I have been working through the five foundational doctrines of the Christian faith and the next one that I should be commenting on is that of Faith in God.  However, I’m going to postpone those thoughts in favor of some thoughts on the resurrection of the dead.

I am a volunteer chaplain at our local police and fire department.  This morning I was dispatched to a death in which the mother of four who had been taking care of her elderly father awoke to find her father had died sometime in the night.  I arrived to find a grief-stricken woman who described a new level of loneliness at the loss of her father.  I wanted to tell her that her father was in a better place.  I wanted to tell her that she would see him again.  But I did not know either her or her father and so the truth is I did not know if those things were true.  I asked her if there was any spiritually significant person that I could call, a pastor, a counselor, or a priest, and she told me that she had not been to church in a long time.  I asked her where the body of her father was and where and how her children were responding.

Then I asked her if I could pray and she answered, “yes, I would very much like that.”  We bowed our heads, and the desire of my heart was to pray that God had received her father and remind this woman that she would see him again, but I did not.  Instead, I prayed for comfort, wisdom, and grace for this woman as she navigated this new reality with her husband and children.  As I concluded the prayer with an “amen” I saw a framed picture hanging on the wall that read, “To belong to the Lord is to never have to say good-by forever.”  That was encouraging.  Maybe she and her family knew Jesus.

Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says, “…if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain (1Cor 15:13-15).”  Apart from a future resurrection what hope do I, as a representative of Christ, have to offer this woman?  If it is true that all there is to this life is that which we see now, then her father is gone to her forever and she will one day be gone to her children as well.  “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Co 15:19).”

This is not an insignificant point.  It is connected to the doctrine of dead works.  If each of us is morally responsible for our actions and because all our good works can never cover for our bad works then all our works are dead.  But if our faith is in the work of Christ and its ability or sufficiency to atone for our bad works and that atonement is only sufficient for this life then what do we have?  At best we have a motivational poster.  A motivational poster that will motivate only until we die.

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1Co 15:20-22).”  What a hope!  Not only to be raised alive but to be raised alive and found righteous in the judgment to come!  But there is a rub; you have to be in Christ.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (Joh 3:16).”  And that is why I could not pray a prayer of hope without the knowledge of this woman and her father’s standing in Christ.  To do so would have been to offer a false hope.  A false hope is a pitiful hope.  But I was encouraged by the words on her wall and my hope is that she, and her family, are in Christ.

As I spent the rest of the morning with this family there came a time when we were all in the back yard.  The body of her father was being moved and mom did not want her or her children’s last memory of her father to be of that move.  So, we moved the family to the back yard until her father could be removed from the house.  I watched as the four children played a game of duck, duck, goose in the small patch of grass that was their yard.  Dad shot hoops with kid sized basket balls and mom stood to the side on the phone with her sister and I could not help but note the tone of loneliness in her voice.  It was in that moment that I understood that in the center of her family this woman felt alone at the loss of her father.

The Christian hope is in an eternal resurrection founded on the resurrection of Christ.  One day, I will step into that eternity and Jesus will take my hand and welcome me home.  But who will we find in that home?  Hopefully, our loved ones and those closest to us are saved and what a blessing when we know that they are.  But as I stood in this family’s backyard it occurred to me that if they are saved, along with her family, I will recognize them and they will recognize me in eternity.  This is true because God, in His infinite wisdom, saw fit to cross our paths at this moment in time.  A moment of loneliness that when the Christian hope is realized will become a moment of eternal familiarity.

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day (Joh 6:35-40).”  Don’t wait… look to Jesus and live!  Share him with your friends and family that they might live too.  Live your life in such a way that you don’t hinder their acceptance of Him.  One day our loneliness will turn to an eternity of familiar communion with one another.

Before I sign off I do want to take this time to thank the first responders involved in todays encounter. It never ceases to amaze me at the kindness and caring that can come from some of the toughest people I know. They can hold the line toe to toe with anyone but it is their tenderness that is most impressive. Thanks for all that you do.

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Image by Fabio Grandis from Pixabay