Hope in the face of death

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

David Hume, the atheist philosopher, had a mother who was at one time a believer in Christ. Misled by the teachings of her son, she followed him into a life of unbelief and lost her faith. Years passed, and she approached the end of life. From her deathbed she sent a letter to her son; she wrote, "Dear son, my health has forsaken me. I am failing rapidly; I cannot live much longer. My philosophy affords me no comfort in my distress. I have lost the hope and comfort of religion and am sinking into despair. You can offer me something that will replace the hope of religion that I have lost. Hurry home, I beseech you, to comfort me, or at least write me what consolation you can afford in the hour of death." But her son, the philosopher, had no comfort he could give to his dying mother. He could only watch her die in the grip of despair.

I used to work in a funeral home, and I was able to listen in on many different funeral services. The one that sticks in my mind was a service where the worship leader spoke not one word about sin or Jesus or forgiveness or eternal life. All he spoke about was the wonderful life the deceased had lived, and how she would never be truly gone as long as her memory was preserved in the hearts of those who loved her. The so-called sermon was nothing but greeting card platitudes. When he finished speaking, I never in my life heard such agonized weeping as came from that family. The man had offered them absolutely no hope at all. Their loved one was gone, her existence ended forever. Her death had left a terrible hole in the souls of every person in the funeral chapel.

I was furious. I wanted to go and grab that man by the lapels and tell him to do the service over, and do it right this time! He needed to talk about the sin that infests each of us like cancer and eventually results in the decay of death. He needed to talk about God’s love, a love that brought His Son Jesus into the world to show us that sin need not be eternally fatal. He needed to tell them that God’s Son died under the terrible weight of our sins so that we could be freed of their burden. He needed to tell them that Jesus rose from the grave eternally alive and ascended into heaven where He welcomes us to spend eternity with Him, if we only reject our sins and love Him instead. He needed to tell them that because of Jesus, believers do not say goodbye at funerals, only "see you soon."

There is no comfort in the presence of death unless we have Jesus holding our hands as we face it.