20. November 2023
Funeral for Marian Eschrich
John 6:27-40
This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ—Richard, Pam, Vicki, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, family, friends, and fellow saints of God—grace, mercy, and peace are yours in Jesus Christ, your LORD and Savior. Amen.
Jesus always keeps His promises. What good would a promise be if He did not keep it? But His suffering and death upon the cross and His rising again on the third day from the dead prove without doubt that He keeps His promises. From the first sin in the Garden to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to David and Solomon, through the Prophets, Jesus promised to save us from sin, death, and the devil. Jesus’ death and resurrection is His keeping that promise. And because He died and rose again, we who are in Jesus, even though we die, shall we live.
This is our comfort and hope today for Marian and all those who die in Jesus. This is not the kind this world gives with trite condolences and empty comfort. Nor is hope more of a wish and prayer. No! Jesus promised Marian that she is His and that He would never leave or forsake her, not even in the grave. As the Psalmist says, “He will not abandon my soul in Sheol or let His holy one see corruption.” This is first fulfilled in Jesus and will be fulfilled for Marian and all those who await Jesus’ reappearing.
So that we remember what Jesus promises, He sent His Spirit into our hearts. He gives us to cry out, “Abba! Father!” His Spirit directs us to His Word, the light of Christ that shows us the path through this valley of the shadow of death. The Spirit points us to the font and our baptism, where we were joined to Jesus so that everything that is His is ours—including resurrection and eternal life. The Holy Spirit calls us to the altar to receive Jesus’ body and blood for our forgiveness, life, and salvation. He gives us to receive the feast of eternity already now, dining with saints and angels and the whole heavenly host so that whether we live or die, we live in the Lord.
This is God the Son doing precisely what God the Father sent Him to do, all through God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from both. “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” Jesus is saying that everything He does, whether in Galilee, the Decapolis, or Jerusalem two thousand years ago, or what He continues to do for us in Word and Sacrament in His Church, is to keep you safe and secure until the last day. He will not let anyone whom He has been given to be lost. He will move mountains and make dry land appear amid water if needed so that you, like Marian, will be resurrected on the final day.
That doesn’t stop us from throwing up obstacles to Jesus. We resist His Spirit. We don’t want to listen to Him. We find excuses to avoid His Word preached and taught. We absent ourselves from the Supper. We forget our Baptism and live as opposed to its promises. But try as we might, Jesus won’t have it because the Father won’t. He said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” This is the miraculous gift of Divine election, God’s choosing. God the Father determined from the very foundation of the world to give His only-begotten Son to die for Marian’s and the whole world’s sins. He chose to save her before she was even conceived in her mother’s womb. He elected her to salvation. That’s how Marian rested confidently in Jesus from her Baptism to the day of her death. Jesus said that nothing could separate her from Him. And so, Jesus worked tirelessly to keep Marian in the faith. Even before she gave up her last breath at Sunny Ridge, she heard, confessed, and prayed her faith in Jesus, trusting that Jesus had her safe and secure today and always.
Today, we sing two of Marian’s favorite hymns: “Nearer, My God, to Thee” and “How Great Thou Art.” Both are remarkable and show us exactly where Marian put her hope and confidence, namely, in Jesus. Our opening hymn confessed that God, the Holy Trinity, is the only answer to this life’s trials, difficulties, afflictions, and grief. God in Christ draws us near to Him to shelter us and be a mighty fortress and defense from all that may seek to draw us away.
Our closing hymn gives us to ponder how the same God who made all the glorious things of creation is the God who sent His Son, born of the woman, to suffer and die to take away our sins. And because Marian and all believers in Jesus are forgiven, Christ Jesus will cry out to her on the last day, raise her from the grave, and take her to her heavenly home.
Hear again what Jesus promises: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out… This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day… And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ—Richard, Pam, Vicki, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, family, friends, and fellow saints of God—grace, mercy, and peace are yours in Jesus Christ, your LORD and Savior. Amen. Jesus always keeps His promises. What good would a promise be if He did not keep it? But His suffering and death upon the cross and His rising again on the third day from the dead prove without doubt that He keeps His promises. Marian is forgiven, inheritor of eternal life, safe in the Lord’s keeping, and will be raised on the last day. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guards your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School – Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin