Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this day is from Job, the nineteenth chapter:
Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
Thus far the text.
Dear Elmer, Sheila, Ronda, Brandon, Christopher, other family, and all dear friends in Christ,
Sometimes, things don’t seem to make much sense. Sometimes, it seems that God hates us. Sometimes, it seems that nothing in the world is going right and because of that, nothing will ever go right and we’re just going to have the worst lives possible in front of us.
That’s what was happening to Job in the book that bears his name. And maybe that’s what’s happening to you today. You may feel that God doesn’t love you. You may feel that Christ hates you. You may feel complete rage that God took Eileen away from this world last week. Or maybe you’re just questioning God. Maybe you’re questioning why He would do what He did. Maybe you’re asking why He would take Eileen away from us before we were ready.
In our reading of Job today, Job is very much in the same position. You know, we always paint Job as some type of hero. Look at how much faith he had! Look at how much he depended on God! Some of that is true. But this is a man who had all of his children die, all his earthly possessions were destroyed, and his health was so bad, his skin was in such bad shape, that to make himself feel better, he bathed in ashes and scratched himself with broken, sharp clay pieces. This was a man who had lost everything, and everyone around him told him it was because he committed some particular sin. Even his wife told him that he should just curse God and die, getting what he deserved!
Yet, Job didn’t curse God, but he had a lot of questions. And he had a lot of bad advice. People who told him things that weren’t true, like Job didn’t offer his sacrifice in the right way, so God hated him. Things like, because Job must’ve missed a sacrifice, so God was punishing him. Things like, Job wasn’t careful enough in his own faith, so God was going to make him suffer. But, that’s not how God works.
Here’s how God works: God is holy, and because we are not, we deserve death. We deserve to die because of our sin. And because our sin has infected each little bit of our bodies, unless Jesus returns first, we will die, all of us. Eileen knew this. Eileen knew that she was a sinner. We prayed the confession together every time I brought her communion. She prayed that she knew the depth of her sinfulness, and yet, she prayed that God would have mercy upon her.
And so God did. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the flesh that Eileen would even share, in order to come and save her. Jesus came to save Eileen, just as He came to save each of us, and so He did. The wages of sin is death, we know that, Eileen knew that. But, not eternal death in Jesus Christ. For Eileen, though her body be before us today, she is not eternally dead.
Rather, even at this moment, Eileen is with her Lord. She is resting in His grace that He won for her upon the cross. She is resting in His forgiveness that He showered her with in her baptism. She is resting in His love in which she had feasted on in the Lord’s Supper her whole life.
But that’s not the end of the story either. For Eileen’s body will again rise from the dead. She looks dead, her body is dead, but she is not, and soon her body shall be raised up from the dead when Jesus comes back to remake this world and make it the paradise He has promised. Eileen knew this, for this is the hope that all Christians have, the hope of the resurrection, in which we shall have eternal life.
But, that doesn’t mean getting to the end of our lives is an easy thing. For indeed, even Job knew that he was going to die. That is why we have the cry from him that his friends and his God would have mercy upon Him. He needs it. It’s hard. It’s difficult to deal with. And he feels attacked by his friends, but he feels forsaken by his God.
Yet, even in the midst of pain and suffering, even in the midst of our trials and tribulations, even, perhaps, in the midst of our deepest doubts about God, there is hope. Job finds it. The hope is in the resurrection. And that is why Job says, and that is why we sang, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” This is a great prophecy of the Christ to come for Job, and it is a wonderful reminder for us that our Jesus Christ has fulfilled that prophecy and is even now living. He is now living, for He has risen from the dead, just as He had promised. And He shall stand upon this earth on the last day. And why?
Why does Jesus stand upon the earth? To bring up the faithful from their graves. You see, even when we have our doubts about God, about Christ, His truth is still reality, for He is coming again just as He promised. Then and there, He shall wipe every tear from our eyes, the eyes that still are with our bodies even today. We shall grieve and sorrow no more. There will be no more pain, no more cancer, no more failing kidneys. All will be made new, all will be made whole, all will be made completely incorruptible. And that includes Eileen, that includes you, her family and friends, that includes all who hope in Jesus Christ for their salvation.
Job’s words were indeed written down as he asked, and they come to us today and, hopefully, bring to us comfort that in the midst of our sorrow, we rejoice, for we have a Redeemer who lives, now and forever. And He is preserving Eileen, and even us, even now, until the end of the age when He shall return and make His home with us forever. This is true, for our Redeemer lives and He loves each and every one of us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment