Richard George Pfund Funeral Tuesday March 2, 2010 Luke 23:39-43

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

The portion of God’s Word which I have chosen this morning for our comfort is from Luke 23:39-43 (ESV)   

And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Dear Friends in Christ,

We are less than two weeks into the season of Lent, the time of the church year when we ponder the passion and death of Jesus.  And it is by that very suffering, death, and, yes, resurrection of Jesus that we gather this morning to be comforted. 

How else could we soon –shortly, gather at the grave side of our dear brother in the Lord, Richie, and not be overcome with sadness, unless we went there knowing already that our Savior’s passion will in the end bring the joyful words, “Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia”?

Last Wednesday evening Richie came to the Lord’s House for the last time –to hear our Lord’s Passion read, to listen to the children sing about Jesus’ love for us, and to sing hymns such as “Jesus I will Ponder Now”.  Stanza 6 of “Jesus I Will Ponder Now” has these words:

Graciously my faith renew, Help me bear my crosses, Learning humbleness from you,
Peace mid pain and losses. May I give you love for love! Hear me, O my Savior,
That I may in heaven above Sing your praise forever. (Lutheran Service Book 440)

Oh, had he only known that Wednesday would be his last time in this life to sing the Savior’s glories and, that by week’s end, he would be singing his Lord’s praises in heaven!  Wednesday’s sermon continued our series on the last words of Jesus from the cross.  That evening we heard the word spoken by Jesus to the penitent thief, words that comfort us again this morning:

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

How appropriate these words are!  Like I said, these words of Jesus were the basis of our sermon Wednesday evening –the last time Richie was in church.  These are the words of Jesus to a sinner, which Richie was –and all of us here today are; words we never can hear too often.  And, these words promise that at the hour of death those who believe in Jesus will be with him in heaven, which is also a great comfort to us considering the suddenness of Richie’s death, and because we also do not know when our last hour will come.

Now I have to admit, I considered some other Bible passages that I thought might be appropriate today: thinking particularly of Richie, as I knew him and as you have described him to me.  Of course, a pastor can go with the Confirmation verse, which we have printed on the cover of the funeral service folder.  Or he may have something in mind that reminds him of the person. 

Since Richie was so fond of fishing, I thought maybe 1 Peter 5:7 might be appropriate, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”  No doubt, fishing is a great way to relax and get out from under the day to day troubles and cares of life, but I didn’t think that was the real meaning of that text.

I thought perhaps Psalm 90 was appropriate.  I read it at the kitchen Friday table, when we learned of Richie’s death.  I thought how you, Wes, went out later and tried to find Richie’s path in the snow and follow his footstep in the yards –but already by then the wind had blown the snow and filled them in, covering them up.  So the Psalmist says,

You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. (Psalm 90:5-6)

Then also, the same Psalm speaks of our years,

The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. (Psalm 90:10)

–and Richie was blessed to see over eighty years.

Although a person may be the most kind and gentle and easy going person as Richie was, we still all are sinners.  We have earned God’s wrath.  Otherwise why do we die?  The Psalmist says,

For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.  You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. (Psalm 90:7-9)

So I settled on Jesus words to the dying thief on the cross.  St. Luke tells us,

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39-41)

The circumstances surrounding this promised entry into heaven on the very same day that a criminal received capital punishment is known to everyone familiar with Jesus’ crucifixion.  Hung between two thieves, as they are commonly thought of –more likely they were like today’s terrorists –Jesus is mocked by one of them.

Even today such derision probably would be viewed by most people as extreme.  Although in our day and age it is getting harder to even find someone who acknowledges that there is a God or a Christ!  Today too many people don’t go to their deaths afraid of God; entering eternity –considering even that there might even be an eternity –let alone considering who might be Christ! 

The thief that mocks Jesus at least had an opinion about the Messiah.  He believed that the Christ would be a temporal deliverer from the Romans and their cruel subjugation.  The cruelty of crucifixion was just one example of what the Christ would –in this man’s mind –bring to an end.  For him, Jesus had to be an imposter since the Lord apparently would not or could not carry out his claims.  The thief was honest, in that way.  But he went to hell, for all his honesty did not make up for his sin. And, after all, “the way to hell is paved with good intentions.”

The other man, to whom Jesus words are addressed, believed what he heard about Jesus and had faith in him.  Perhaps it was Jesus’ Words of forgiveness spoken just before this –as the nails were being driven into the Savior’s hands –that gave him faith in Jesus. Perhaps it was the sign that named Jesus a King –that gave him the dying desire to gain admittance into the Savior’s eternal realm.  Maybe at one time he had been a follower of John the Baptist –or even Jesus.

