But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
My thoughts -
First century believers faced hardships that most of us can't imagine. For me, "persecution" means the time I was teased on the bus when I signed the True Love Waits pledge in high school. I have not faced arrest, prison, and death for my beliefs. I have not seen church members killed for theirs. I do not know hardship.
And yet the spectre of death hangs over the living, even those of us who are not facing it for our beliefs like early Christians did and Christians in other parts of the world still do. We have all lost loved ones. We have all lost friends and family members. We all know what that is like. We all feel the emptiness. And we all realize that is a path the we all must walk down eventually. We die. All of us do.
But what we who believe have is hope in Jesus. When Paul wrote this he didn't have me or you in mind. He was writing to the church in Thessalonica. He didn't have any way to fathom America, or blogs, or computers and tablets and smart phones. But we have some things in common with his original audience. We believe in God. We mourn the loss of our loved ones.
But, Paul tells us that we do not mourn as those who have no hope. Every week when I play guitar at church I remember my cousin Michael. I remember where he stood when he played with us while he was in town. I remember how he looked when he played. I remember worshipping together. I remember his memorial service. And I remember the hope and the promise we have in Jesus. We will worship together again. We do not mourn as those who have no hope.
My son is getting baptized this week. We have all kinds of family coming in. But there are some that did not live to see this moment. There are some who, when we gather, their absence is strongly felt. And yet my son, joining with the body of believers, will worship with them, even those he never had the opportunity to meet on earth, in eternity. We do not mourn as those who have no hope.
Words about meeting Jesus in the air must have been comforting to first century believers facing persecution and death. They all passed on before what Paul describes in this passage happened. They all fell asleep. We will too, unless Jesus comes back first. That event has been described, prescribed, anticipated, predicted, and demanded for centuries. Odds are we will all fall asleep in Christ before it happens. We ought to know better than to continue to try to predict it. God's ways and timing are a mystery.
But we who die, we who fall asleep in Christ, we believe this is not the end any more than the second coming would be. We believe the God who raised Jesus from the dead has the power to raise the redeemed through Jesus as well. We do not mourn as those who have no hope.
I have not been to my last memorial service. Sadly, I will lose many more loved ones if I live long enough. Odds are you will too. We may stand before the open ground, watching what remains of our loved one's mortal body be lowered into the ground, and mourn. We may beg, as I have more than once, for the ground to open up, the dead to be released, and our loved ones to be restored to us. While we can only imagine this here on earth we have hope in this through Jesus.
I don't understand the logistics of eternity. I can't fathom heaven. Not really. I can't see much beyond my own nose. I just don't understand God's ways. It is a mystery to me. But one thing I believe. We have hope in Jesus. We have restoration to God and to each other through Jesus.
And we do not mourn as those who have no hope.
As Paul said, comfort each other with these words.
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Great stuff. Thanks for sharing!
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