"Made Alive in Christ!"

After getting home from another graveside service yesterday, one of our grown children exclaimed, “Dad you seem to have had a lot of funerals lately!” And it is true that I have had a funeral and committal service three out of the last four weeks. Sadly, this has happened many times over the past fifty years in my pastoral ministry! This is just another season in our church life!

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As we continued to discuss the frequency of these recent deaths in our church, even the funeral director remarked, “As care pastor, I’m sure you keep quite busy officiating funerals in such a large congregation!” And I agreed, while noting that our two full-time pastors are also ministering to several families dealing with loss and grief. Not all of these have been with older adults either. Our community has also dealt with the loss of some precious children.

But it was one of our middle-aged sons who thoughtfully remarked with this probing question from his experience in large city churches, “Why is it that we don’t talk much about death in church life today?” I realize that some pastors include this subject in the Sunday message or small groups discuss death, but it may be a fair question to ask.

I can say that I am making a concerted effort these days to inform grieving families and especially, young adult family members, about the subject of death. I want them to know how to get ready for their passing. I am doing this through reading Scripture and talking through the subject in my funeral messages. The response has been both comforting and instructive. I have found that there is much misinformation about death among those on the raw edge of dealing with it.

In my most recent funeral message, I used three texts to speak about the issue. In the story of Job, this righteous and suffering man asked a thoughtful question, “If a man dies, will he live again?” With a yearning in Job’s heart for more, he was reflecting the pessimism of his day regarding death. Yet, there was a whisper in his heart when he said, “All through these difficult days I keep hoping, waiting for the final change – for resurrection!” (Job 14:14, The Message).

The second Scripture has a robust answer for Job and his yearning. Jesus offered the clearest statement in the New Testament on the assurance of more! He told a sister, grieving the loss of her brother, “I am the resurrection and life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26, NIV).

Jesus’ concrete assurance is that resurrection and life are present in His person alone! I said to those eight young adult grandchildren seated before me the other day at their grandmother’s funeral, when Jesus says He is the resurrection and life, He is telling us, “I am the doorway, out of life and the only door into eternal life!” That’s our assurance. When we tie our hope to Jesus, we pass into eternity at death because He is “the way, the truth, and the life!” (John 14:6).

The Apostle Paul reminds us of the new body we’ll receive someday. I shared this final passage of Scripture in my message about the triumph of more. On the authority of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul declared, “Death is swallowed up in victory!” (1 Corinthians 15:54, NLT).

Paul then offered this hopeful instruction about the new body we’ll receive one of these days. It is the only one suited for heaven! He described it this way, “For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies!” (15:53). The word must underscores the necessity for change!

Change is what really counts! The triumph begins as we are changed at the time of our salvation. This is how we begin our journey with Christ! He transforms us from death to life as we repent of sin and confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior! In another epic passage, Paul declares, “But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

It’s time to talk about death and grief before our families must deal with it at the funeral home. This next generation is asking honest questions, and we must be ready to engage them. Let’s be prepared to offer a hopeful answer in Christ!

Mike Keppler, retired pastor,
active churchman and
doting grandparent.
Contact: drmjkeppler@gmail.com
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