Living Word - Easter Sunday

This may seem odd for an Easter devotion, but I want to talk about funerals. Believe it or not, conducting a funeral is one of the great joys of my ministry. This is not to say that funerals are easy, they’re not. The profound grief and sadness of family and friends gathered together is real and it is difficult, but in the midst of the grief and the sadness there is also a deep and profound beauty in a Christian funeral. Whenever I conduct a funeral, I always gather the family together before the visitation begins and I read to them from the hymn I Know That My Redeemer Lives. I read those beautiful words, “I know that my Redeemer lives; what comfort this sweet sentence gives! He lives, all glory to His name! He lives, my Jesus still the same; Oh the sweet joy this sentence gives; I know that my Redeemer lives!”

The words of that beloved hymn are derived from Job chapter 19 when, although he is in the absolute depths of despair and suffering, Job confesses his hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Quite applicable to a family grieving the death of a loved one. It is a beautiful moment when I get to read that hymn with a grieving family, and it points to the source of the beauty that can be found in the funeral service.

You may be wondering at this point what any of this has to do with Easter? Easter is the reason there is beauty and even joy to be found in that funeral service. While Christians do grieve, the apostle Paul reminds us that we do not grieve as those who have no hope. The joy and the hope we find in the words of Job and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ are joy and hope that we carry with us for every day of our lives. Jesus is alive, he is the Living Word, and because he is alive, we too have everlasting life as do those faithful loved ones who have gone before us. Today, tomorrow, and every single day of your life; no matter what struggle or grief you may be enduring, Jesus is alive. Because Jesus is alive, you, and all the faithful who have gone before you join together in the hope of that Living Word: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.”

We Pray: Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Amen.