Revelation 21:1-6a
“Those We’ve Loved”
Preached November 7, 2021, All Saints Sunday
This morning we are presented with two of the most powerful images in Scripture...that being said, I am pretty sure I told you the same thing two weeks ago. And give it a week or two and I may tell you the same thing again. Of course that is because Scripture does, indeed, have power. It shapes our worldview, it gives us life, it feeds our souls, it challenges, it confronts, it comforts - it is powerful.
Today’s passages have power on their own. The vision of a new heaven and a new earth from Revelation. And the passage from which comes the shortest verse in all of Scripture, by no means lessening its impact: Jesus wept. (Read today as “Jesus began to weep.”)
Moreover though, when you read these passages side by side, they create a very meaningful juxtaposition, imbuing them with more power than they may have on their own.
Indeed we have two scenes, imagine them with me, open your heart to feel their emotions:
First from the Gospel of John. Mary, at the feet of Jesus, weeping and maybe even - mad at Jesus? Glad to see him but oh how her words sting! “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” What use are those words? Should she have said them? All she has is a lump of pain in her chest, a hole where she can physically feel her brother missing. And all those around her, weeping and crying and now Jesus - shedding tears! It just adds to the heightened emotion of this moment. Jesus too! Jesus, too, weeping.
And then there are those mocking Jesus, challenging him - “can heal a blind man but can’t save his own friend.” Said while crying.
I am pretty sure you can find almost every stage of grief at this scene, denial and anger and depression, a whole truckload of heavy emotions intermixed with each other and the crowd.
And not to mention, not to mention Jesus’s bewildering words: “Take away the stone.”
And then the stench, oh the stench of four days dead.
Can you imagine this scene?
Can you feel this scene in your chest?
Overflowing with conflicted emotions, with tears, with loss.
Secondly, we have the scene from Revelation. A promise, a vision of a new heaven and a new earth. Of no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain. A beautiful, glimmering scene, a vision of beauty like a bride adorned for her husband. A voice, a voice like no other, a voice that is the Alpha and the Omega, finally completing all the promises that were ever made to us by God, a voice that says “See, I am making ALL things new.”
Now, what the juxtaposition of these passages does not do and should not do, is negate the pain, the grief, the tears of the Gospel passage. The vision from Revelation of no more grief does not negate the grief in John’s passage.
Nowhere in the Gospel story does Jesus negate the mourning of Mary or Martha or any of those present. He doesn't tell them, stop crying, it will be all right! He doesn’t tell them that Lazarus is not dead or that he won’t be dead soon. He doesn't tell them that all will be okay. He doesn’t offer any platitudes or excuses or superficial words of comfort.
Jesus himself is greatly disturbed and weeps alongside Mary and Martha and all those weeping. Jesus weeps. Jesus weeps...even though he surely knew what he was about to do. Jesus weeps...even though he knows this vision from Revelation, a vision which hasn't even been given to John yet and still- Jesus would have had God's - the Triune God’s endgame in mind...And yet, Jesus STILL WEEPS.
Jesus weeps because his friend has died and he is human.
Jesus weeps because he loved his friend and in that moment, his friend is gone.
Jesus weeps because he is mourning.
Ecclesiastes famously reminds us that there is a time for everything: a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.
We know that the laughing does not negate the weeping and the dancing does not negate the mourning.
We have both in our lives. We go through seasons. And sometimes that laughing and dancing can seem so far away. And other times laughing and dancing are even mingled with the weeping and the mourning in a way we can’t fully explain. But again, they don’t negate each other. They are things we fully feel and fully experience, on their own. We are capable of laughing and weeping, mourning and dancing. Fully allowing ourselves the full range of emotions of what it means to be human and what it means to be alive.
They don’t cancel each other out, they just are.
Just as we know that Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead does not negate the tears that Jesus wept.
Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead does not negate all that his sisters went through for those for 4 days.
The promise of a day when mourning, crying, pain, death will be no more does not negate the mourning, crying, pain, and death we go through and experience here and now.
All of us, like Jesus, have people we’ve loved - people we love still - whose loss has caused us to weep. And that’s okay. That’s human. Our pain and grieving are real and made no less real by the promises we believe as Christians.
The Good News is that the promises of God means we do not, as 1 Thessalonians tells us, we do not grieve like those who have no hope. We grieve and we mourn and we weep, yes. But we do so as those who have HOPE.
Hope that one day, this will be no more.
Hope that one day, death will be no more.
Hope that one day again there will be laughing and dancing.
And yes, hope, that, one day, we will all share in the glorious resurrection alongside those we’ve loved.
