Tag: Death

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Jesus Dead and Buried (Luke 23:44–56)

[Listen to an audio version of this sermon here]

For some reason, the death of my Grandmother, Dorothy Basham, in November of 2022, has been particularly sobering for me. I have one Grandparent left, my Grandfather David Keith. Once he is gone, that entire generation of grandparents will be gone. For some reason, my Grandmother’s death made me think on this more deeply. Perhaps it’s because I have often thought of saying something or mentioning something to her or asking her something, and then I remember that she’s gone. All this reminds me of the fact that I am headed to the grave, and one day I will join them.

Death is not the way it is supposed to be. God did not create humans to experience death but to live in joy forever. Nowhere is this more poignant than the death of a child. We always expect that our children will outlive us. I was with a woman recently who experienced a joyful occasion where everyone was happy and rejoicing. But . . . it reminded her of the death of her son. She was weeping uncontrollably and had to leave. My heart went out to her both because I saw that everyone was happy and yet I realized that this reminded her of that which hurt her more than anything else in the world could.

We need to think about this. It is part of life, and it has extreme significance. Here, in this passage we encounter a death. It is the death of Jesus, the Son of God. What does this event tell us about death? Does it help us in any way as we process our own death and the death of those we love? That’s what we want to consider here. There are two aspects to this story that will be our two points, the death of Jesus and the burial of Jesus. Then, I will conclude by making some points about the suffering of Christ in general.

The Death of Jesus
There are two things that happen in our text which indicate opposite things, the darkness and the rending of the temple veil. Let me explain.

First, consider the darkness. Think about what it must have been like to see the crucifixion. Jesus had already been crucified, and then thick darkness comes over the land. The sun stopped shining. Here is a scene where Jesus was crucified and the movements of the weather cause it to be black and dark. The weather, which is under the control of God, demonstrated the blackness of the whole event, the reign of darkness, as Jesus said.

However, there is something more. In the Bible, the darkness and clouds represent the judgment of God. Joel, for example, describes the day of judgment as a “day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness” (Joel 2:2). However, this day of darkness and gloom was always coming upon people because of their sin. As Zephaniah the prophet said when he was speaking of another such day, it was “because they have sinned against the Lord” (Zeph. 1:16).

The question here is, why would the judgment of God come against Jesus? He was the beloved Son in whom the Father, just a short time ago had said, “He was well pleased.” Jesus had not done any wrong. He was so sure of this that He said that none of them could show where He had sinned. This may seem prideful, but it is not. Humility is an accurate estimation of what we are and that is almost all there is to it.

So, again, why would the black clouds of judgment come against Him? Because He was there as the representative of sinful humanity. He was there as their substitute. He died because “they have sinned against the Lord,” and He was experiencing judgment on their behalf so that they would not have to. His death in place of ours.

That leads us to the second image here. The veil of the temple was torn in two. It was a thick heavy curtain, and, miraculously, it was ripped in two from top to bottom. Now the veil guarded the way to the holiest place in the temple. Only the high priest could enter there where the ark of the covenant was, and that only once a year! It was a symbol of God’s grace and the sacrifice of atonement that Jesus would make, but it was also a reminder that the way had not yet been opened. They were still shut out from the presence of God unless the true sacrifice took place.

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Jesus Crucified (Luke 23:26–43)

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When you consider the future, do you think of good things? Do you think that there will be blessing? Or do you expect things to turn out badly, a curse? What about for your children?

The blessing and the curse. There are many reasons why we might expect a curse. After all, we all have to die. The time of death is often not very pleasant. If it extends itself out a long time, it can be worse. I was praying for someone’s mother last week who is having an awful time as she continues to decline in health. It’s the sort of thing I don’t really even want to share the details of. It just breaks my heart. It is things like that which make us think that future will bring a curse and not a blessing.

Last week, I talked about God’s purposes to do us good, to bless us. One person said that cancer and Ukraine make me wonder. This was person was right. It does make us wonder. It rightly makes us wonder if God’s purpose for us is good, if it is blessing.

Beyond this, we have to ask, what do we really deserve? Have we really treated people as the image of God? Have we given God the honor He deserves? Have we really loved Him? Have we made a good use of the things He has given us? The answer is often, “no.” The wages of sin is death. It is a curse. So, why would we expect blessing?

Well, our passage today gives us reason to expect that the future will bring blessing rather than a curse. This hope, ironically, is founded on the terrible punishment of crucifixion, an excruciatingly painful way to die. How in the world could the cross, the crucifixion, give us hope of blessing? That’s what I want you to see in this text.

The Way to the Crucifixion
The place where they would crucify Jesus is called “The Skull.” It’s interesting that I hear a lot of people around here saying “Calvary’s cross.” I’m not sure that really communicates to us what the Bible is talking about. The word Calvary comes from the Latin word calvaria. Calvaria means “skull.” So, it might be better for us to say, “Skull’s cross,” if we are going to say it. It’s called “skull” because it is a place of death. The skull is the symbol of death. It is the place of execution.

Now, Jesus was in Pilate’s court, but he had to walk to The Skull, to Calvary. Our text describes for us to the way to The Skull, the way to the crucifixion. It does this through three different foci on various people. These three foci are on Simon, the women of Jerusalem, and the two criminals.

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Our Glorious Hope in Suffering (1 Thess. 4:13–5:11)

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The Fundamental Problem
When kids are little, few things are more exciting than a visit from the grandparents. They greet these visitors with an eagerness that warms the heart. But this doesn’t last forever. These same kids get busy with life and other things get their attention. They may still love their grandparents, but the relationship changes. When this chapter of life closes, it’s easy to look back on it with a joy mixed with sadness. You realize that life has moved on.

