1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
The
saying goes, “There are only two things in life which are certain, death and
taxes.” Both seem to be inevitable parts of human existence. Apparently there
are ways certain people are able to avoid taxes, but for the average working
person, they are pretty much unavoidable. Death is something else entirely. It
comes when it comes and anyone who has lived for any length of time on this
earth has had to deal with. And the longer I live and the more I experience the
death of those around me and most especially those whom I love, I am more and
more convinced God did not create the humans to experience death, and the pain,
the emptiness, the hurt and loss which death leaves in its wake. If we were
truly born to die, the human psyche would have evolved to better deal with it. But
we have not, therefore in my mind, it cannot have been an intended part of
creation. It is an unwanted intrusion; Death is an uninvited house guest whose presence
is harmful all who are living and he disrupts the created order, by creating
gaping hole in the interior of our lives where there once a living breathing
being who was cherished and loved.
Whenever
we come face to face with the death of someone close to us, we ask questions. What
has happened to them? Where are they now? What is actually going on with them? How are they experiencing this separation? Are
they conscious, aware of what is going on here on earth? Are they now outside
observers, watching everything that is going on from a distance? Can they see
us? Do they know how much their death is hurting us? Will we really ever see
them again?
Paul
speaks into these questions, so that we will “not remain uninformed” and so
that we do not grieve “without hope”. There are so many ways to misunderstand
this passage. We will begin with this second statement, so that none of us will
be misinformed. Paul is not telling us that we are not to mourn, experience
grief when we lose someone to death. Grief is a part of what it means to live
in a world so full of death. Death cuts us to the core. It halts us as we journey
through life, and disrupts our lives in ways which bring turmoil to our
wellbeing and which hurt us in ways which we could never have expected before having
experienced it. And each new death is a new kind of pain and a new kind of
hurt. It is an experience of which we never grow accustomed, no matter how many
times it occurs throughout our lifetime and with it comes a hurt which does not
grow numb the more often we feel it.
Paul
instead tells us that we are not to mourn, “without hope.” And then as the
passage continues, he explains, to us, why we have hope and what it is for
which we are hoping. But hope, does not push away the pain, nor does it negate
our need to grieve and mourn the death of each and every one we lose.
I
can remember talking to my Dad one cold winter day, after we had recently
buried one his brothers. He told me he knew it was silly but what bothered him
most, at that moment, was that his brother was out there in the cold. You see
his brother always hated to be cold, and now he was out there on that bitter
winter night, and Dad felt, he had to be so cold and there was nothing Dad
could do about it.
Death
hurts us and affects us in ways we would never have thought. We begin to think
things and ask questions of ourselves and of God, which we perhaps would not
ask at other times. At others times, the very questions which plague us the
most in the midst of our grief, are
questions we think we know the answer to, or might think too silly to ask. But
there in the moment of grief we ask them and the answers no longer seem so certain.
This was just as true when Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in
Thessalonica, as it is today. It seems
following the death of some among them, the Christians had some questions and
concerns about their fellow believers who had died and what would happen to them
when Christ returned.
As
we continue to worship with our remembrance tree here before us, as its
presence continues to serve as a reminder to us of those in Christ who have
gone on before us, Paul’s words can be
seen as fairly apropos. As we think about these who have died, Paul does not
want us to be uninformed about them, and what will happen to them. Paul wants
to set straight any misconceptions, or any concerns we might have about whether
being dead will put their loved ones at any sort of disadvantage when Christ
finally returns.
The
Christians of the church of Thessalonica did not know what to think when it
came to those among them who had died. Their concern was for those they loved,
what would happened to them when Christ eventually returned? For these
Christians the community of believers was everything. They were the body of
Christ and parts of Christ’s body had died and were no longer a part of the
body. What did this mean? They wanted to
be assured not only of the hope of the resurrection, but needed to also be assured
in a restoration of community, that they as the body of Christ would be whole
again.
Paul
tells them, Christ’s coming would not parse the living from the dead. The dead
in Christ would rise (just as Christ had) and they would be united with their
loved ones. Then together, they would be united with Christ. The resurrection
was assured and “needing” to be resurrected was not a failing or something which
would put a person somewhere else, or in a different place, somewhere away from
those who had remained alive. At the time of Christ’s return, the living and
the dead would be alive and united. Paul assures believers, those who are alive
will have no advantage over those who had died, and thusly those who had died
would not be at a disadvantage because
they had died.
Paul
then goes on to describe the second coming of Christ with imagery which has
capture the imaginations of Christians through the ages and most recently, in
the last 100 years or so, the imaginations of many have simply run away with
the scripture, (some might even say “away from” the true meaning of the scripture).
There are several books, as well as movies which depict this event with
Christians mysteriously disappearing leaving clothing, leaving cars, planes and
various other vehicles to become driverless means of destruction. Loved ones
are secreted away and are simply gone. And all those who are left are shocked
and dismayed. I think the song, “I wish we’d all been ready” from that great
70’s classic “A Thief the Night” will forever play in my head when I think of
scenarios such as this.
