Comfort for the Grieving

A small group sits together in a lamplit room. Someone they loved has died. They believe in Jesus. But they have a question no one can answer for them. What happens now?

The church in Thessalonica was very young. Paul had only been with them a short time before he was forced to leave. He had taught them that Jesus, who died and rose again, would one day come back. They believed it with all their hearts. But then, before that day came, some of their own people died. Perhaps an old man. Perhaps a mother, or a friend. And the church was grieving, and worried. Would those who had died miss out when Jesus returned? Timothy brought their questions back to Paul. So Paul wrote.

Paul begins gently. Brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed about those who have fallen asleep. Asleep. That is the word Paul chooses for believers who have died. It is a soft word, and a hopeful one, because people who are asleep wake up. Then he says something important. I don't want you to sorrow as others which have no hope. Notice, Paul does not say do not grieve. He knows that losing someone hurts. Jesus himself wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus. What Paul says is, do not grieve as though there is no hope. Because there is.

Here is the hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Paul writes, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. Jesus came out of his tomb. And that means death does not have the last word for those who belong to him. Then Paul tells them what the Lord will do. The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then those who are still alive will be gathered up together with them, in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. So the ones who have died will not miss out at all. In fact, Paul says, they go first. Paul does not tell them the day or the hour. He does not draw them a map of the future. He tells them who is coming, and who will be with him. The same Jesus who died and rose. And everyone who belongs to him, together.

Paul ends this part of his letter with one simple instruction. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. He does not give them a puzzle to argue over. He gives them words to say to each other, sitting together in their grief. Words a mother could say to a child who has lost a grandparent. Words a friend could say beside a grave. Together. With the Lord. For ever.

Paul uses two words here that his first readers knew well. The coming of the Lord is parousia, a word used for the official visit of a king or emperor to a city. And to meet him is apantesis, the word for the moment when the citizens went out of the gates to greet an arriving ruler and escort him in. Thessalonica had seen such visits. Paul borrows that picture: the believers going out joyfully to meet their King.

Comfort for the grieving. You'll find these words in First Thessalonians chapter four, verses thirteen to eighteen. Grief is real, and hope is real too, because Jesus died and rose again. So here is a question to carry with you. Who do you know who is sad right now, and how could you bring them comfort?