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…in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
Alleluia! Jesus Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
᛭ INI ᛭
This is Christ’s undying promise. It’s not just something that can’t be undone. You can’t put Christ back into the tomb. You can’t make Him dead again. It’s not just that. It’s His undying promise FOR YOU and for Jim, too. That you will live because He lives. When Job says, “I know that My Redeemer lives,” it means that His Redeemer comes back from the dead. That’s why it’s something to be inscribed and written forever. It’s not just that He’s always lived, but that He’s lived after having been dead. That’s something to write home about!
But the promise isn’t just something to long for, to hope for. It’s an undying promise that shall be seen. Job believes that with his own eyes he will see. His heart yearns to see it. He longs to see His Redeemer face to face. And the Lord’s undying promise is that Job will. Because Christ lives Job will. Job does. Jim does. You will because Christ did die, and Christ did rise from the dead. Yes,
BECAUSE CHRIST DID RISE YOU’LL SEE HIM WITH YOUR OWN TWO EYES!
It’s hard to see how that could be. Especially after how hard it’s been for the past five months. Hard to believe it’s been just five months. It’s a long road to walk with your husband, your dad, your grandpa, your friend. To see so many things along the way—hospital rooms, doctors, nurses. It’s been a dark path where the finish line you yearned for, longed for wasn’t today. But for such a day as today, for you Alvera and Michelle and Jami, for all of us here today, Christ makes His undying promise. Jim has experienced it, for He’s gone to be with Christ, “who is over all, the eternally blessed God.” (Rom 9) He’s the God who died, and the God who rose, because He lives, you will live also.
BECAUSE CHRIST DID RISE YOU’LL SEE HIM WITH YOUR OWN TWO EYES!
Jim longed to see many things, and longed to not see many others. That became crystal clear the past five months. One Jim enjoyed to see was the track meet a couple weeks back, but one place he certainly longed to see was here. He wanted to come to church, the place he’d worshiped at for 74 years. As the Psalmist says, “My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Ps 84) Church was brought to Jim, of course. The Redeemer who lives gave Jim His body and blood, for the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus says, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day… He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” (Jn 6) Because of that promise, Jim and you, will see Christ with your own two eyes! Christ’s flesh and blood at Communion is His way to assure the resurrection of your flesh and blood, as Job 19 promises.
And we know that Christ did rise, for He was seen by many people with their own two eyes. As Paul says, “Christ was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also…” (1 Cor 15) And the Christ who did rise from the dead says, “You now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” (Jn 16) Since Jim has departed to be with Christ, which is far better, he’s experiencing such sight, such joy!
Yet, from our perspective it’s still incomplete for “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” is still future tense. And yet, John says in Revelation: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands.” He saw Jim, for those John saw “are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev 7) This was done for Jim August 14, 1949. “All that the mortal eye beholds Is water as we pour it, Before the eye of faith unfolds The power of Jesus’ merit. For here it sees the crimson flood To all our ills bring healing; The wonders of His precious blood The love of God revealing, Assuring His own pardon.” (LSB 406:7) Same with the bread and wine—what you see isn’t only what you get: “This bread is My body, This wine My blood for you for the forgiveness of sins.” “This body and blood…strengthens and preserves you in both body and soul unto life everlasting.”
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Cor 2) Jim sees now. He sees the eternal worship of God the Father, Christ the Lamb, and the Holy Spirit from the other side of this sanctuary. The distance between heaven and earth is thinner than stained glass, that when you ascend up into heaven at Communion Christ is closer than that! (Same was true even when the altar was your dining room table, the chair, or hospital dining tray.) So when your mortal eyes see the front of this church, or any other church, know that you may only see a wall or stained glass, but the eyes of faith see “angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven,” which now includes Jim. You and he singing “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, heav’n and earth are full of Thy Glory. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest.”
And one day, the Last Day, the Day that will never end, “[Your] Redeemer,” your Jesus, “shall stand…on the earth.” That day “…in [your] flesh [you] shall see God,” you’ll see Jesus, who is “over all, the eternally blessed God,” (Rom 9) “Whom [you] shall see for [yourself], And [your] eyes shall behold, and not another.” You shall rise, you shall see. Alvera and Michelle and Jami, all of us here today, even Jim. That’s Christ’s undying promise. “Yes, yes, it shall be so,” because of Christ.
BECAUSE CHRIST DID RISE YOU’LL SEE HIM WITH YOUR OWN TWO EYES!
“How [our] heart[s] yearn within [us]!**
Yes,
Gracious Mercy Blog 