Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

Encouraged Because We Will Always Be with the Lord

Two weeks ago we heard from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians as an encouragement to us when we might question whether or not we are truly saved. St. Paul told the Christians in Thessalonica that they could be sure that God had called them to be His own, because the Gospel that was preached to them came “not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:5).

Despite the afflictions that we bear and the opposition that we face, we can be sure that the Gospel of salvation has come to us with all of its saving power because it moves us to repent of our sins and hope to be with Jesus. It creates within us faith in the full and free salvation that Jesus Christ has secured for us through His death and resurrection.

This was not the only worry that St. Paul addressed in this letter to the Christians in Thessalonica. He also knew that they were worried about their loved ones who had died, and about being ready for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. In today’s Epistle Reading (4:13-18), we hear encouragement for those who are concerned over their beloved dead.

What has become of them and what will happen with them when Jesus returns? Has death forever separated us from them? Will we be segregated from them forever if the Lord returns before we join them in death, since they will be resurrected and we will be changed? Will that put us in a different category for eternal life with a different status or a different class, kept separate in some divine order or hierarchy?

We are used to certain divisions and social hierarchies in this life. While we like to pretend that everyone is equal, if you take a trip on a plane you know there are different seating areas for different classes of passengers. If you go to a large sporting event or a music concert you know that the price of seats on different levels separates people. There is reserved seating at many events for special guests. So what about those who have died and gone to the Lord first, before us? Do they have a different place in paradise? Will those who are still alive at the Lord’s coming have priority over those who have died?

Are there areas of separation between Apostles and Martyrs and Confessors and Saints? And so what then about those who are still alive at the Lord’s coming? Will we have access to the same areas as those who have gone before? Death has separated us from them. It was painful to lose their living presence among us. We had to lay their bodies in the grave and walk away. Please don’t tell me that we will be separated for eternity?

Jesus’ parable in today’s Gospel reading is frightful. Ten virgins were awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom and half of them end up being shut out (Matthew 25:1-13). I don’t want to be shut out. Neither do I want my loved ones to be shut out. I don’t want one of us on the inside of the door and the other on the outside.

It is a puzzling parable, for apparently all ten of the virgins were waiting for the Lord and all ten of the virgins fell asleep during their waiting and all ten of the virgins’ lamps went out during the waiting while they slept. All ten of the virgins were awakened by the call that the Bridegroom is coming. It is only at this point that the practical difference between the five virgins called “wise” and the five virgins called “foolish” has its result.

The wise had brought extra oil with them but the foolish did not. The wise therefore were able to relight their lamps but the foolish were sent off in search of more oil. The Bridegroom came, the wise virgins went in to the wedding feast, and the door was shut with the foolish outside who were not let in for the Bridegroom said that he never knew them.

Jesus did not explain the parable to our satisfaction. He merely concluded, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13). We are left to wonder whether we are foolish or wise. What is the extra oil that cannot be borrowed from another? Which side of the door will we be on? On which side of the door are our departed loved ones?

Is anyone watching for our Lord’s coming, or has our sleep slipped into something beyond the needed rest and refreshment that we might be able to go out and meet the coming Lord Jesus when the watchmen herald His approach? Do you believe that He is coming at all, or that it is at all possible that He will come during your lifetime?

Is the Lord coming again? If you have faith in the Lord Jesus at all, then you must also believe that He is coming, and coming soon, and coming at an hour you do not expect. These are all repeated teachings of Jesus. Teachings of the same man who has told you that His body and blood given for you on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins is given to you in the Holy Supper. He is the same one who teaches, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The beginning of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians has assured and encouraged us that we are among those who will be on the inside of the door when the heavenly Bridegroom takes us in with Him. We are assured that God has called us through the Gospel, the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our salvation. We are encouraged that this Gospel power of salvation is at work in us, for it is seen in our repentance from sin and our hope to be with the coming Jesus.

We have a similar assurance and encouragement in today’s Epistle Reading concerning our anxiety about our beloved dead, who have died in the faith. Yes, they also will be taken in with the Bridegroom when He comes. They are saved the same way that we are saved, by the death and resurrection of Jesus for their sins, which they received by faith, revealed in their repentance and their hope to be with Jesus.

The comfort that St. Paul offers to us this week is that it makes no difference for those of the Christian faith when Jesus returns whether they are still living at His coming or have died. First of all, St. Paul uses Jesus’ own comforting language that they have “fallen asleep.” That immediately assures us that they will awaken. Just as our Lord told Jairus that his dead daughter was only sleeping, and as He told His disciples that their friend Lazarus had fallen asleep but He was going to wake Him up (John 11).

These resurrections which Jesus performed led up to His own death and resurrection, where there was no one to raise Him by the hand or to call Him out of the tomb. The power of the resurrection resides in Himself and resurrection is His to give to those to whom He has promised it. So St. Paul reminded the Christians in Thessalonica: “Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep” (4:14). Like the wise virgins who slept until the coming of the Bridegroom, they will still enter with Him.

They are not shut out. They will be awakened at the cry of the watchmen that the Bridegroom is coming. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise” (4:16). The coming of Jesus will be loud enough to wake the dead, for in Christ they are only sleeping, and in response to His coming they will awake.

It is all laid out for us in orderly fashion in this Epistle Reading. “The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (4:16-17). You will be with Jesus. They will be with Jesus. We will all be together.

“We will always be with the Lord” (4:17). That concluding phrase of St. Paul, does not imply only what will happen in the future. “We will always be with the Lord.” Always, includes the future but also states the present. We are always with the Lord. There is no need to be concerned that we will be apart from our beloved who have died in the faith when the Lord comes, even if we are still alive and they will be resurrected. “We will always be with the Lord.”

For that is where we are even now. We are with the Lord and always will be. We have been baptized into Christ and are with Him in life and in death and will be with Him in the life to come. Our beloved dead who were also with Him in life are even now with Him in death and will always be with the Lord.

Where our Lord is, there we are, and there also are they. We are even now with the Lord in the communion of His body, the Church. We are all members of His one body and united together in Him. It is in the communion of His body as we receive the communion of His body and blood that Christ is present with us and so we are with Him and with all who are in Him, in that one mystical body of the Son of God. We are in communion with all those who are in Christ, not just with those at this communion table, but with all who receive this communion of Christ’s body and blood.

We are together now in Christ, who died and lives, whether we live or have died. With all the company of heaven and with all those who are in communion with Him on this earth, we laud and magnify His glorious name. And so, alive at His coming or having already fallen asleep and awakened at the sound of the angelic call, “we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words” (4:17-18).