In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This epidemic and crisis is exposing our frailty, our mortality. It’s making us realize that our life really does just hang by a thread. We are weak and we cannot keep ourselves alive. And we are tempted to despise that, to resist it. Our desire and love for life drives us to fight against death. And it is right and good to love, promote, and preserve life. But our fear and hatred of death can go too far, to stop at nothing, to keep on living no matter the cost. And our “Can–do, Never give up!” mentality is outraged by the idea of surrender, especially surrendering to death. Or to put it in Christian terms, our fierce independence, our refusal to accept our frailty, means that we really can’t stand the idea of commending our lives into God’s hands, and trusting Him to give and take away as He knows best.
On Palm Sunday, I said that it’s the Church’s job to get people ready to die. But we, as fallen, dying human creatures ourselves, are not the ones who can actually make people ready for death or show them what to do. Only Jesus, the perfect Man, who laid down His life in our place, can serve as our example for what makes a holy, blessed death.
As He reached the end of His suffering, Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit!” And having said this He breathed His last. The immortal One made Himself mortal. The eternal One had an end. The One who holds all things together, was held by His Father. He laid down His life into His Father’s hands, trusting that His Father would take and protect His soul, and raise Him up to life again. Jesus was praying Psalm 31: Into Your hand I commit My spirit; You have redeemed Me, O Lord, faithful God. As the true Son of God, and as the one perfect Man, Jesus trusted His Father, the faithful God, who always keeps His promises, and brings back life from the grave. So, in perfect faith, Jesus could commend His soul into the Father’s hands.
This then serves as an example for us. When God calls us to die and leave this life, we don’t fight it. We don’t resist and fear His will. But with trust and love for our heavenly Father we can commend ourselves to His safekeeping. And yet, we do not have perfect faith like Jesus, our second, perfect Adam. The old Adam in us rebels and mistrusts God. As much as we may want to, we are incapable of completely commending ourselves into God’s hands without any reservations or worries.
Our holy death cannot depend on the strength of our faith. When we most need it is when the strength of faith can fail us. And when we face that final, dreadful struggle at life’s end, we dare not rely on any of our own powers. We can never match the faithfulness of Jesus. While His example teaches us what makes a holy death, His example cannot save us. We cannot follow His example perfectly.
But the Good News of Good Friday is that Jesus is much more than our example. He is our Savior, the One who died for us, in our place. This means just as His holy life counts for us, and replaces our sinfulness with His righteousness, so also His holy death counts for us. His faithfulness in commending Himself to the Father’s hands replaces our sinful worrying, doubting, and resisting. Our holy death doesn’t depend on our faith. But like everything else good, it depends on Jesus, on His faith and on His holy death. He prays that prayer from Psalm 31 so that we can pray it with Him. He prays that prayer for us, and so Jesus commends our souls to the Father’s hands for us.
This is what our hymns want to teach us and give us, for our comfort. What’s on the mind of the dying Christian? Not my faith. I don’t need to be thinking about my faith. I want to be thinking of my Jesus, and of His holy blood and death for me.
My Savior, be Thou near me
When death is at my door;
Then let Thy presence cheer me,
Forsake me nevermore!
When soul and body languish,
O leave me not alone,
But take away mine anguish
By virtue of Thine own!
Be Thou my consolation,
My shield, when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion
When my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee,
Upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfold Thee.
Who dieth thus dies well. (LSB 450:6–7)
You are baptized into Christ and into His death, so you’ve got death taken care of because He took care of it for you. By His death He destroyed death. By His rest in the tomb He hallowed your grave. And by His resurrection He brought you into His life and light. The one who dies in Jesus dies well, because death is not their end. For anyone in Jesus, death is just a short sleep, a blessed little rest, before we are reawakened, resurrected, on that great, final, never-ending morning.
Many of our hymns teach us how to prepare and practice for death every time we go to sleep. At the end of our service you will hear the stanzas of two hymns interweaved together: Upon the Cross Extended, which contemplates our Savior’s death, and Now Rest Beneath Night’s Shadow, a hymn for bedtime. Listen to this stanza, that gives meaning to something as ordinary as undressing for bed:
To rest my body hasteth,
Aside its garments casteth,
Types of mortality;
These I put off and ponder
How Christ will give me yonder
A robe of glorious majesty. (TLH 554:4)
Taking off our clothes and lying down to sleep can symbolize our death and the putting off of our mortal nature. Each night, and finally at the end of life, we lie down to rest in peace, awaiting the new and eternal body that Christ will give us on the Last Day. Now hear the echo of this peaceful sleep in the hymn for Good Friday:
Your cross I place before me;
Its saving pow’r restore me,
Sustain me in the test.
It will, when life is ending,
Be guiding and attending
My way to Your eternal rest. (LSB 453:7)
The cross of Jesus is not a terror but a comfort. His cross refreshes and strengthens you for life now. And His cross transforms your death. Death is no longer a punishment. When death comes, you are finally able to fully enter into the rest of Jesus, with no more toil or tribulation. So, remember this when you go to bed tonight. Practice your death. Say you prayers and lie down to rest in the peace of Jesus: Into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things.
No matter when death comes or what form it takes, you’ll be ready. Jesus has already commended your soul into God’s hands, because when He did it for Himself, He did it for you. By faith in Jesus and His atoning death, you now rest in Jesus. By your baptism into the death of Jesus, you now rest secure in His holy wounds. So, if you are in Jesus, and He is in His Father’s hands, then you also already rest in the loving hands of your heavenly Father. There’s nothing more to do, nothing more to fear. When death comes, your God will just tuck you in, to rest in peace. And then after a short sleep, He will wake you up.
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
