Sooner or later, we will all have to deal with the death of a loved one, Christians face this reality more than others because we belong to a larger family: the Church, in the body of Christ, Does God bless us with many brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers, all loved ones and loved ones whose spiritual bond with us will never be broken (Mark 3 : 31-35).
We all have to depend on death. One day we will all face our own end, but along the way we will also see friends and loved ones leave this life for the next. Is death a real enemy? The last enemy to destroy is death. (1 Corinthians 15:26).
- I’ve seen people die in front of me.
- I’ve lost friends.
- Young and old.
- Death is always ugly.
- Death always brings suffering.
- And there’s nothing wrong with being sad about death.
- Jesus Himself wept at the death of his friend Lazarus (John 11:35).
- God created us in such a way that death is not natural to us.
- Made to live.
But when we lose a loved one who is a believer, we must remember an important truth that will help us cope with loss. Sadness will certainly strike us, but by the grace of God, suffering will not defeat us. This truth touches corazón. de the Christian faith and offers us a vision of the person of Christ, the God-man.
In John 17:24, we read words that, in careful reflection and prayer, should be in our hearts when someone loved dies. Consider language carefully:
Father, my will is that wherever I am, those you have given me may also be with me, that they may see the glory you have given me, for you have loved me before the foundation of the world.
As a man, Jesus has certain desires. He had desires on earth and still has desires in heaven. Here Jesus has a desire that makes known to the Father, he speaks, as he used to do before, of those whom the Father gave him (see John 6:37, 39; 10. 29; 17. 6. 9) . Those which the Father has given to Christ are the sheep for which the Good Shepherd gives his life (John 10. 11). Jesus prays to the Father for his loving sheep in the priestly prayer of John 17, and continues to intercede for them to this day (Romans 8. 34).
And what does Jesus want?
He wants his people to be with him. Jesus is completely happy and satisfied with the kingdom of heaven, but according to his prayer in John 17, he still has an unconditional desire: that his people be with him in the house that has already prepared them (John 14:2-4). ).
When a brother or sister dies in the Lord, we must first remember that the Father answered Jesus’ prayer; God is sovereign over the death of our loved ones and has goals that we may never understand (Deuteronomy 32. 39, James 4. 15). ), but we can keep the truth that Jesus prayed to his Father to bring his people home. When a believer dies, the Father responds to his Son’s request when he prayed about two thousand years ago the night before his people supported their lives.
At least we can say this: when someone loved leaves, Jesus earns much more than we have lost.
Yes, we lost. We will never again share this gentle fraternity with our brother or sister in this life. The magnitude of the loss easily frustrates our words. But loss never goes beyond the words of Jesus: “Father, I want them too, those you have given me, to be with me to see my glory.
Jesus knows that He has a glory that goes far beyond all that this world can offer; knows that a true glimpse of it is worth more than millions of worlds; knows that seeing his glory will not leave anyone dissatisfied. his precious saints to enter with him into true and eternal happiness.
We certainly experience many joys in this life, but nothing compares to the sheer pleasure of barrier-free communion with Jesus. We are destined for unspeakable joy in your presence.
When you lose a loved one in the Lord for the Lord, do you really lose?At least for a while. But this brother or sister wins, just like Jesus (Philippians 2:20-23). We can shed enough tears to fill the buckets, but the torrent of tears running down our cheeks will shine with joy when we realize that the death of our beloved ones is nothing less than an answer to Jesus’ prayer.
The death of a loved one in the Lord can bring one of the greatest trials to our faith, but can we trust that our beloved is better off with the beloved?Do we have to believe that the Son of God is reaping the fruits of his If we believe, then our sadness is a pious sadness, and Jesus will turn our sadness into joy (John 16:20).
Precious is the death of his saints in the eyes of the Lord (Psalm 116:15), and this can also be valuable to us when we cling to the hope that death will never overcome (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). Jesus was saddened that he never had to face a desperate sadness at death.
In the end, death is just an answer to Jesus’ prayer.