I
am not sure about you but I have never found this kind of imagery comforting or
encouraging. Yet Paul lays out this passage for us and then says, “Therefore encourage
one another with these words.” How can disappearing people, the world in chaos and
all that is depicted in the dramatic presentations of the events of this
passage be described as “encouraging?” Is it really “encouraging” that we will
be caught up in the clouds and will meet our savior in the air. Even at its
most benign (when you take away the empty clothes sitting on the couch and a daughter’s
night dress all that remains in her bed), what about this passage is a believer
supposed to find encouraging?
All
these dramatic depictions can be summed up in the English word “rapture,” which
you might notice is not actually found in text that I read this morning. The word rapture does come is from the Latin
word, “rapio,” which is used in this passage in the Latin translation of the
text (Latin being one of the earliest translations of the Bible and was
commonly used by those studying scripture until surprisingly recently). The Latin word “rapio” literally means, “to
take away.” And many take this to mean that the living and the dead will be
secreted away to be with Christ for eternity. In the original Greek the word
here is, “harpazō” also carries a similar idea of being, “taken away”. Although the meaning of, “harpazō” when used in
conjunction with “apantēsis,” which here is translated “meeting,” takes on a
new meaning, altogether. The two words together are the words most often used to
describe the way a group of people goes out from a city to go meet an honored
dignitary.
When
a dignitary came to town, or a hero returned after being away, some would go
out of the town and meet him a ways out from the city and lead him into the
city in a sort of procession, or parade. This is what the crowds were doing at
Jesus’ triumphal entry. They went out to meet him and returned with him,
singing and shouting and giving him the praise one would give a honored dignitary
or conquering hero. It is because of this kind of historical understanding of
the procession we conclude that those greeting Jesus that day believed Jesus
was coming into to Jerusalem as a conquering hero who would finally throw off
their Roman oppressors. But not only do we find this imagery in the Bible at Jesus’
triumphal entry but we also find this imagery and this exact language in the
Matthew passage which was read this morning.
Culturally,
at this time, it was traditional, following the engagement, for the bride to be
to return to her own home and wait there. The groom would return to his home to
set upon the task of either building a house, or an addition to his parents’
home, in which he and his new bride could live. Once the home was finished he
would go to his bride’s home (usually this was done in the middle of the night
for some reason) and bring her to his home, where they would be wed and a huge
wedding feast would ensue. The
bridesmaids here are waiting for the groom to come, so that when he comes they
can go out to him, escort him to his bride and then they all can return to his
home. The words to describe the bridesmaids going out to meet the bridegroom
and escort him to his home are the same words used here in 1 Thessalonians.
The
bridesmaids are awaiting the return of the bridegroom and they need to be
ready. When he does arrive, they trim the wicks on their lamps and go to light
them so they can provide light to the bridegroom. Unfortunately some of them do
not have enough oil and are forced to go looking for oil in the middle of the
night. Once they are able to procure the oil it is too late, the bridegroom has
come and gone and the doors to the banquet are closed. They are not recognized
as members of the bridal party because they were not there at the time of the
groom’s arrival. These bridesmaids are called foolish and are left outside in
the night.
Thessalonian
Christians are working to be the believers they know they are called to be. They
are ready. Their wicks are trimmed and their lamps are full. The light of Christ
is burning brightly in their lives. They are prepared for Christ’s return, but they
have one concern, some of them have fallen asleep (which is the metaphor
actually used here in the Greek). They are sleeping the sleep from which they cannot
be awakened. What does the return of the
Bridegroom mean for them? Are they the foolish bridesmaids? Are these who have
had the misfortune to have died the bridesmaids who are unable to get their
lamps lit in time?
Paul
says emphatically, “No, those who have died in Christ are not the foolish bridesmaids.”
Those alive will not precede those who have died. Those who have died will rise
first and then together, with all your lamps lit and shining bright you will go
to greet the bridegroom and usher him back. Together you will rejoice. It will
be like the triumphal entry all over again. But this time Christ will be
returning and will remain and you will ALL be with the Lord, together forever!
Never to be separated again. And as our
text told us last week, every tear will be wiped from your eyes. The sting and
the pain of death will be removed. All will be resurrected and all those who
believe will live eternally together with the Lord! Thanks be to God!
In
this passage Paul is depicting a joining of Heaven and Earth. Christ will come
down, Heaven will come with him and we will go up to meet him, a symbolic
gesture showing that all Earth will escort him, in his return. Heaven descends,
Earth ascends and they will come together. Earth and Heaven will be reunited in
way they have not been since the fall.
Paul
here is clearly describing a bodily resurrection. He is telling us that in the
resurrection we will all be resurrected as Christ was resurrected. We will be
restored to our bodies. At Christ’s return, we will not be disembodied spirits,
floating up into the clouds to greet a Spirit Christ. No we will be fully
resurrected persons, who greet a fully embodied Savior who is returning just as
he was when he left, in his resurrected body.
And together fully alive in ways which are sometimes hard to comprehend,
we will live eternally in a new Heaven and a new Earth which are united and inseparable.
It will be a new Eden in which there is no death and in which life is abundant and
eternal.
And
it is with these words, with this imagery, with this promise Paul tells us we
are to comfort one another.
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