“More than a Conqueror” (Romans
8:37)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.
I visited Rosetta for the last time a week ago
yesterday. She was sitting upright in
her wheelchair. She was cheerful and
talkative. Soon after I left,
she lay down in her bed and never got up again.
She quickly faded until she died late Saturday afternoon.
A couple of weeks earlier I had visited her. At that time, it had already been determined
that her time with us was limited. Of
course, that’s true for all of us. None
of us knows when we will take our last breath.
The doctors make their best guess.
Only God knows for sure. This is
all the more reason why it is important for each of us to pause and consider
our relationship to God. This all the
more reason why it is important to be ready at all times for our own death. And so, at times like these, we gather
together to listen to God’s Word and consider what it has to say to us about
death … and about the life that is promised to those who trust in Christ Jesus
as Savior.
Rosetta had been ready for a long time. In fact, she had already picked out Bible
verses and Psalms and hymns she wanted at her funeral. They were written on the inside cover of her
Bible. She showed them to me on one of
our previous visits, and I made sure to take note of them. We’re using all of them today. I might also note that the white paraments we’re
using today – the fabric draping our chancel furniture – were lovingly made by Rosetta
a number of years ago.
The Scripture verse I want to use for our time together here
is one that Rosetta chose … Romans 8:37.
There, the apostle Paul writes, “[I]n
all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom.
8:37).
“In all these things?”
he says. What “things”? To learn that, we need to back up a few
verses. There, Paul talks about tribulation,
distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and the sword. Those are all things that first century
Christians were facing. Christians in
various parts of the world face these things today.
And most certainly we all have trouble and distress in
this world that is broken by sin. Ever
since our first parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God, we have all inherited a
sinful condition from them. Because the
world is sinfully broken, each of us also faces the aging process and disease and
death which sometimes even catch an 89 year old woman and her family off
guard.
In the end, death always seems to win. No matter how much we try to gain the upper
hand, death always seems to win the battle.
But death never has the last word. Jesus has the last word on death. And his last word was more of an exclamation
point ... in the shaped of a stone rolled away from the entrance to an empty tomb. Jesus won the victory for us over death when
he rose again on Easter morning.
Earlier in Romans 8, St. Paul writes, “if God is for us,
who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for
us, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall
bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to
condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised –
who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”
God the Father sent his Son to become a Man in order to die
and bear the punishment for the sins of the world. He didn’t spare his Son, but gave him up for
us all. Those who are baptized into Christ and trust in his saving death are God’s elect, his chosen
ones. No longer do your sins condemn you. Through the shed blood of Jesus, you are
justified. You are declared not guilty. Christ Jesus paid the price for your sins at
the cross with his own suffering and death. And St. Paul says
that through Christ, he “graciously gives us all things.” What things?
In contrast to those things we heard about earlier – tribulation, distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and the sword – the “all things” we
have in Christ are peace with God, confidence in his loving care, daily provision
for our body and soul, the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, the promise of
being with him in heaven when we die, and the promise of resurrection on the
Last Day, even as Jesus himself rose from the dead on Easter morning. These are the very
things that Rosetta was given by baptism and by faith in her Savior Jesus. And what more can we need? All the material wealth of this life is worth
nothing compared to the riches of eternal life in Christ.
Rosetta lived a full life.
Over the years, she raised a family.
Taught school. Served in various
capacities at church. Taught Vacation
Bible School on a First Nations reserve in remote Saskatchewan. Travelled all over the world, hitting almost
every continent.
Over the years, she also
fought some health battles, including this most recent one. In the end, she decided not to fight. She was ready to place herself into the arms
of her Savior in his time and according to his will. But even in death, she is “more than a
conqueror” through the One who loved her enough to suffer and die for her sins
and to rise again on the Third Day. And
she will rise again, too, according to God’s promises in Holy Scripture.
Listen to how St. Paul
describes that great day of resurrection in 1 Corinthians chapter 15: “For this
perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on
immortality. When the perishable puts on
the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass
the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where
is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks
be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:53-57).
“[I]n all these things
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that
neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to
come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will
be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.
8:37-39).
Rosetta is with her Lord
right now. Nothing was able to separate
her from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
She is more than a conqueror because of the victory that Jesus won for
her.
Those of us who are still here have to deal with our
grief and sadness. Maybe you’re a bit
numb. Maybe you’re tired. Dealing with the death of a loved one is emotionally and spiritually draining. But this promise is for you
today, too. Nothing can separate you
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Trust in him today. Receive the peace and comfort that he offers
to you through his death and resurrection … and know what it means to be “more
than a conqueror.”
Amen.
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