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“God is such that we cannot fully understand Him. He is so great that none of His creatures can comprehend Him completely. No one can meet God without discovering that he or she cannot understand God fully.”
O. Hallesby in “Prayer”
And yet this God has revealed himself to us through his Word and through the Incarnation–when the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. The Incomprehensible is seen and touched and heard with human eyes and hands and ears.
This was the confirmation verse (a verse given specially at the time when He publicly confessed his faith in Christ) for the first man at whose funeral I officiated today.
God speaks to Abram and says:
“I Am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless.”
Most translations use the word “blameless” here. The original Hebrew literally means “complete,” or “whole.” Elsewhere in the OT this word is translated as “with out blemish” and even “perfect.”
We often read this as a command. The God who creates this covenant with Abram declares his just requirement of those who would be his: Be whole. Be complete. Be without blemish. Be Perfect. This is God’s demand. That we would be perfect in love for him and for one another. But who among us (let alone Abram!) has done this?
The original language does leave room for this to be a promise–not merely a command. “Walk before me and you will be: complete, whole, without blemish, perfect.” How wonderful. How true.
For there is one (and ONLY one) who has truly been totally whole, complete, without blemish and perfect: Jesus, the spotless “lamb of God.” This Jesus lived a perfect life on our behalf. His own righteousness, his own perfection is credited to our account as we trust in him. And our wicked thoughts, words and actions are given over to him wholly (along with the deserved punishment for these acts) through his death on the cross.
The end result is that all who trust in Jesus are counted whole, complete, without blemish and even perfect in the sight of God on behalf of Jesus. wow.
Not only that, but Jesus has promised to one day return and raise our bodies from the ground making them gloriously new. On THAT day–we will experience, not merely by faith, but by sight our own wholeness, completion and perfection in Him.
Thank you, Lord Jesus.
I can’t recall ever having three funerals in one week–nor five within a month’s time. But that’s what I’ve got. Two more this Friday. I appreciate these opportunities, actually. At a funeral, people are confronted with the reality of death and I have the opportunity to point them to Jesus as the only answer, the only hope that we really have in this world. Life is short–even if lived fully as our current ages would recon–in the span of eternity. We need the forgiveness and life that only Jesus brings.
We have a funeral this morning for a dear woman of our congregation. While there is obvious sorrow at such times, we do not grieve without hope. (see 1 Thess. 4:13) No. We have great hope. Our hope is in Jesus Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life. (see John 11) We cling to Jesus who will raise up even our mortal bodies and make them like his glorious body. (see Philippians 3:21)
After the service, after the luncheon, there will be the committal of her remains to their resting place with these words:
“We now commit her body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body, by he power that enables him to subdue all things to himself.
May God the Father, who created this body, may God the + Son who by his blood redeemed this body, may God the Holy Spirit who by Holy Baptism sanctified this body to be his temple, keep these remains to the day of the resurrection of all flesh. Amen.”
The past several days have brought me face to face with all sorts of pain and grief in the lives of people. There are always hurting people, and as a pastor I’m often confronted with pain. But sometimes it seems to come in more intense waves. It could be people facing disease or illnesses; Sudden death of a loved one. It could be facing the sometimes stupid, sometimes petty, sometimes flat-out evil things that people do and say.
Sometimes the weight of all this pain and hurt looks like it will crush those in the midst of it. Sometimes it feels as though it will crush me–even though I am merely walking along side people who are at the center of the “storm” of life. At times like this, I often wonder at the capacity of God to endure so much suffering. I’m only exposed to a tiny portion–God knows all and sees all moment by moment, day by day. I cannot comprehend having that level of intimate knowledge of people’s sorrows and pain. How does a God who is full of compassion and love endure it?
This is even more marvelous to consider, when we think of the cross. There. On the cross. Jesus entered into the heart of human suffering, as he carried the full weight of our sins and then bore the full outpouring of God’s righteous anger against that sin. He endured the ultimate agony for us that we might eventually know perfect peace: A day when death, mourning, crying and pain are no more. (see Revelation 21). People have brought so much pain to their creator’s heart! Apparently, he considers us worth the price of love.
“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:28
Jesus came to give his life away for you. He who is Lord of all, came in the humble form of a servant so that you might live and not die. He now invites us to follow him in this way of service.
Who will you serve today? Who will you spend your life on today?
Yesterday’s Sermon based on John 10:27-28 is available on line here.
….We have the assurance that our sins are forgiven. The resurrection of Jesus demonstrates that God, the Father accepted as sufficient, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sins. Jesus was raised for our justification. (Romans 4:25). That it would be apparent to all that we have been “declared righteous” in the sight of God for the sake of Jesus who gave His life for us.
We know that He is who He says He is. That is, He is the very Son of God. He is the Messiah of Israel. His rising from the dead proves that His claims were true.
Romans 1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God– 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
We learn that Jesus’ Word is true and that He is trustworthy.
In Matthew 16, (and many other places) Jesus told His disciples what would happen in the future:
“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
The Resurrection validated Jesus’ prophetic voice (see Deuteronomy 18:15-22). It proved that He really is “the Resurrection and the Life” as he proclaimed to Martha. (See John 11:25-26) His Word is true. He is worthy of our trust.