The sadness we feel at loss points to the final loss. All changes point to the final change when death closes all chapters. Alfred Lord Tennyson said, “But every hour is saved from that eternal silence, something more, a bringer of new things. Death closes all.” Death is the final loss that all losses point to.

This is what the Apostle Paul addressed in his letter. Their friends, their close companions, had departed this world. The Thessalonian Christians were, understandably, sad. They had embraced the faith, and now their friends had died. They were mourning, and they were not sure what to think of it. The ever present power of death still seemed to be at work in spite of the resurrection of Christ.

To understand this, we should consider that there is an even more basic problem than death. It is the judgment of God. God’s holiness shatters all our delusions of righteousness. We can compare ourselves to others and believe that we are better, but in the light of the holiness of God, we all stand equally condemned before the throne of God.

In this political season, we can easily demonize one side or the other. “Demonize” is a good description of what we tend to do. This is not to say that one side is not more righteous than the other, but it is always good to remember that in light of the judgment of God, Democrats and Republicans alike stand condemned for our our own pride and sins before the holy throne of God’s judgment.

The day of the Lord is the word the Bible uses to describe the final judgment, when all of the world will be evaluated according to God’s standard and weighed in the balance. The question of the day of the Lord is always this, how will anyone survive, since all are sinful and deserve God’s wrath?

And none of us knows the time when we will be summoned before the throne of God. We do not know the time of our death. You may take all the precautions and avoid COVID, and you may die on the way home. You may wake up dead tomorrow. This is hard for us to hear, but it is one of the most important facts of life.

That is how the day of the Lord is. It comes like a thief. The thief doesn’t call you and give you a date and time when he will rob your home. He comes at a time you least expect it. That’s how death is and that is how the day of the Lord will be.

In light of these facts, we might wonder, is there any hope?

The Glorious Hope
Indeed. There is. A glorious one.

The first aspect of our hope is that we know the day of the Lord is coming. “But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness” (1 Thess. 5:4–5). We don’t need to be in the dark. We know the day of the Lord is coming.

Second, the good news is that we are not appointed to receive wrath. “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9). We might expect wrath and condemnation because of our sin, but that will not be our end. The Lord will come to end our suffering not give us over to suffering.

Now, we must add, this is only true for those who have accepted Jesus as their representative before God. Whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. Christ has made the sacrifice, but we must accept it. It is only those who are anticipating Christ’s return who will be saved from the wrath of God. Is that you? Where do you stand? You may enjoy community at church or feel good about being here, but have you given yourself to Jesus and accepted Him as the one who saves you? Remember. The day comes like a thief. You need to be ready.

The third aspect of the hope is that we will be with the Lord. “He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him” (1 Thess. 5:10). God tells us what it will be like when Jesus comes again:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thess. 4:16–17).

We will always be with the Lord. He died for us not only to save us from our sins but also because He values us so much that He wants to experience our presence to all eternity. Jesus love you and values you that much! Don’t let anyone look down on you!

This past week, I had the great privilege of witnessing the marriage of a cousin on my Mother’s side. She was the last of my generation to get married, and now all of us are married. Marriage is a beautiful thing. One of the things that we say in our wedding vows is, “Until death do us part.” We can only commit as long as life lasts.

With Jesus, it is not like that. He wants to be with us forever. We are united with Him forever to enjoy Him, the person who fulfills all our desires for fellowship and friendship and loves us and values us more than we can imagine. That’s the relationship He wants to have with us.

That doesn’t mean that we will go there alone. That is the fourth aspect of this hope. One thing Paul emphasizes is that though the Thessalonian Christians may mourn their Christian friends who have died, they do not need to mourn as those who have no hope. We will all be together with the Lord. That’s a great hope.

Our Appropriate Response
So, how should this affect us? How should this change our lives? Paul has very practical instruction that is immediately applicable to each one of us right now, today.

First, we need mental space. Last week, I went camping up at Indian Boundary by myself. There was zero cell phone reception. It was really strange not to be able to text people when I thought about it and not to hear from anyone or be able to look things up I had questions about. But it was good. It allowed me some extra mental space.

Every bit of growth we experience comes from this extra space. The Bible will not necessarily say, “clear mental space,” but it presupposes it. Everything it tells us to do requires time and mental energy. Unless we have that, we will not be able to grow.

Second, we need to use that mental space to think about the big issues of life, including death. What would happen if you died today? If you die 30 years from now, what would you have wanted to do with it? What would be a good life? We’ve got to think about these questions in order to live well. I tend to think we should consider each day as a completed whole. We should think of this day as in some ways as our last and live it doing what our Lord would want us to do. We should lay our head down on our pillow ready to meet the Lord, if He should call us home.

Third, we should develop the virtues that lead us to hope. We need to tell ourselves the stories of God’s love for us. We need to tell ourselves the story of God’s interest in us. We need to tell ourselves of the stories of God’s eternal plan for us. We need to take these stories in deep and receive them with all our hearts. That’s what it means to put on faith, hope, and love as armor. The Apostle Paul says, “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet” (1 Thess. 5:8). Like armor protects a soldier from the missiles of the enemy, so faith, hope, and love enable us to keep moving forward in the face of the opposition that can keep us from becoming what God has called us to be.

Finally, we don’t do this alone. Growth is a communal activity. At the end of 1 Thess. 4, the Apostle Paul says, “Therefore encourage one another with these words.” He gives further explanation and then says again, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (1 Thess. 5:11). So, let’s help each other. Let’s encourage one another, as we are doing. Let’s not run from the reality of death, but let’s encourage one another that in the face of this ultimate suffering, we have a glorious hope! That’s something we can and should do . . . today. Amen.

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Photo by bing an on Unsplash