Jesus didn’t preach funerals.

Do not look to him for soft words for the hard truth of death and the grave. Jesus looked beyond our coffins and cemetery plots. He spent a little time in a graveyard once. Parts of three days, in fact. However, he only borrowed the tomb and gave it back as good as new. 

Death is a reality. It separates loved ones and friends. It hurts and tears a hole in souls like no other, a hole that is hard to fill, hard to mend.

It was a year ago today when my mother stepped out of the room for a moment and realized upon her return that Dad had gone to sleep one last time. 

We laid him to rest a few days later in his Texas Rangers shirt. The Rangers were in danger of losing their opportunity for the playoffs. They lost to the Angels that day 9-3. Their season, however, was soon resurrected. They started winning games. They made the playoffs. They swept the Tampa Bay Rays. Then they won every road game all the way through the World Series. 

Dad missed it. 

Death often places periods where we prefer commas.

Death is not the end of the story. Ask this mother and her silenced son who suddenly became chatty again. Ask Mary and Martha whose special-needs brother returned to his favorite seat in his favorite clothes after four days of lounging in the grave. Ask Jesus who is the Resurrection and the Life (John 11). Death doesn’t stand a chance when he intervenes. He will soon reverse every loss for everyone to see.

Death, as C. S. Lewis so beautifully wrote, has begun working backward. There is an awakening coming. A shout will rouse those who’ve gone before us. A reunion will take place as we begin living in the immediate presence of our Savior and those from every tribe, tongue, and nation who know and love him like we do.

Jesus told the thief on the cross next to him, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” Dad’s there. Other loved ones and friends are there. All who have known Jesus as Savior and Friend who have passed from this life have entered into that blessed state of being. 

We lost on this day a year ago, but there is a much bigger win on the way. 

Jesus didn’t preach funerals. He preached resurrections. How could the Resurrection and the Life do any differently? He couldn’t, because that is who he is. He wouldn’t, because that is why he came. 

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I will feel the reality of today’s loss, and I will look forward to the coming win.

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Our Father, death is real. It wounds those who survive such a loss. It brings on many tears and long laments. It’s hard to overcome. Even so, you have placed a hope in our hearts and a pathway to reunion and eternal joy. In our grieving days, kindle a flame of recognition that this night will be blissfully short in light of the eternal day to come. Amen.