1 Corinthians 15:50-58; Luke 7:11-17
The Hand that Raises
I’ve heard it said before that everyone needs some form of physical touch everyday in order to be happy. It doesn’t have to be anything extreme. A handshake. A hug. A pat on the back. It helps us know that we’re not alone. It reminds us how much others care about us. Just a touch. Scientifically, they say that it releases certain kinds of endorphins that help regulate our emotions. Human touch activates the receptors in our body that send signals to our brain which helps us feel safe and secure. This is especially true in babies as they depend on the nurturing touch of a mother and father. Touch helps babies grow. It lowers stress even in adults. Health experts have found that touch is essential to the proper development of the body with numerous positive effects. However, if we go without human touch for too long, they say it can lead to depression or other mental issues. The lack of human touch does a number on our mental wellbeing. Perhaps this is one of the biggest struggles when we deal with death particularly. When we lose loved ones, we no longer get to feel their comforting touch. Yes, funerals are difficult because it’s not just the presence of the loved one we miss, but their touch. Being able to feel someone’s presence through hugs, handshakes, even simple touch. Rather, we feel the tears drip down our faces as we mourn.
Tonight, as we consider the cold touch of death in our life, we should come to feel a new comforting touch. Even as we weep in this life of the pain and suffering that death brings us, we feel our Lord reach out to us and hold us close in his hands. For tonight, the hand of our Lord stretches out to touch death itself that he may wipe every tear from our eyes. For let us learn:
THE HAND OF THE LORD WIPES AWAY THE TEARS OF DEATH!
I.
Funerals are never easy. It doesn’t matter how much you try to call them “celebrations”, they hurt all the same. A person has still been taken from us. A life has ended. Their time is done. Coming to grips with that takes months, years, decades, and even most likely never truly goes away. Consider the widow in our Gospel. We join her in the middle of a funeral procession for her son, her only son, as we read, “As [Jesus] drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her,” Luke 7:12. This woman had lost everyone. Her husband, her son, her whole world. Yes, in Jewish culture, this woman was left with absolutely no safety net. No one to take care of her, no one to help her. You can feel the grief and anguish she carried. To say that death has no sting left in it seems completely wrong. We feel this sting every funeral, every death, every time we lose someone we love. It doesn’t matter either how old or young someone is when they die. We miss them all the same. Perhaps, we tell ourselves there’s some consolation knowing someone lived a good, long life. But even so, it’s the little things we tell ourselves to mask the pain.
Grief is our recognition that death isn’t a friend. It’s our understanding that death isn’t natural either. Rather, death is an intruder to God’s good creation and was never intended to be known among man. It was the hand of the Lord who formed us personally from the dust of the ground. It was the hand of the Lord who created us, knit us together in our mother’s womb. It’s the hand of the Lord that both creates and sustains life on this earth. Notice the touch that God has upon our life. It was supposed to be that hand holding us up for all of life. Yet, it was in our sin, in the sin of Adam and Eve, that we pushed God’s hand aside. We ate of that forbidden fruit and welcomed the very touch of death. Thus, when death touches us now, when we experience death in our life, it’s tears that now run down our face for those who are no more.
II.
Yet, has the Lord withdrawn his hand from us? Does the Lord not care for our plight? Does the Lord allow death to reign over us? Of course not! For even in our darkest moments, when we feel bitterly the touch of death, God has stretched forth his hand to you. God seeks to touch us with his grace and mercy, to wrap us up in his peace, to wipe away the tears from your eyes. When Jesus encounters this funeral procession, we see how death affects him too. As we read, “And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise,” Luke 7:13-14. Jesus has compassion. This is the gut-wrenching type of compassion, the kind you feel deep within you. Then Jesus does the unthinkable in Jewish society. He touches the dead. He lays his hand upon the son to say even to him, “I’m here for you. I’ve come to care for you.” For when the hand of Jesus touches death, life wins! This man is raised from the dead and given back to his mother to hug, to hold, and to care for.
For every time the tears of death have fallen down our face, our Lord is moved with compassion. He mourns and weeps alongside us. But he doesn’t stop there. Rather, the hand of the Lord has come down again that he may plunge his hand deep into the grave to touch death with the hand of life! So, our Lord goes to the cross for you and me. He joins us in our death that he may hold our hand and lead us through this valley of death. And then, by his resurrection, he may raise us up to eternal life! In this veil of tears, we struggle, we mourn, we weep for the dead. But there will come a day when the hand of the Lord stretches out one last time. And he will raise all people so that as Paul says, “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:54-55.
There, Jesus shall wipe away every tear from our eyes, and our tears for death will be done. For there shall be no more death, no more pain and suffering. For the hand of the Lord shall be upon us always, to hold us close and give us life eternal! In Jesus’ name! Amen!