A lot of people throw this accusation at Christians: “You just say there's life after death so you don't have to face reality here and now. You just think about the life to come all the time because you can't deal with life right now.” They accuse Christians of being unrealistic. Escapist. How do we answer that? How do we respond to such a charge? Jesus tells us: “Rejoice when they persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you because of Me, for great is your reward in heaven.” Brothers and sisters in Christ, the hope of better things to come that Jesus gives us is itself the Good News against the mockery we face for trusting in Christ from a world that can't see anything past the next few minutes. The comfort of All Saints Day is that we know the Lord has taken His saints in every time and place out of this veil of tears to Himself in heaven and that He will return on the Last Day and raise us from the dead. Is that clinging to some future hope? You bet it is!
Jesus makes it clear in the Beatitudes we heard in the Gospel Reading that the great blessings which Christians have are not in the here and now. St. John, standing in heaven, sees the saints in white robes who have come through tribulation. Tribulation is suffering. Struggling. Bearing a cross. Being hounded and persecuted as Jesus says His disciples will be. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the world is full of preachers who will tell you all about how God wants you to be happy and have everything your heart desires in this life. One such preacher even wrote a book about it: “Your Best Life Now.” And I guarantee anyone that reads that book, this life will be their best one because the life that comes after such false teaching ain't gonna be better! But there is Good News in the fact that we shall suffer as God's people. That things won't be the way we think they should be. That the world won't be fixed. The Good News is that we have a Savior who has overcome this fallen world and given to us the promise of everlasting life with Him. It's a comfort because as much as we'd like to see things get better in this world, we know they won't. Therefore ask yourself: Who has the delusions and false hope now? Is it the Christians who have the certainty of life everlasting in Christ or is it the world which keeps stupidly thinking things are always going to get better when they never do?
The Son of God did not come into this world to fix it or stop it from getting worse. He came to save sinners. He came to give them a new life as a new creation and to promise them that death has no power over them. He came to achieve for you a salvation which is not just a rescue from your sins but from death and the devil too. His cross and empty tomb are your promise and certainty of a better life to come. They are the promise which makes the loss of our loved ones easier to endure. Of course we mourn and weep and cry at those whom the Lord has taken from us. But Christ, by His resurrection has made sure we don't mourn as those who have no hope but as those who know there will be a resurrection on the Last Day and we will see not only our loved ones who have died in the faith but also our Lord Himself. Oh, wouldn't the Devil like you to believe that this life is it! Better live while the living is good! And don't pin your hopes on what comes next! But Christ destroys those lies by showing us exactly what will happen: Death and then resurrection. Death and then life everlasting. Death and then dying no more. Death defeated. No more sting for death. No more victory for death because Jesus has thrown it down.
And more Good News! We don't have to overcome these things ourselves. We don't have the hope of eternal life because we somehow worked it out. It's been accomplished by our Savior. Look at the saints in heaven: They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. That's Baptism! That's the Lord giving His life for you and washing you to make you holy. It is your Baptism which sets you to stand solid through every trial and tribulation and suffering and persecution you will have in this life. It is your Baptism that is God giving you Christ by which to stand in this life and to stand before Him in glory in the life to come. The Good News about our future hope is that it is sure because Jesus has secured it. Earned it. Achieved it. For us it's a gift, eternal life. This also rescues us, as we remember the saints who have gone before us—it rescues us from that nonsense way of talking about the dearly departed: “He lived a good life. She really was a saint.” And all that. We have joy for our loved ones in Christ because HE has gained them the victory. He has taken them to be with Himself. He will raise us all up on the Last Day. That's what Baptism promises us in Christ.
And so we celebrate All Saints Day to remind us that this life is NOT about ease and lack of suffering. We celebrate All Saints Day to be reminded that our only hope for this life and the life to come is always Jesus Christ. He has given His life for the world. And now He joins us together in the holy communion of His church. I say Holy Communion because that's what we have in Christ. Joined together with the church of the ages, those who have come before and will come after and who are His people now, joined together by His Body and Blood. That is why I say that if you miss your loved ones, if you want to be near them, then don't go to the cemetery where they are sleeping but here to the altar of God where we are joined with them at the rail, with the “angels, and archangels and all the company of heaven.” And the great joy is not that we will see our parents and children and spouses again some day, though that is a happy thought. Our greatest joy is that they are with their Lord. They have been set free from the tribulation of this world. They rest in the true peace of the presence of Christ until He comes again to raise us from the dead. They are saints for Christ has made them so and so we celebrate because of the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ.
So let the world laugh at us. Let the world mock us. Let the world speak evil of us and hate us and even persecute and kill us. Our Lord said it would happen. Let the world live as if this life is it. We know better. We have God's promises in Christ. All that Jesus promises—His kingdom, mercy, righteousness, and comfort—all these things are yours in Jesus Christ. As they are the blessing of all the saints who have been and will be in Christ. Rest eternal grant them, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon them. God grant it also to us for Jesus' sake. Happy All Saints! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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