Not only do we have the present hope for “one day” - we also have The Spirit with us, this day. In the midst of our loss and grief we can take comfort that our God is a God who has mourned, a God who was wept. Our God is a God who mourns with us now, weeps with us now, and gently, wipes away our tears, offers comfort, love, hope.
We worship a Savior who knows what it’s like to have loved someone dearly and to have lost them.
And Jesus took the time to mourn that loss.
And that is what we do today, on this All Saints Sunday. We hold together the tension of our present mourning with the hope of the promises of God, a hope that one day, death will be no more. And today we take comfort knowing that the God who promises that day, is also a God who is always with us, in weeping or laughing, mourning or dancing. God is here, offering us hope.
Amen.
I am pretty sure you can find almost every stage of grief at this scene, denial and anger and depression, a whole truckload of heavy emotions intermixed with each other and the crowd.
And not to mention, not to mention Jesus’s bewildering words: “Take away the stone.”
And then the stench, oh the stench of four days dead.
Can you imagine this scene?
Can you feel this scene in your chest?
Overflowing with conflicted emotions, with tears, with loss.
Secondly, we have the scene from Revelation. A promise, a vision of a new heaven and a new earth. Of no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain. A beautiful, glimmering scene, a vision of beauty like a bride adorned for her husband. A voice, a voice like no other, a voice that is the Alpha and the Omega, finally completing all the promises that were ever made to us by God, a voice that says “See, I am making ALL things new.”
Now, what the juxtaposition of these passages does not do and should not do, is negate the pain, the grief, the tears of the Gospel passage. The vision from Revelation of no more grief does not negate the grief in John’s passage.
Nowhere in the Gospel story does Jesus negate the mourning of Mary or Martha or any of those present. He doesn't tell them, stop crying, it will be all right! He doesn’t tell them that Lazarus is not dead or that he won’t be dead soon. He doesn't tell them that all will be okay. He doesn’t offer any platitudes or excuses or superficial words of comfort.
Jesus himself is greatly disturbed and weeps alongside Mary and Martha and all those weeping. Jesus weeps. Jesus weeps...even though he surely knew what he was about to do. Jesus weeps...even though he knows this vision from Revelation, a vision which hasn't even been given to John yet and still- Jesus would have had God's - the Triune God’s endgame in mind...And yet, Jesus STILL WEEPS.
Jesus weeps because his friend has died and he is human.
Jesus weeps because he loved his friend and in that moment, his friend is gone.
Jesus weeps because he is mourning.
Ecclesiastes famously reminds us that there is a time for everything: a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.
We know that the laughing does not negate the weeping and the dancing does not negate the mourning.
We have both in our lives. We go through seasons. And sometimes that laughing and dancing can seem so far away. And other times laughing and dancing are even mingled with the weeping and the mourning in a way we can’t fully explain. But again, they don’t negate each other. They are things we fully feel and fully experience, on their own. We are capable of laughing and weeping, mourning and dancing. Fully allowing ourselves the full range of emotions of what it means to be human and what it means to be alive.
They don’t cancel each other out, they just are.
Just as we know that Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead does not negate the tears that Jesus wept.
Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead does not negate all that his sisters went through for those for 4 days.
The promise of a day when mourning, crying, pain, death will be no more does not negate the mourning, crying, pain, and death we go through and experience here and now.
All of us, like Jesus, have people we’ve loved - people we love still - whose loss has caused us to weep. And that’s okay. That’s human. Our pain and grieving are real and made no less real by the promises we believe as Christians.
The Good News is that the promises of God means we do not, as 1 Thessalonians tells us, we do not grieve like those who have no hope. We grieve and we mourn and we weep, yes. But we do so as those who have HOPE.
Hope that one day, this will be no more.
Hope that one day, death will be no more.
Hope that one day again there will be laughing and dancing.
And yes, hope, that, one day, we will all share in the glorious resurrection alongside those we’ve loved.
Not only do we have the present hope for “one day” - we also have The Spirit with us, this day. In the midst of our loss and grief we can take comfort that our God is a God who has mourned, a God who was wept. Our God is a God who mourns with us now, weeps with us now, and gently, wipes away our tears, offers comfort, love, hope.
We worship a Savior who knows what it’s like to have loved someone dearly and to have lost them.
And Jesus took the time to mourn that loss.
And that is what we do today, on this All Saints Sunday. We hold together the tension of our present mourning with the hope of the promises of God, a hope that one day, death will be no more. And today we take comfort knowing that the God who promises that day, is also a God who is always with us, in weeping or laughing, mourning or dancing. God is here, offering us hope.
Amen.
I was so thankful I was in church Sunday. The sermon meant a great deal to me.
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