Hope for the dead
Hello,
This past week death has taken centre stage: I have officiated at or attended three funerals, Holocaust Memorial Day was commemorated, two teenage boys were killed in a double stabbing in Bristol, three US troops were killed in a drone attack in Jordan, and that’s not to mention the deaths in the Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Hamas conflicts.
The stench of death is all around us and our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones. Is there any hope for the dead, or is it as Franz Kafka said, ‘the meaning of life is that it stops’?
Christians grieve when death occurs but not as the world around us does (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Because Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25) there is the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of all human beings. Jesus has defeated death and so the Apostle Paul could write, ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?… thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (1 Corinthians 15:55,57).
The good news of the Christian message is that the meaning of life is not that it stops but that it is found in a person: Jesus Christ. He gives us the victory over death and the hope of eternal life.
Now, that’s a message worth sharing.
In Christian love,
Barry Robinson.
About the Writer:
Barry Robinson is a Regional Pastor for Southern England, the Midlands and Wales