Delayed Gratification is a hard thing to practice in life. We could think of the human experience of dieting. When we are overweight, the question is whether we can we stop eating too much in order that we might be healthier. We believe there will be benefits if we make the sacrifice. When we look at Christian life it is a life of delayed gratification. When we choose to live like Jesus, we believe it will be worth it in the long run. Christian life is a life full of anticipation and hope.
And hope is all important, especially when we are immersed in grief. In the world that St. Paul lived in, when people thought of death, there was a sense of despair. When St. Paul preached about the resurrection of Jesus it was a revolutionary way to look at human existence.
When we look at some of the great thinkers in the Greco-Roman world 2,000 years ago the way they thought about death wasn’t very hopeful.
The Roman poet Horace said, “Death is the end of all things.”
The Roman statesman Cicero said, “To live is to think, death is the end to all thought.”
Marcus Aurelius the Roman emperor said, “Stop hoping to change what the gods or death has decided.”
The Stoic philosopher Seneca sad, “After death there is nothing.”
Such was the thinking of the society where Christianity was first preached. We might say our society has some of the same feelings. But Christianity, as was the case two thousand years ago, has different thoughts about death.
We come here tonight to grieve for those who we have lost. In our modern world, it is thought by some that the worst thing in the world is to be sad. Sadness reminds us that we have lost something in our life. Christianity would say that grieving over the death of someone we love is a good, a necessary thing. The grief process isn’t something to be avoided, but it is something to be entered into with trust. Christian ritual is a way of finding consolation.
Christianity looks at death pondering the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What does the story of Jesus teach us about death? What it teaches us is that a Christian always looks at death with the eyes of faith, faith in the resurrection.
Right now, we are experiencing the fall of the year. Nothing reminds us of the reality of death like autumn. We see the leaves falling off the trees. We notice the harvest taking place. The fields are cold and barren. The earth is going to sleep. We experience a quiet in the fall of the year as people retreat inside to hunker down for the winter.
We are reminded of the death of Jesus. His death seemed like the end of a very promising religious movement. The forces of despair seemed to triumph on Good Friday. Evil seemed to have the last laugh. The new world Jesus preached about, a world of justice, love and peace seemed to be only a dream. Jesus was laid cold and lifeless in the tomb.
But Jesus didn’t remain in the grave. No, Jesus came out of the tomb on the third day. His Kingdom lives! He lives! His Church reminds us that we will live. Just like spring will bring new life, there will be new life for us. As St. Paul says in the Letter to the Thessalonians, on the last day we all shall be lifted out of our graves. Christians believe that evil won’t have the last word. “We are an Easter people and Hallelujah is our song.” When difficulty touches our life, we believe that new life is around the corner.
A unique Easter card expresses Christian Philosophy well. It reads, “May we all leave behind us a string of empty tombs.” For as often as death comes there also comes resurrection. Our loved ones made many sacrifices in life, believing they would experience an everlasting reward. May we have the same confidence tonight as we pray for ourselves and for all the baptized who have gone before us and who now live with Jesus.