The Everlasting Easter :: John 11:17-24 :: Funeral of James Melvin Rapp

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Dear Vanita, Veronica, Jeanette, Loretta, Michael, Brenda, and Marcella ... dear family and friends ... dear brothers and sisters in Christ ... all of you who have gathered today to commemorate the homecoming of James Melvin Rapp: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am not sure there could be more fitting words to hear and reflect on today than the words of our Gospel reading from John chapter 11. Jesus said ... I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he dies, will live, and everyone living and believing in me will never die. It’s little wonder these same words have leapt across barriers of death and time to be a source of comfort to God’s people through the ages. The words of resurrection and life give us comfort and peace as we remember James, a man who grew into the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ until he died in the early morning hours of the Lord’s Day of Resurrection.

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Those words of resurrection and life are wonderful words simply because they are not our words. These are the everlasting words of Jesus in which our Lord urges us to grow. 

Too often we try to rely on our own words. I’ve discovered that, no matter how much we rummage around in the attics of our minds and the cellars of our souls ... in times of grief ... mere human words are hard to come by. We stammer and stutter ... and wilt under pressure ... afraid to speak ... until we let God speak his words to us. 

That’s what Jesus did for Martha in our Gospel reading. Martha's brother had just died days earlier. So Jesus did what he does for us, he came to us in our hour of grief and he spoke the words of the Gospel to her, the words of God ... I am the resurrection and the life, Jesus said ... and in so doing, he caused Martha to lift her eyes from the dust of death to the promise of the life that is everlasting. Whoever believes ... will live. 

So today, I pray that you hear this word of God to you, too ... that you ponder the question of Jesus to Martha: Do you believe this? Our Lord’s word is a perfect word of grace and peace for us on a day like today. It is a word that gives us real faith in Christ, real hope, a living hope in our Lord Jesus Christ that he will raise James from the dead. All who believe in him will live ... and never die (vv 25–26a).

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It’s hard to comprehend words like this on a day like today, isn’t it? Death is very real. Even when we know it’s coming, the sting of death still hurts. It takes away our loved ones ... even giant men of faith. It was pretty clear to me: our Lord lived, moved, and had his being in James. Look around and recognize how many people our Lord touched through James.

So what can Jesus mean when he says that the one who lives and believes in him will never die? Well, King David must surely have had that in mind when he penned these unforgettable words of James’ favorite Psalm ... Psalm 23: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me (Ps 23:4). Did you hear the preposition he uses? I walk not just “into” but “through” the valley of the shadow of death. That’s what James has done. James had an extra large confidence in that truth because he had been living his confirmation verse from 2 Peter 3:18, growing in the grace and knowledge of his Lord Jesus. Our heavenly Father showered James in grace with faith, a faith in Christ given through baptism. God the Father poured out his Holy Spirit upon James in baptism, uniting him in the death of our Lord Jesus so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by God the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life (Rm 6:4). Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more (Rm 6:9).

Because of baptism, our Lord Jesus had become one with James on Oct 2, 1932. Through baptism, God created and sustained James’ faith in Christ ... of how Jesus lived for us, died for us, and rose from the dead for us. He who knew no sin became sin for you so that he could redeem you from all the sin that’s killing you ... so that you too will enjoy the fruits of the resurrection. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus is yours, too! 

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Because of Jesus’ triumph over death and the grave, we can now join James and all the saints in confessing not that I hope there’s life after death ... the way the world does ... but that I know there’s eternal life, eternal joy, with my Savior! Like we sang on Sunday, I know that my redeemer lives, and because he lives, I will live also. 

We will certainly miss James and his eternal smile. We will grieve for the hole that he leaves behind in our lives. But at the same time we can take great comfort in the knowledge that his soul is now in God’s precious paradise with Jesus ... awaiting the glorious day when the Lord returns with a shout and raises all the dead ... once for all. 

This is the good news of Easter. 

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So brothers and sisters in Christ, that brings us back to that final question, the same one Jesus asked Martha that day long ago: I am the resurrection and the life. ... Do you believe this? It’s a deeply personal question. But it comes from the heart of God, who loves you so much that he gave his only Son into death on the cross so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Martha said, Yes, Lord ... I believe. James said, Yes, Lord ... I believe. 

AND ALL OF YOU WHO BELIEVE IN JESUS AS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE WILL EXPERIENCE THE EVERLASTING EASTER, TOO

May God grant to each of us here the faith to add our “yes,” so that we, too, will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as we join all the saints of God in the joy and blessing of that everlasting Easter. To him be the glory both now and forever.

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