In these weeks following Easter, with our celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, it is easy for us as Christians to rejoice in the victory of Christ over death. He has triumphed over the cosmic enemy of humanity. Yet, as each day witnesses, that enemy still battles on and will do until its final destruction. In recent days, even tonight, I have heard of those who have passed through the gateway of death. Some have been older, some fighting illness for a long or short time. Others are younger, taken suddenly or by illnesses that are not meant to afflict their age group.

In whatever guise death comes, even when it comes seemingly as a friend and as a release from suffering, ultimately it is the enemy of humanity and the destroyer of life. Paul views death as one of the cosmic powers that is anti-God, as the Last Enemy to be destroyed – and it will be, but not yet. In such circumstances we must never resort to platitudes in an effort to alleviate the pain of those who are left behind. And yet it is incumbent upon us to speak words of hope, not based on some folk religion’s view of ‘heaven,’ but from the faith we have that God raised Jesus from the dead.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4, “¹³ It is written: ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’Since we have that same spirit offaith, we also believe and therefore speak, ¹⁴ because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.” This is not a statement in the abstract, but one that emerges out of his incredible suffering for the sake of the name of Jesus. It is one that was spoken to people who had trouble both believing that suffering was a real part of the Christian life, and that resurrection was possible. It is possible because Jesus was raised, and with Jesus, God will also raise us.

In the meantime, as we struggle to live with their absence, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5, that their ‘tent-home,’ with its frailty and mortality, has been replaced by a ‘dwelling from God, a house not made with hands.’ It is a home for which he longs because it means being with Christ – ‘at home with the Lord.’

It is one of the ironies of faith that our hope of resurrection can only be strengthened in the face of death. I remember that, while I firmly believed in resurrection because of the resurrection of Jesus, it was only on the death of my father nearly twenty years ago that it took hold of me in a way that it hadn’t beforehand.

To my friends who are grieving I say this, the pain is real for us, and do not try to ignore or suppress it. Death is a thief who takes those whom we love the most. But in the midst of our grief let us keep on saying to ourselves, ‘The one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus.’