Perhaps he had been misled away from the Lamb of God.  But now at the last hour of grace, he recognizes that truly Jesus is the One that takes the world’s sin away.  With that he repents of his sins, prays to Jesus, and receives the promise, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

What a glorious thought! To be with Jesus.  To think of our loved ones who have gone before us with the Lamb.  That they truly know no pain, or suffering, no sadness –not a tear.  That they rejoice night and day in the company of the angels and prophets and apostles and saints.  What glories Richie has already seen in just four short days in our time, now that he has come to the end of this pilgrimage we call life.

 Serving his country in Korea –as all our military service personnel know –Richie didn’t know with any degree of certainty then whether he would come home from the war alive –unscathed.  But he did.  And while many are unable to come back to church, to start families and live peaceable lives because either they had gone unprepared spiritually, or because they became victims war’s destructive nature –not only of the body, but also of the mind –Richie did come home and went on to live a God-fearing Christian life. A testimony to his charachter and upbringing, his Lutheran faith; and to the glory of his Lord.  And, now at long last his journey has ended, with a glad homecoming into the arms of the heavenly Father!

For we are all pilgrims.  Journeying towards heaven.  A journey started in Baptism and ending in death.  When one travels the thought that death might come is hardly a pleasant thought –we’d stay home if we thought such a thing would happen.  But in the body we are away from our real home, and we seek a different city, not made by hands.  And so we continue along life’s way. Ever walking with Jesus.

It was on his final way to Jerusalem, that Jesus took a side trip to Bethany.  There he had been called to the bedside of his friend Lazarus.  It was hoped that Jesus would cure him.  But it was not to be.  Lazarus died. And Jesus came only when it appeared to be too late.

Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, each had their own way of dealing with the loss of their brother. Martha went straight way to Jesus. Mary stayed at home.  Both, however, told Jesus when they finally saw him, “Lord, had you been here my brother would not have died.”

Although they were sad that Jesus had not arrived in time, neither of them expected what Jesus did next.  Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and returned the living brother to the two sisters.  What joy there must have been to have received back from the grave their brother, alive!  A few days later when Jesus ate at their house, Mary showed her gratitude by anointing Jesus’ feet with costly ointment.  When Judas scolded her for, what he deemed, was being wasteful, Jesus came to her defense and told Judas, “let her keep it for my burial.”

Even in the raising of Lazarus and restoring a member of a family and a friend, Jesus was preparing for his own death so that by it his words to Martha at her brothers grave might be fulfilled,

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. (John 11:25-26)

And we know that Jesus was so moved by his friends grieving for their loved one and also by those who mourned with them that he wept.  Jesus wept –this may be the shortest verse in the Bible, but no other verse I know expresses the profoundness that God has no pleasure in the death of the sinner (Ezekiel 33:11), but desires that all be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), and that blessed is the death of his saints in the eye of the Lord (Psalm 116:15).

 So then it came to be that, hanging between two criminals shortly thereafter, was the very One who saves sinners.  And it was in repentance and faith, that the one thief received assurance of a blessed entry into heaven.

None of us are excluded from these promises.  No matter what our sins may be or how many. And even if we may be way overly qualified to sing “Chief of sinner though I be” we too may add, “Jesus shed his blood for me. Died that I might live on high. Lives that I might never die. As the branch is to the vine I am his, and he is mine.”

At the end of the sermon Wednesday night we heard,

What sort of Man is this who promises Paradise to a dying thief who admits the guilt of crime? What sort of justice is this that speaks pardon to the unpardonable, that acquits the guilty, that saves those society deems unsalvageable and worthy of the cruelest form of death?

This is the Savior of the world, the Redeemer of fallen mankind, the One who reconciles the enemy as enemy and justifies the sinner as sinner. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

“Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” Hear that word of promise for yourself. Hear it now, and at the hour of your death, for none of us knows the day and the hour of our “Today” when Paradise is opened to us in our death. Amen.

Prayer: For Your Word of promised Paradise, opening Your kingdom to sinners, rebels condemned to die as the just wages of our sin, we give You thanks and praise, most holy Jesus. Amen.[i]

 

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[i] Christopher S. Ahlman, et al. “The Promising Word” in Words of Life from the Cross: Resources for Lent—Easter Preaching and Worship Based on the Last Words of Christ St. Louis: Concordia, 2009