Thought for the week: Promises contained for us in the New Testament


English poet and scholar John Donne admonishes “Death, be not proud”. And he knew about death. His wife and five of his children died young. St Paul cried: “O death where is thy victory, O death where is thy sting?”
St Paul had caused death as a young man. But after his encounter with the Living Lord, the only death which mattered to him was that of separation from Christ.
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Hide AdThe gift of love through Jesus Christ does not save us from the reality and sorrow of death. Even Jesus confronted by the death of His dear friend Lazarus and the immense grief of His sisters, broke down and wept.
As we remember those we have loved and lost and all the saints within the blessed communion, we are allowed to weep and to be sad. This kind of grief is a sign that we are human and that human connections matter. They mattered greatly to Jesus of Nazareth.
But we are also urged toward hope and not despair. “Did I not tell you,” Jesus reminds the grieving Martha, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
From all we read in the New Testament, the grave is not the absolute finale of the great act of life. “The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,” St. Paul assures the people of the ekklesia in Thessaloniki.
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Hide AdBut we are not given any details as to what happens after death. Lazarus is nowhere quoted, even though his sisters and friends must have asked him what it was that he saw. Everyone who has lived has died. That’s simply how it is.
Most Christians believe that the Lord of Life, Jesus the Christ, brought Lazarus back from the dead, but that was for a little while, and he too eventually died. We Christians also believe that Jesus died on the cross, was buried, but rose again unto eternity. The Alpha is also the Omega. He is the only one. The New Testament contains promises to us that death is not the ultimate end, that despite the death of the body, we continue to live in the Lord. We trust those promises.