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge…” (Ps. 61:1-2).

“He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle.” (Isaiah 42:3)

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” (Ps. 34:18).

“Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go plant their seed, but they will sing as they return with the harvest.” (Ps. 126:5-6).

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.” (II Corinthians 1:3-4).

“His favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (Ps. 30:5).

“Behold! I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be transformed – in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the shofar trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed, beyond the reach of death, never to die again.” (1 Cor. 15:51).

“I continue to have hope in God, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both the righteous and the unrighteous. I admit to living in hopeful anticipation that God will surely raise the dead.” (Acts 24:15).

The Jewish Belief in the General Resurrection: The common Jewish understanding of the resurrection during Jesus’ time was echoed by His friend Martha during their conversation about Lazarus… “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (John 11:24). In the Hebrew Bible, the resurrection of the body was made clear in Daniel 12:2, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake in everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the heavens.” Job also clarified the traditional Jewish view on the resurrection of the body in Job 19:25-27, “For I know that my Redeemer lives. And He shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know: That in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes behold, and not another!” The Jewish belief in the general resurrection continues to this day, as it is listed as one of the core Articles of Faith. Orthodox Judaism considers resurrection one of the cardinal principles of Rabbinic Judaism.

The Christian Belief in the General Resurrection: Starting with the Source, Jesus mentioned or taught on the universal resurrection a number of times: John 5:28-29; John 6:40; John 11:25; and Luke 14:14. As a foretaste of the general resurrection, Jesus raised a number of people from the dead, including His friend Lazarus. Another foretaste was when, amazingly enough, many dead believers buried near Golgotha were raised to life when Jesus died (Matt. 27:52). The early Christians continued this belief as the Church expanded, as Paul preached in  Paul led the way in teaching about the resurrection of the body, as one can see below. Both of the major Christian creeds contain a statement of belief regarding the resurrection…. The Apostles’ Creed states, “I believe… in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.” And the Nicene Creed states, “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.”

What: The resurrection of the body, also called the general resurrection or the universal resurrection, is the belief that there will be a raising of all the bodies on earth, dead and alive, on the last day, rising to universal judgment, at a time to be determined by the Lord. At that event all people will be resurrected in body form, both the believers and the unbelievers. Death is only temporary as things are sorted out at the judgment. Those who believe in Christ will go on to live forever with Him. Physical death will be openly and finally defeated at this future resurrection. Those believers who have died will rise from the dead and meet Jesus in the air. Those who are still living will also join Jesus and everyone else in the clouds. Where the judgment fits into this event is unclear. At this resurrection, the bodies of the believers will be transformed.

How: We are confident that this resurrection will happen because of the “First-Born of the Dead“, Jesus Christ Resurrected. Jesus opened the door to the general resurrection through His own triumphant defeat of death in His body. We aren’t privy to the exact order of events at the end of the world. How the resurrection and the judgment fit together remains a mystery. We do know that everyone will hear the voice of Jesus while in the grave (John 5:28), and the bodies will be unburied. We do know that a shofar trumpet will sound, somehow around the world in such a way that everyone will hear it. We also believe that believers will appear with Christ in glory (Col. 3:14). We also know that, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be judged according to the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Cor. 5:10).

Who: We know from Scripture that there’s a lot we do not know about what we shall become at the resurrection of our body. (1 John 3:2), but believers can accept the fact that we will all be radically changed into new creatures, transformed by the power of God (1 Cor. 6:14). We know that our earthly bodies will be changed into heavenly bodies, our physical beings into spiritual beings. The temporary nature of our bodies subject to decay will be transformed into eternal bodies, from mortal beings into immortal beings. (1 Cor. 15). As Paul said, that which was sown in weakness will rise in power. We know that our new bodies will be filled with light (Matt. 13:42). We see too that our new bodies will be just like the resurrected body of Jesus (Phil. 3:21 and 1 John 3:2). It is a comfort to know that our resurrected bodies in the new Kingdom will forget how to moan, cry, or writhe in pain, for there will be no need to do so.

Death: Judeo-Christian belief holds that death is a prelude to the after-life. Death is a temporary stoppage of life on earth. Biblical authors often referred to death as sleep, because it was similar to going to sleep, losing consciousness, and then awakening again without being aware of what happened during the sleep. What it will look like when our eternal souls reunite with our transformed bodies is a mystery that can’t be revealed till it happens. When we are dead, we are not conscious of the passage of time. It’s like when we are asleep. 2 Corinthians 5:8 implies that when we are absent from the body, we are present with the Lord. Is that what this looks like… When we die, we are not aware of time or place, and when the Lord comes to claim us, when we resurrect from the dead, it will seem like we went straight from death to new life, even if a million years have elapsed. We do know, we do believe, that Jesus Christ will indeed raise us to new life for an eternity with Him, no matter how it all happens and what it looks like.

New Bodies. “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down – that is, when we die and leave this earthly body – we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up in Life. God Himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee He has given us His Holy Spirit.” (2 Cor. 5:1-6, NLT).

Our Hope in the Holy Spirit: “The Holy Spirit is God’s “guarantee” of what will come. His work in our lives today assures us that the healing process will be thoroughly completed in Christ’s presence. Each time the Holy Spirit reminds you of Scripture, convicts you of sin, restrains you from selfish behavior, or prompts you to love, you have evidence that He is present. You have the Spirit within you beginning the transformation process. Whether you deal with aches and pains or even disabling limitations, trust God that His total renovation of your body and soul is in process.” (NLT notes in Study Bible).

Our Greatest Hope is Based on the Resurrection. “The Resurrection is, first and foremost, the act of infinite tenderness by which the Father, after the terrible suffering of the Passion, revived his Son from death by means of the Holy Spirit and made him Lord. It is the cry with which God, after holding back and putting up with violence for a long time, finally breaks his silence. The Father, to express it in human terms, drew near to Jesus in the tomb just as someone here would gently draw near the crib of a child who is sick or sleeping, and awoke him from the sleep of death. The gospel tells us that Jesus one day came upon the casket of a young man who had died and cried out, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” and the young man sat up, and Jesus returned him to his mother (Luke 7:14). Now it is the Father who comes near to the tomb of Jesus and cries out, “Son, I say to you, arise!” and Jesus sits up and arises. The Father is the one who resurrects, the Son is the resurrected one, and the Holy Spirit is the resurrection itself. The action of the Father is the source of the greatest hope for us, because it declares in advance what he will one day also do for us.” (from Contemplating the Trinity, by R. Cantalamessa).