Stanley Krause Funeral (Mt 28:1–10; Rom 6:1–11)

Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

Alleluia! Jesus Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

INI + AMEN.

What’s most safe? Most full and meaningful? There’s the sights of all over the world. There’s the places and jobs. There’s the people around us: friends and family—or just everybody, if you never know a stranger. But any sort of safety and meaning that’s there is actually empty and vain.

They’re gifts—real gifts. But they’re gifts that the Lord gives to all people whether they want something to do with Him or not. Those sorts of “God the Father Almighty” gifts are a vain hope for blessing and security. It’s why you need soldiers and security guards and med techs and doctors, too. These gifts come and go. A life lived, a life ended.

What’s safe and secure, what’s meaningful isn’t a matter of what we like to hang our hats on. What’s most safe and most certain is what the Lord Jesus Himself says and does: “He’s risen, just as He said.” What’s most full and meaningful is so not because of what we think, but, again, because of what the Lord Jesus Himself says about that thing, what He does through it. What He says and does matters. He’s the Lord, after all. Not you.

So, what would He fill your life with? Not gifts that last only a lifetime and are forgotten after the next generation. What sort of Lord would He be if He did that? No, He would fill our lives with Gifts that endure beyond this life, Gifts that moth and rust cannot destroy, Gifts that cancer and death can’t take away.

And that’s what He does! We rejoice in one of those Gifts today. February 22, 1948. That Gift is why Stan’s casket most importantly is draped white, why this candle is lit, why we grieve in hope: Holy Baptism.

((2. What does Jesus fill Baptism with?))

The Gift of Holy Baptism is important and special because of the what Jesus says and does about it. He fills it with meaning, but not just meaning. He fills it with salvation and forgiveness, peace and hope. It has those things because of what He first fills it with.

He’s filled it with His death. Into the water and Word of the font Jesus empties His life, there He implants His death, there He pours out the blood price shed on Calvary. Now we are robe in Christ’s righteousness, our sins washed away by the water from His side. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.”

But more important on a day like Friday, on a day like today, is what Jesus also fills it with: “He is risen, just as He said.” The Lord gives living water, bubbling forth with His Word, but shimmering, clear, and life-bestowing because of His resurrection. Just as His death and burial in the tomb gave way to His never-to-die-again life, so also the Font: “united with him in a resurrection like his.”

((1. When does He fulfill Baptism?))

The Lord doesn’t just fill Baptism with His Word and Promise. He fulfills Baptism, too. He brings it to completion, He finishes it, and He brings the one who is baptized to the finish line. The Lord’s Baptismal promise is fulfilled at death. But that’s not all: He finally brings it to completion on the Last Day. Then it is “just as He said,” “united with Him in a resurrection like his.”

This promise isn’t just for Stan. The Lord delivered this promise and delivered Stan—white robe, white candle. This same promise really is for you, too. The Lord delivers to you all His same promises. Can’t dodge it. There is only one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins: one Lord Jesus, one Christian Faith, one Baptism that’s full of the Lord’s death and resurrection, that’s fulfilled on the Last Day when you’re raised from the dead.

The Lord’s death and resurrection is delivered, and death and resurrection is also fulfilled. What’s death? You’ve already died! Death has been washed away. What’s sin? You don’t need to avoid the Lord: sin only defines you if you remain in it. Why would you do that? Your sins have been washed away. What’s a grave? You’ll only rise from the dead. Stan’s body, your body will live again: sin free, cancer free, death free, pain free, tear free.

YOUR BAPTISM IS FILLED AND FULFILLED BY THE RESURRECTION.

But that’s not all. Always more from Jesus for and to you. More than Jesus filling your Baptism with His own saving death and eternal-life-giving resurrection. More than that He puts into you, fills you with His Word and Promises—like, right now, in the very Word being preached to you. He would also fill you with His body and His blood. “He is risen, just as He said.” And He also said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me and in Him and has eternal life, and I will resurrect him on the Last Day.”

That’s most certain. Most sure. Jesus Himself said it. He will surely do it. Baptism: filled and fulfilled. Stan’s and yours. Body and blood, too. The best Gifts! Have to be: “He’s risen, just as He said.”

Alleluia! Jesus Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

INI + AMEN.