All Saints' Day (Observed)

All Saints’ Day (Observed)

November 5, 2017

Text: Rev. 7:9-17

            “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” (Rev. 7:13; ESV).  The angel asks St. John, but he is also asking us.  It is important for us to make this identification, to connect these dots.  And we could speculate.  We are good at doing that when it comes to spiritual things.  We are good at coming up with things we’d like to think are true.  But it’s much better to hear the truth as it is revealed through the authorized messengers of God, and the angel is just such a messenger.  And so we confess with St. John, “Sir, you know” (v. 14).  “We’d much rather hear it from you.  We think we know, but we know you know.  And here, in the face of suffering and tribulation and death, we need to know.”  And this is just the answer the angel is looking for.  And so he tells us, “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” (v. 14). 

            They are coming out.  It is an ongoing process.  The great tribulation is not some future intensification of suffering that Christians will experience near the end of time, though it is certainly probable that things will get worse for Christians as time marches on.  Nonetheless, the great tribulation is now.  It is the time of the New Testament, ever since the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, as the Church lives in this fallen world under the seeming rule of the devil and in the midst of unbelievers who seem to be winning the struggle against Christ and His Christians, who seem to be the ones who prosper, who hold the power and influence in this world.  That is the great tribulation.  But these clothed in white robes, they are coming out.  Which is to say, they are dying and going to heaven.  And they are not sad, those coming out, those dying and going to heaven.  They are marching in the victory parade over death.  They are carrying palm branches, the symbol of victory in battle.  Here, for the first time, they see things as they really are, and not as they appear to be in this fallen world.  They see with their own eyes our God who sits upon the throne, and the Lamb.  The Lamb who is slain, but who stands victorious, Jesus Christ, who died, and who is risen from the dead, and lives, and reigns, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  So they sing.  With angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, the elders and the four living creatures and all who stand around the throne.  And we sing with them: “Amen!  Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!  Amen” (v. 12).

            Who are these?  They are certainly the great heroes of the faith.  There is our father Adam and our mother Eve.  There is Abraham.  There is Isaac.  There is Jacob and King David.  In that tremendous number are Peter and Paul and all the Apostles, St. Mary and St. Joseph and the little child Jesus had put in the midst of His disciples when He taught them about greatness.  There are the Church Fathers, St. Augustine, Martin Luther, of course, and C. F. W. Walther.  These are just a few of the saints gathered from every nation, tribe, people, and language.  No mortal could number them all.  That is why we have a day like this to commemorate them all, All Saints’ Day. 

            But don’t misunderstand.  What is a saint?  We’re not just talking about the big heroes who get all the publicity.  Nor do we mean someone who has lived a particularly spotless and holy life and who does miracles after they’re dead, as so many of our Christian brothers and sisters define it.  The word “saint” simply means “holy one.”  And how does one become holy?  By the forgiveness of sins and Baptism into Christ.  They wear white robes.  These are the robes given them in their Baptism.  These robes are Christ’s righteousness.  Their sins have been washed away in the blood of the Lamb, Christ, and now they bear His righteousness.  They are holy in Him.  And that means a saint is anyone who is baptized, anyone who is in Christ by faith.  That means you.  And that means when we look at that number coming out of the great tribulation, clothed in white robes and singing with palm branches in their hands, we see our own loved ones who have died in Christ.  Today is about them, as much as it’s about Abraham and St. Peter.  Today is about you… it’s about you in Christ.  Which is just another way of saying, today, like every Feast of the Church, is all about Christ for you, Christ for all.

            And your loved one who died in the holy faith of Jesus Christ is one of those coming out of the great tribulation.  Yes, there, clothed in a white robe, is your grandfather, your mother, my dad, my brother-in-law, your son, your friend who died too early in a car accident, your aunt who succumbed to cancer.  There they are with Luther and King David and all the saints gathered around the throne of our Father who art in heaven, and the Lamb, our Savior, Jesus.  When we said goodbye to them on this side of the veil, it looked as though the cancer had won, the heart disease, the violence, the old age.  It looked that way, but it was not that way.  Look at them as they are described in our text.  Read this Scripture every time the devil tries to trick you into thinking death has won.  This is the reality.  They are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple.  He shelters them, protects them from all harm.  They shall not hunger or thirst anymore.  That means they lack no good thing.  The sun shall not strike them by day, nor any scorching heat.  That means that nothing oppresses them.  The Lamb in the midst of the throne, Jesus, crucified and risen for them and for you, is their Shepherd forever.  He leads them.  He guides them.  He keeps them safe.  And He brings them to springs of living water, the unfailing source of their life eternal.  And perhaps what is most comforting: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (v. 17).  To be with Jesus and see Him face to face is the end of all sadness.  It is the great making right of all that has been wrong.  It is the end of sin and sorrow and grief and pain.  It is the end of death.  And as good as all of this is, it gets even better.  Because in the End, Jesus will do for all the saints, and for you, the culmination of all of His promises.  He will raise you from the dead.  Your body, reunited with your soul, to live forever, nevermore to die.  As He is risen, so you will rise.

            And isn’t this comfort, testified by the holy angel and written in the Scriptures for our learning, much better than the silly things we say from our own wisdom when confronted with death?  You’ve all been there at the funeral visitation when we’re all gathered around the casket and start lying to each other.  “Oh, he just looks so peaceful.  The funeral home did such a great job making him look alive, like he’s just sleeping.”  No, he looks dead.  But we’re not supposed to say things like that, apparently even at a Christian funeral, because that would be to admit that the whole nightmare is true and we really do all eventually die.  So we say, “That isn’t really Grandma.  That’s just her shell.  She’ll never need that body again.”  And there we’ve denied the resurrection of the body we confess every time we say the Creed.  Yes, Grandma’s soul is in heaven, but beloved, this body will rise.  And that’s what you say next time someone tells you that lie.  Because that’s true comfort.  Christians need to get in the habit of telling the truth about death so that we can also tell the truth about the resurrection.  No more of this business about that star up there being Grandpa, or Grandma always looking down on us (which is kind of creepy when you get right down to it), or feeling the presence of Uncle Jim being always with me.  You have something so much better.  Read Revelation 7!  That’s what’s going on with Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Jim and all the saints.  And then Jesus will raise them.  You’ll see them again.  Your arms will hold them again.  And of course you’ll recognize them.  Don’t let any pastor tell you otherwise.  That’s just silly.  You’ll know them.  You’ll love them with a greater and truer love than you’ve ever loved them with here.  The life in which you held them here is fallen and infected by sin and death.  The life in which you will hold them there is life real and true, life as it was always meant to be.  You are separated from them now, for a little while, by the thin veil of death.  But not for long.  You will see them soon when you come out of the great tribulation.  And you will see them with your own eyes on that Day, when Jesus raises you from the dead. 

            In the meantime, for the little while that we have in this fallen world, don’t lose sight of this profoundly comforting truth.  They are gathered around the throne of God and of the Lamb, and so are you in the Holy Communion.  They are here, beloved.  Because Christ is here.  This is where you are with them, with the Church of all times and all places, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.  Heaven comes down to earth in the Divine Service.  When you’re missing your loved ones who are with Christ, go to Church.  Christ has already clothed you with your white robe and given you your palm branch in Baptism.  Here you join the heavenly chorus and receive a foretaste of the Feast to come.  You live your earthly life in the midst of the great tribulation.  But things are not as they appear.  You are coming out.  Your Shepherd is calling you by name.  He is the Lamb of God who takes away your sin and the sin of the whole world.  And He lives.  Here is His throne.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.