THAT DAY Is Surely Coming
Last Sunday, during our celebration of the Reformation of the Church, we heard the words God said to the prophet Jeremiah, “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. … I will be their God, and they shall be my people. … I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” [Jeremiah 31.31, 33, 34] Today, as we remember the great cloud of witnesses and saints who have gone before us, as we remember our loved ones who have died, we must also remember the promises God has given to us and to them. First among those promises is that death does not have the final word. God does.
“It will be said on that day, ‘Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’” [Isaiah 25.9] Both Isaiah and John the Revelator have seen visions of that day which is surely coming. They have both seen a new home being made for all people. They see a new home being made on a mountain, a new Jerusalem being brought down out of the heavens. Isaiah sees a feast being prepared, “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.” [Isaiah 25.6] This is a royal feast, the type of banquet served to the finest guests on the grandest occasions. That day which is surely coming is an occasion befitting of that type of banquet.
Today, we remember our loved ones who have passed away. When we talk about those who have passed away, it is not only the people who have passed from our lives, but their memories and experiences. When people die, we lose not just the actual person, but we also lose what they did for us, the roles they played in our lives. When people pass away, they leave our current lives, but not our memories. We find we mourn not just the person, but what they meant to us. We miss the experiences we shared, these common bonds. We miss the stories, whether the stories were ones they told or ones told about them. We miss the opportunity to have more stories and more experiences with those who have passed away.
But in John’s Revelation, the term ‘passed away’ takes on a different meaning. In the Revelation, it is “the first things” that have passed away. Those first things include the first earth and first heaven. “Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” [Revelation 21.4] God is preparing a banquet because death has been defeated. We no longer have to worry about loved ones passing away because death itself has passed away. Removing death from the world brings about a new world.
As death and the first things have passed away, we shall weep no more. Loss, of any kind, is an emotional experience. It does not matter if that loss is a game, your keys, an opportunity, a relationship or a loved one. Any loss leads to a sense of unbalance, that something is wrong, missing or incomplete. When that feeling is strong enough, it brings tears. What feeling of loss can be stronger than the loss when a loved one dies? You know you will not see them again.
When Jesus comes to Bethany because his friend Lazarus was ill, he meets Mary, the sister of Lazarus. Mary falls to her knees at his feet and cries. Her brother has been dead for four days. The man who she calls “Lord” has just arrived. She knows if Jesus would have been there, her brother would still be alive. Jesus sees this woman whom he knows, on the ground before him crying over the loss of her brother, and it moved him greatly. Our Lord sees the crowd of mourners who have come with Mary to greet him, and sees them crying over the loss of Lazarus, and his spirit is deeply disturbed. The Son of God knows his friend, “he whom you love” [John 11.3] has died, passed away from this life, and he begins to weep. The Son of Man is moved by the sense of loss of the sisters, Mary and Martha, the community and his own loss, and he begins to cry. To remedy that pain and loss, Jesus commands Lazarus to come out of the tomb.
God knows the pain of loss we feel. But the pain stems from our broken covenantal relationship with God. God does not want us to hurt or suffer. That is not the relationship and communion God wanted for us. So on that day that is surely coming, God will wipe away the tears from every eye and every face. In the kingdom that is to come, we shall weep no more. Because when the first things, the first earth and the first heaven pass away, the brokenness of our relation with God will pass away as well. The Sin that is the cause of the fracture and fallenness and failing will be destroyed. “He will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.” [Isaiah 25.8] That day is surely coming when God will destroy the Sin that is at the heart of our broken relationship with God. God will vanquish the evil barrier of Sin that separates us from being in right covenantal relationship. The first things will pass away. The first things, the original sin, when humanity fell from grace by disobeying God, shall pass away. Our own first failures, of creating false idols of money, wealth, power and worshiping things that draw us away from God, rather than worshiping the One who has given everything to us will pass away. No longer will we worship what we think we can make and create for ourselves. Instead, we will worship the Creator who has made everything for us. Isaiah says, “The disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth.” [Isaiah 25.8]
God will restore us to our right covenantal relationship because the first things, our faults and failures, will pass away. “He will swallow up death forever.” [Isaiah 25.8] and “death will be no more;” [Revelation 21.4] In this new city on a mountain, this new Jerusalem, the new creation is defined by what has passed away. The powers that oppose God and diminish our lives, those of Sin and Death, are no more. The visions and writings of Isaiah and John tell of a time, that day is surely coming, when evil will be defeated forever, and humanity will be set free from the bonds of sin. Death is defeated when the dead are all bodily resurrected. So the loss we feel when some one we love passes away, those feelings, the mourning, crying and pain, will themselves pass away. Because the separation, the loss of our communion with God, will be no more. “It will be said on that day, ‘Lo, this is our God. … This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’” [Isaiah 25.9] On that day, nothing will separate God from God’s people – not physical distance, emotional anguish or physical pain.
“And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.’” [Revelation 21.5-6] The one on the throne, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior is making everything new. Through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, he has given us righteousness and restored us to a right covenant relationship and communion with God. In our baptism, we are joined to Christ in a life like his. We are claimed as a child of God, baptized in the name of the Triune God and sealed with the sign of the cross; forever. We are joined into a life of service and suffering with Christ so that we can be joined into a death like his. Not a death on a cross, but a death that is NOT final. Because death does not have the final word. The final word belongs to God. We shall be raised again in these bodies. We shall dwell in communion with God. The right covenantal relationship shall be reformed and restored. The banquet prepared in Isaiah’s vision is foreshadowed by the meal we are all invited to participate in, the meal provided by Jesus Christ. The last supper our Lord had before his death is a foretaste of the meal that is to come in the Kingdom that is coming. He who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the Word made flesh has brought God’s plan of salvation to fruition. In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. [John 1.1] That word IS trustworthy and true. Our God is trustworthy and true. “It will be said on that day, ‘This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’” [Isaiah 25.9]
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