We have a saying: “Ignorance is bliss.” When we say that, we don’t apply that expression to every piece of our life. But ignorance is bliss instead of knowing every thoughtless and unkind word spoken against you. Ignorance is bliss when it comes to a special surprise that others have planned for you. But ignorance is not bliss when it comes to knowing what happens to us after death.
The writers of 1st Thessalonians–the Apostle Paul and Pastors Silvanus and Timothy–speak with one voice when they say: “Brothers, we don’t want you to be ignorant about those who are asleep.” Of course, they are using the word “sleep” to refer to death. After all, sleep implies that a time will come when one will wake up. And that is so on the Last Day. That’s when our bodies will arise from death, when Jesus returns, when He will reunite body and soul.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. 1 Thessalonians tells us that we are not to be ignorant about those who have died. And here’s why: “So you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope.”
We learn a sobering truth–even for Christians. The death of someone we love saddens and grieves us. It’s not that it’s a sin to be sad. Didn’t Jesus weep with the family of Lazarus after Lazarus had died? And when praying at Gethsemane before His death by crucifixion, Jesus said, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38).
Death causes us to grieve. Yet, as true as that is, our grief is different from the grief of a non-Christian. Why? It’s because we know the divine union that we have with God in Christ Jesus is unbreakable. We know that we have been brought into the divine life of the Holy Trinity, into whose name we have been baptized. And death does not take that away from us.
God has joined those whom He has brought into His Church in a holy union that is stronger than death. And we will see God fulfill that reality on the Last Day, when Jesus returns. But until then, we are to take God’s word for it, knowing, by faith, that it is the true reality.
God the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Spirit, will raise a Christian loved-one who has fallen asleep in physical death. This will happen when Jesus returns on the Last Day, which will usher in the new reality, a reality of body and soul, where we will live in the new heaven and the new earth.
When the Bible refers to death as a sleep, it doesn’t mean the soul is asleep until the Last Day, as if the soul is unconscious. We know that’s not the case. For when Scripture mentions what we will experience between death and resurrection, it describes us being aware, and delighting in, God’s presence. Jesus said to the repentant thief on the cross, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” The Apostle Paul said that he wanted to leave this world and be with Christ, which is far better than life in this fallen world (Philippians 1:23).
So, the sleep of death is not the sleep of the soul. It’s the sleep of the body in the grave. For the body that dies will not remain forever dead. Jesus will return. His voice will call the dead from the sleep of physical death, and all of humanity will stand before Him. Those who died “in Jesus” will be raised first. They will be reunited with those who are still living in their bodies here on earth. The bond between Christ and Christian will never be broken.
But we would be careless if we didn’t notice the contrast, the difference, between how Scripture refers to the death of Christ and the death of a Christian. When 1 Thessalonians tells us about the death of a Christian, it uses the word “sleep.” But when Scripture refers to Jesus’ death, it minces no words and says that Jesus died. We sleep; Jesus died.
Why is that we sleep, but Jesus died? First, Jesus didn’t have a long, protracted time when body and soul were separated. He rose on the third day–body and soul! But it’s more than that. We sleep because Jesus died. Our death is a sleep because Jesus has died our death for us, removing its sting, taking away its power to keep us enslaved in fear. How did Jesus do that? He paid the wages of sin. That’s why Scripture calls our death a “sleep.”
If death is but a sleep, then why do we still grieve, although not like those who have no hope? Here’s why: Those who have no hope have no eternal future of joy and peace. We do. But we still grieve because we still experience loss. But what makes our grief different is that our pain of loss is only for now, not for all eternity. Oh, our pain is still real. But underneath the pain of losing someone you love who has died in the Faith is knowing that a reunion awaits you in eternity.
By Holy Spirit-given faith, we know that God’s promises are true. And so we know that the covenant of God with us in baptism will stand. The Father created us body and soul. The Son redeemed us body and soul. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us body and soul. What does that mean? It means that God saves us, body and soul, not just our souls. And so our eternity will be one of body and soul. That means that God will raise our bodies from the grave and reunite them with our souls, which death had separated.
That’s why I say these words at the committal of the body into the grave:
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.
So, when will this be, when will body and soul reunite for all eternity? It’ll be when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead. Now, we don’t know the day or hour of that event. It could be in a few minutes; it could be in a few thousand years.
Our epistle reading tells us: “The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God.” When it happens, Jesus’ return won’t be a secret. The whole world will see Him. All people will be brought before Him. The dead will be raised, and those still living will then be brought before the Lord.
It’s as our epistle reading says: “First, the dead in Christ will rise. After that, we who are still alive will be taken in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. In this way, we will always be with the Lord. So then, encourage one another with these words.”
The Christians who have died will rise first. Then the Christians still living, those who have not died, will join them in the clouds to meet Jesus. We will always be with Him. Nothing can separate us from Him. The grave cannot take the joy that we have in Christ, for the grave cannot separate us from the love of God that we have in Christ.
When God’s original creation fell from grace, He didn’t discard or dispose of His creation. That’s because God loves those whom He made in His image, even those who have fallen away from Him and live as if He doesn’t exist. God still loves them. Jesus suffered and died for them. The Holy Spirit still works through Word and Sacrament to give them life-saving faith.
When Jesus rose from the dead, it was then that He destroyed death. Jesus died the death of all humanity. So, death has no power over God. When we die, we are in His hands. That’s our comfort! It’s the comfort of knowing that God in the person of His Son died for us and rose from the dead for us. It’s also the comfort of knowing what God alone can teach us: That He will raise our bodies, and we will have a joyous eternity beyond our imagination.
In His Scriptures, God has revealed a truth to us that keeps us from grieving as those who do not have eternal hope. We live and die in this hope because we know that God has forgiven us our sins because of Jesus.
Those who don’t know Christ don’t have this hope. For them, eternity will be different. For, apart from Christ, God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews 12:29). That’s what hell is. Hell is experiencing eternity apart from the holiness given to you by Jesus Christ. For if someone doesn’t have Christ’s righteousness and holiness, he will experience eternity, not as a child of Light, but as if being on fire. Your own righteousness is not enough. If it were, you wouldn’t need Jesus.
But we who are baptized into union with Christ’s death and resurrection have a bright, Light-filled future awaiting us. We who, by faith, know that Jesus died for us, bearing our sins, paying its wages for us, dying our death for us, suffering its judgment for us, have comfort in the face of death. For we know that we will not experience or suffer what our Lord Jesus experienced and suffered.
For Jesus, death was death. But for us it will be but a sleep. Not even death can break our fellowship with God. “So then, encourage one another with these words,” not just any words. We need the words of Christ, and what He did and does to defeat death, spoken to us when we are alive and well. That’s why God calls you to come to Church every week.
Then, when death strikes or Jesus returns at a moment we cannot anticipate, we will be ready. For those Holy-Spirited words that fill us with Jesus will encourage us and bring us the fullness of joy on that Day, which no one can take away from us. That’s why we can pray what the Apostle John prayed in the book of Revelation: “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20).” Amen.
