Dear Roy and Alan, Wade and Jane, Royce and Char, Amy and Marcus, Kathy, Nancy, Karen and Andy—all of Mary's family and friends: Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
It was Good Friday. I got a call that Mary was in the hospital. Bad case of strep throat. But it wasn't. It was leukemia. And how many times did Mary have to go to St. Louis and suffer treatments and come in peril of her life and bounce back? You know a person's been too long in the cancer hospital when they know how to sneak into the hotel next door and get to the Applebee's without walking outside! And yet after all that it was some other kind of cancer that took her life. We want to say with Martha who told Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here she would not have died.” The thought has perhaps crossed our minds: why it is the Lord let cancer take Mary? Why did she die? Why did she go through all that treatment and in the end it didn't save her? And the answer to that question is the one Jesus gives: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even though they die, they shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” Our question is the wrong one because we get wrapped up thinking that somehow death is the worst thing ever. Oh, it hurts. It makes us cry. It takes our loved ones away. But it is not the end. It doesn't get the final say. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He gets the last word.
On that Good Friday that Mary began her long ordeal, the church celebrated her Savior nailed to the cross for the sins of the world. Sin brought death. And Mary was a sinner. She told me so herself. She would get annoyed when people would ask “How can a good person have all this happen to them?” She knew that whatever she had from the Lord was a gift. Not earned and deserved but given by grace. Mary knew that her only hope in this life and through death was that Savior, the Son of God nailed to the cross for the whole world and for her. Mary knew that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and therefore death is not the end. Not the big deal. That's what our Scripture readings today all say. They teach us that where Christ is, death has no dominion, no power. Job says it. He declares that even though he dies, he's going to see God in his own body. St. Paul says it. He says nothing, not even death can separate us from God's love in Jesus Christ. Then Jesus Himself says it. He says to Martha and to us, that to those who believe in Him, even though they die, they shall live. So that's what we say about Mary. Even though she died, she will live. On the Last Day at the resurrection of our bodies, when Jesus returns in glory. Jesus died on the cross so that Mary's sins were wiped away. Then Jesus rose again on Easter so that Mary's death would not keep her down.
It is what Jesus did that was Mary's comfort through all this cancer. All these ups and downs. One day I went to visit her and she said, “Pastor, I've thought about this. I've realized that everything that is wrong has already been taken care of the day I was baptized.” Everything that is wrong has already been taken care of the day she was baptized. The day Mary was baptized, she was made a child of God and her sins were wiped away. She was given Jesus' own promise that He would raise her up on the Last Day. Ever since then, it was Christ's Word of forgiveness that strengthened her. It was His Body and Blood which nourished her. It was His Body and Blood by which Jesus lived in Mary and did so many good works through her for others. Our comfort today is not in what Mary did or how she lived. Our comfort is in what Christ has done. His perfect life for Mary. His death for Mary. His resurrection for Mary. His baptizing, absolving and feeding her which gave her comfort and strength in the roughest days of her illness and is now her sure defense against death. That pall on her casket reminds us that what the Lord began in her the day of her baptism will be finished when she is raised again on the Last Day. And that pall is a reminder of exactly what Mary said, applied to death: On the day she was baptized, her death was already taken care of by Jesus.
So Mary's all taken care of by her Lord. On her baptismal day, His washing of water and the Word made her a saint. A saint because Jesus makes her holy. But there is a way for us to honor her and remember her and to celebrate her life. And it is this: let her confession of faith be an example to you. For Mary, the comfort of Christ was a lifelong gift. Don't let this comfort of Jesus be a just-for-today sort of thing. Don't make sitting through this service something for Mary's sake. Rather, be found in Christ, in His church, where His Word and Sacraments are. Be where the preaching of Christ crucified and risen is delivered for the comfort of sinners. Be where you have the care of a pastor given for when you suffer the struggles of this life and for when death draws near. Learn as Mary did that religion isn't about her but about Jesus and what He has done. What joy it was a couple of days ago to pray with Mary the last prayers commending her to Jesus before she died. I pray the Lord will grant each of you, in His church, a faith which clings to Jesus Christ alone and a Christian death in Jesus, like Mary's!
Today is a day of sadness. There will be plenty of tears. There will be lots of laughter and remembering too. It is a day full of all kinds of emotions. But above all it is a day when we hear Christ's promises that death cannot come between Him and us. He has defeated death. He has defeated Mary's death. And while it is a good thought to think that those in Christ will see Mary again in eternity, the true Good news is that we, along with her, will be with our Lord forever. And that is why even though we cry today we rejoice. You can't ask for a better death than one like Mary's, to fall peacefully asleep in Jesus. Jesus is the Conqueror of sin and death. For Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. The Savior of sinners. Mary's Savior. The One who will raise her up on that Last Day. She sleeps now and is with the Lord. On that Day she will rise again. Jesus has said so. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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