WHAT A CONSOLATION!

Sometimes people look to us preachers for answers that we can’t provide. Last Friday was one such occasion as I presided over the funeral of a gentleman who died in the youth of old age. His passing came as complete shock to his family and friends and left them full of questions, deep questions—Why did God let this happen? Does God care? Is this death just a pointless occurrence?

Believe me when I say, I suffered with and for these distraught congregants and I totally understood why they craved some kind of explanation that would help them find meaning in this tragic loss.

Allow me to share with you an abridged version of what I shared with them…

I don’t have an explanation for you this morning. Explanations for events like this belong only to the mind of God, and I’m not God. What I can offer you, however, is consolation, the consolation of Jesus Christ whom I know beyond a shadow of a doubt shares your grief. I’m reminded of one place in the gospels where John records these remarkable words, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Why did Jesus weep? He wept because his dear friends, Mary and Martha, were distraught over the death of their loved one. Just imagine —God, in human flesh, weeping with and for his earthly friends. As an earthly friend of Jesus by virtue of your faith in him, Jesus weeps with you too. In your season of bereavement take this consolation to the bank—you have our Lord’s never-ending companionship. You need not bear the pain of your loss alone. More than once in the New Testament Jesus reassured his brokenhearted and emotionally fragile friends with these words, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

But the consolation of Christ goes far deeper than the emotional comfort of his enduring companionship. It reaches to the soul and instills in the soul an implacable confidence that beyond this life there is eternal life and that the cross and resurrection are the lasting pathway home to God. As Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me” (John 14:6). I strongly encourage you to take this path. Seize this season of sorrow and make it into a defining moment in your personal life journey. Put your faith in Christ and come to know with confidence that death is not the last word on life and that when all is said and done, somehow, some way, some day this loving Christ will make sense out of this seemingly senseless event that has turned your world upside down.

Did my grieving congregants hear and not just listen to my words? Truthfully, I don’t know, but I pray that they did.

Love and blessings,

David