"It's Good to See Our Dead"

Revelation 7:9-17

Grief therapists tell us that it is good to see our dead. It’s good for us. They comment how it is a healthy thing to do. We should see our dead; we should see the lifeless body, the casket, the grave. We’re told that it provides a sense of closure and allows the healing and acceptance to begin. It’s good to see your dead…that is essentially what a son was told at the hospital one evening. His father had just passed away. For a number of days the son had been at his father’s bedside, knowing in his heart of hearts that death was coming for his father, he was being told by the doctors that it was coming, but as any of us would probably do—or have done--in the same situation, he couldn’t quite admit it to himself. And then on this evening, it finally happened. For an hour he stared at the screen above the bed watching, for what seemed to be an eternity, the numbers shrink lower and lower. And when the time finally arrived that that fateful beeping morphed into a single tone, he left the room. He didn’t want to look, he didn’t want to see.

It’s good to see our dead…is what the chaplain told this son…and so finally, he went back into the room. And there lay his father. And the son was a bit taken back by the scene that was laid out in front of him. There lay his father…dead. Through the tears, oh many, many tears, the son saw something. For a number of months, he had watched his father suffer considerably from the cancer. Not only was the cancer causing suffering beyond belief, but everything else that came with it. The weekly doses of chemotherapy and radiation took what the son had once seen as a mountain of a man and shrunk him, in more ways than one, to a fraction of that. And this father was never one to vocalize pain. Many of us have had fathers like that…you know the kind that can practically cut off their big toe and not even flinch. And while the son never heard a word of complaint from his father, the son saw things in last few weeks and months that he wished he’d never seen. The suffering his father had went through, the trials and tribulations that affected his father, could be seen…words didn’t need to express it. Especially in the last day of his life, the extreme pain became more and more visual and at times audible. And as he looked upon the body of his father, he did see something, and it was good…he saw peace.

On this All Saint’s Day, we gather with some peace in our hearts. This morning there is no body, no casket here at the front of the church, no hearse outside, but we gather this morning to remember and give thanks for the saints who have gone before us. We look to our dead with honor, we offer thanksgiving for all the saints…many known, many more unknown. It is important to remember those who died in the faith and it is important to always hear their witness in our hearts. In doing so, we await with a sure and steadfast faith the resurrection, when all the saints, them and us, will join together before the Throne of God

But there is something troubling about this day for us…it is hard too see our dead, death is troubling to talk about, to think about. We speak of those who have gone before us in the faith, and especially for those we know and remember oh so well, it is hard, it is trying. And so, we can—rightly so--put this title ‘saint’ on them and possibly that makes it a bit easier, but when we reflect, we remember the agony of death, the suffering, the many trials and tribulations of life; we are reminded that these dear saints were in fact sinners. According to God’s Holy Word they were liars, deceivers, adulterers, murders, idol worshippers, guilty of breaking each and every command of God’s Law. Romans 3… “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And we look and see and remember that it is because of their sin that their body now lies dead, for as Paul writes, “the wages of sin is death.” Admittedly, it is hard to see our dead as wretched sinners. But that’s the reality that Scripture makes clear to us.

And because of that, when we see our dead, then it is that we see ourselves. We remember and realize that we are just as much a sinner as they, the wretchedness of sin covers every inch of ourselves, just as much as it did our loved ones, our saints. And it is hard to see because we know that because of this, because of the stains of sin on our own bodies, we will die…there will be a day when death comes for each and every one of us, there will be a day when you take your last breath and your heart ceases to beat. Because of that stark reminder of our own mortality, it is hard to see our dead.

But wait…does not the Scripture say that we, as believing Christians, are also saints? Look at our Gospel lesson selected for this morning of All Saints Day…blessed are you. And we read in other areas of Scripture, even right here in our Revelation text that as saints there will be a point where pain and tears will be no more. We hear at times that saints will no longer suffer tribulations, will no longer have lives filled with suffering, that the sting of death has been removed? Yes, that is true, thanks be to God, but yet we look and we see that here on this earth we are caught in this mysterious paradox—that while you are 100% saint, you are also 100% sinner.

So we gather today as a church filled with saints and sinners, a church that is set in a sinful world. We gather, especially on this All Saints Day, to see our dead, but my brothers and sisters in Christ as we look upon our dead, we do not look back…we look forward—we do not look back focused on the sufferings and tribulations of our dead and of us. We gather not to look upon our dead, these saints, and to celebrate what they have done for God. No, we gather this day and every day to see our once dead but now living Savior—the very same Savior—the only true Saint, Jesus Christ who died upon the cross and rose from the dead to grant you, a miserable and dying sinner, the title of saint. You see my fellow saints, because of Jesus Christ and what He did for you, you, who believe in Him, are all saints, and along with the Apostle John we look and we gaze in wonder and in adoration to the Throne and to the Lamb which once was slain.

Indeed, it is good to see our dead. This happens each time we watch water splash over a head at the font. There in the waters of Holy Baptism we see brothers and sisters dying to sin and being made alive in Christ. As Paul writes in Romans 6, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death.” But this is no one time event…we see our dead as we daily cling to the promises given in our Baptisms, as we daily drown our sin and rise anew ready to serve God as a redeemed child. Again hear St. Paul, “we were buried with Him through Baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Yes, all of us, the saints who preceded us in death, and we who believe and are baptized, will see our dead, made fully alive; you will see yourself with the stains of sin removed, being clothed in a robe that has been washed in the blood of the Lamb, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, your Savior.

And yet, when we look and see what is out there (out of the church), we don’t always see saints, but often we see enemies. And those enemies and their prince, Satan himself, will rage against you, they will attack you, they will cause you great suffering and pain, they will try to get your faith to stumble and fall, but know this…because of Jesus Christ those enemies have already been defeated. So when in this life all seems dark, all seems lost and hopeless, remember the words of Jesus who says to you “You are mine (John 17) and nothing, and I mean nothing, not even the devil himself will pluck you from my hand” the hand of your Good Shepherd, the Lamb who was slain for you. So while you are on this earth, still a part of the Church militant, you can look forward with certainty in your heart to the day when you will be made a part of the Church triumphant.

Grief therapists say that it is good to see our dead. God says it is good to see our dead. It’s good to see them. Seeing them gives us certainty, it gives us hope, it gives us peace as we look forward to that day which is revealed to us this morning through His Word…a revelation where we see what He will do for our dead, what He will do for you and me, as we, all together, stand around the throne and sing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Alleluia, Amen!