It seems like the weeks that I have things to write about I find it difficult to find the time to write. And the weeks that I have time to write, nothing worthwhile comes to my mind. This is one of those weeks. However, since I missed sending out Monday’s Memory this week, I decided to do a little rewrite of the 2013 encouragement that was supposed to be sent earlier this week.
In March of 2013 I wrote: Today I attend the funeral of a good friend and colleague. We were teamed together, either by chance or God’s hand (you figure it out), in 1984. I had been a pastor for less than a year. Someone who knew us both brokered the deal. Though he now had lived in northern Michigan for the past few years, we continued to speak to each other – about life and ministry – about a half dozen times each year. I am missing him already. [Now, in 2025, I will add his name: Don Ritter]
Next week I will attend the funeral of my Good Friend and Savior, Jesus Christ. He introduced himself to me 60 years ago this month [March 6, 1953]. And this life-long friendship has completely changed my view of life and death. I am sad today because I will miss those conversations with my friend … but I know that my Good Friend has things other than sadness in mind for my future.
About 2,000 years ago Jesus attended the funeral of a good friend of his (actually, he missed the funeral, arriving about 4 days late). In John 11.35 we are told “Jesus wept”. Many have speculated why Jesus wept, but the Bible doesn’t really say. All it says is (Jesus) said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” (John 11.34-47)
Death is a harsh reality of this fallen world. All die because all have sinned. You will die. I will die. Each and every one of our loved ones will die. Even Lazarus died again. We can weep all we want, but it will not change this reality.
However, death and our view of it has been changed by the death (and resurrection) of my Good Friend and Savior, Jesus Christ. A few moments before Jesus wept, he said to his grieving friends, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”(John 11.25-26)
Believing this changes everything. It changes how we live. It changes how we die. It changes how we handle the death of loved ones. Faith, which comes from hearing the message of Christ (Romans 10.17), is strengthened as we continue in that Word.
Do you want to be strong (as in filled with peace) during life’s most challenging times? Stay in the Word … grow in the Word … hear the Word. The Word prepares us for a life surrounded by death, death itself, and life everlasting.
As the children of God in Christ Jesus, instead of ‘living like we are dying.’ we live knowing that our Redeemer lives. He lives and grants us daily breath. He lives, and we shall conquer death. Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives: I know that my Redeemer lives. (LSB 461)
Now, in 2025, as not only I but also all of my living friends get older … and as friends and family members are called home … the impact of these words upon me has only grown.