St. Paul Lutheran Church
The Festival of All Saints (Observed)
November 2/3, 2013
Revelation 7:9-17
The Rev. BT Ball
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Rev. 7:13-14
When the church commemorates the faithful departed like we will in a few minutes, you’ll hear the names of people who have died. And they have died, but not really. Yes, their hearts aren’t beating anymore, they aren’t breathing and there are no brainwaves, but they aren’t dead. They are at rest in the ground down the road where the blessed ones are. But they aren’t dead, not really. To be really dead is to be separated from God in hell forever, and these blessed ones are not in hell, they are not dead. They live in Christ. Yes, their bodies have died, and this due to the curse of the fall, but Christ has opened the gates of paradise. He died, and now He lives. He is the resurrection and the life, and those who have died in Him will live. Whoever lives and believes in him will never die. Do you believe this?
Well, that is the question for the day. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life? He is and since He is those who have died in Him are still alive. He is the Son of God who came to gather for Himself a people, to cleanse them with the washing of water and the Word, to wash them in His blood and give to them His righteousness. He has done just that. And John got to see a vision of this fact though it has not yet been revealed to us all by sight it will be just like it was for him.
He saw the great multitude, beyond counting from all the nations and tribes and peoples and languages, the great multitude of those who were dead, but are alive. And they are raised, they are not spirits, they have bodies. The blessed apostle sees in a vision what it is going to be like for those who have died in Christ and for you who will. All gathered around, clothed in white robes, palm branches in their hands. And they are singing, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.” And all the angels are joining in too, singing praise, falling down on their faces before the throne of God. And who are they again, and why do they have those white robes, this host arrayed in white? “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.” The great tribulation, that is now. It is when the forces of this world oppose and seek to strike down and destroy the church of Lamb. This tribulation has been ongoing since our as long has our Lord has been having his people. Jesus even says that this is a great blessing, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” To undergo tribulation for the sake of Christ is to be a Christian. If the church is not suffering, it is simply not a Church. The church is not found by strength or numbers, but where the people of Christ are following him, and are gathered together by the preaching of his suffering and he shedding of his blood. Because it is the blood of Christ that was shed in his suffering and death that make these people who they are, what they are, and His blood gives them their cleansing. His blood gives them life, and death, and the evil of men cannot win, do not win, will not win.
And here you are alive in body, and alive in soul too because you are one of the number. You have sins, but Christ cleanses you of them by His blood. Here you are, before the throne of God, it is where He dwells according to His promise. Jesus is not far off; He is where His word is. That is here. He is where He promises are. That is here. His body and blood present for you here, and so then you are with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. You miss your loved ones who have died in Christ. To be near them is not to go out the graveyard, which of course you should do. To be near them is to be where Christ is. Where Christ is, there are His people, seen and unseen. All these are those who are sheltered by the presence of Christ. You confess and believe in the Real Presence of the Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar. He gives you His body, His blood. He cleanses you in your baptism and in this food. Although the saints have died they are the ones who hunger no more, thirst no more, nothing harms them, and most of all the living water and no tears.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and that is the promise you have and the promise the blessed dead rest in, that the lamb will wipe away every tear from your eyes, after tribulation and trial, after death and the grave. There is living water, life, the Lamb and no more tears. Amen.