THE TOMB
Luke 24:1-8

Unlocking the Mystery Series
November 1, 2009
Pastor Nathan J. Thompson

During my first call as a pastor serving two churches in rural Minnesota I had the opportunity to get to know and minister to many wonderful people.  One joy of being a pastor is that special people with whom God has blessed each congregation really bless your life.

Two of these special people in this Maynard community were Art and Irene.  They were both older and retired farmers and during my years there, I ministered to them through the death and funerals of their spouses, and when they began dating and were eventually married.

After our family moved to Litchfield and I became a pastor at this new congregation, Art and Irene would often drive 50 miles to visit us.  Since neither of them ever had any children it was as if they adopted our family as their kids and grandchildren.

A few years later Irene got very sick and I went back to see her in the hospital in Granite Falls.  Shortly thereafter, Irene died and the new pastor in Maynard led the funeral.  Art was devastated and very lonely all by himself.

One day Art called unexpectedly and asked if I could meet him for lunch at a restaurant halfway between in Willmar.  When I met him that day we discussed normal pleasantries like, “How are you getting along?” and “What have you been doing?” and so on.

Then Art got very serious and said he had something to share with me that I might not believe.  He told me how one day he was sitting with Irene in her hospital room.  Just then, a bright light filled the room; he felt God’s presence and then a deep peace.  Just then, Irene stopped breathing and died.

He said he had mentioned this story to a couple people and they thought he was hallucinating and crazy.  “Nathan,” he said, “Do you think I was crazy?”  Now, Art was very stoic—a man of few words, a Norwegian farmer.  He was not an emotionally unbalanced person.

“Art,” I said, “I believe your story 100 percent.  I believe with all my heart that our risen Savior, Jesus, appeared to you that day and touched you with His peace.  And at that time I believe that he took Irene in her death to live with Him forever in His kingdom of heaven.”

“And the reason I believe and am so certain about that,” I told Art, “is because Jesus died on the cross, was placed in a tomb, and because God raised Him to life from the dead.  Because Jesus defeated death in His resurrection, that means that in our death, we too can be resurrected from the dead.”

As we continue exploring the keys that help us unlock the mysteries of the Bible, the tomb is an important key.  Remember:  Jesus is not simply alive in a spiritual sense.  Through the ages, some have believed that Jesus never really died, that He is simply alive in some mystical and supernatural way.

Yet the key understanding and truth of the Bible is that Jesus was completely dead.  He died in body and spirit; a spear pierced His side to ensure He was dead. Jesus suffered, died and was placed in a tomb for 36 hours. 

To remember this makes His resurrection all that more miraculous.  God raised Jesus, body and spirit, from the tomb and grip of death.  God defied the natural order in this world by bringing life out of death.  Jesus is risen; He is alive; He is Lord of life and death.

Therefore, it is because of the tomb and Jesus’ resurrection that we can have hope as we face death.  Because of the tomb, we can know that the other side of death is not just some Eastern, mystical, spiritual, new age idea.  It is a resurrected and new body to live with Christ forever.

Luke 24:4–6 reads, “While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.  In their fright the women bowed down their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen.’”

A number of years ago I attended a funeral service for a young woman who had been killed in a car accident.  The pastor who gave the message was part of a universalist and new age background.  He talked about stars aligning with other stars in the universe, and he shared a couple poems that obscurely talked about an afterlife.

I remember leaving that service with an emptiness in my whole being.  Nice poems and visions of stars did not give me any solid hope.  With the universe pictured like a spiritual mass that somehow doesn’t end, there was nothing solid or sure to hang onto.

As this empty feeling continued to bug me I thought of the words I have shared hundreds of times at the graves of congregation people, friends and family:  “In sure and certain hope of the resurrection through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to almighty God our brother/sister…”

I also thought of some of the great Bible passages we share at funerals at Shepherd:  “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.  Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.’”  (John 11:25–26)

Also, 1 Corinthians 15:51–57: “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

“For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true:  Death is swallowed up in victory.

“Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’”

Now that, my friends, is a powerful truth you can stake your life and death on.  It is a truth that gives you hope and confidence to live each day.  It is a truth that helps and comforts you when you face the death of a loved one, and gives you assurance when you face your own death.  Jesus is our hope in life and death.

It has often been said that you do not need to fear the future when you know the one who holds the future.  The key is that we receive Jesus’ love in our lives by faith, and that we trust and grow in our relationship with Him.  For in Jesus you share in the promise that nothing, not even death, can separate you from His love.

When I was in one of my seminary preaching classes I remember the discussion we had on how to eulogize a person and the proper way to talk about their life in their funeral sermons.  It is very important and healing to share stories and witness from people’s lives.

Yet I still remember our professor’s words:  “But remember to always talk more about Jesus, and about Bible truths, than about the person.  For no matter how good a Christian or person they may have been, and no matter how many good things they did, eternal life only comes through Jesus and not from our goodness.  Only in Jesus is there hope for life now, and for all eternity.”

What a great assurance it is to family and friends if we have lived our lives by faith, have served and lived for God in lives of care for others, and have borne witness to our faith through our words and actions.  May we center our lives in Jesus now so that in our death, it may be a celebration of Jesus and the hope we have in Him.

You may remember how Christian recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman and his family suffered a devastating loss on May 17, 2008.  His five-year-old adopted daughter, Maria Sue, was struck and killed when Chapman’s 17-year-old son was backing out of their driveway.

After much prayer and agony, Steven Curtis Chapman sang his first concert on July 24, 2008.  He began this concert with Matt Redman’s song, “Blessed Be Your Name.”  Inspired by the book of Job, the lyrics repeat, “He gives and takes away.”

“As I sang this song,” Chapman said, “it wasn’t a song—it was a cry, a scream, a prayer.”  He explained to the audience of nearly 5,000, “I found an amazing comfort and peace that surpasses all understanding.”  It is that comfort and peace, my friends, that we too find in Jesus.

The famous theologian, Wolfhart Pannenberg, said these words in a conversation, “The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things:  first, it is a very unreal event.  And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.”

My friends, the empty tomb and resurrection of Jesus does change your life.  It fills you with hope and joy.  It changes your priorities and the reason for living.  It gives you a new reason to live, to give your gifts and talents, to make a difference in this world.

With Jesus living in us by faith, we want our relatives, friends and the world to know Jesus by faith.  We want our church to reach out in love, mission and care—and we give generously to support that.  We want to witness to and tell others about Jesus’ death and resurrection.  It does change our life—and what a joy that is!