All Saints' Day

All Saints’ Day

Nov. 1, 2020

Text: 1 John 3:1-3

            “(W)e shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2; ESV).  We long for that, don’t we?  To see Him in whom we have believed, but who is hidden from our eyes.  We know that we are not at home here.  We know things are not as they should be.  We grieve over things as they appear.  Our sinful nature and our offenses against God.  A world in rebellion against its Creator and Redeemer.  Society coming apart at the seams.  Politics.  An election that promises only more division and strife when all is said and done.  An uncontrollable pandemic.  Restrictions over our lives with no end in sight.  Creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth.  Wildfires rage.  Hurricanes threaten.  Death, decay, and destruction are all around us.  I don’t know that I’ve ever prayed so fervently for our Lord’s appearing as I have these past few months.  We are world-weary.  We are war-weary.  If we could just see Jesus as He is.  We know that that would change everything.  Evil and death would be at an end forever.  All that is wrong would be made right.  Our own sins would be at an end, and we would be with Christ, forever joyful and free.  Our bodies would be healed and made whole, fully restored, alive and better than ever.  And on this All Saints’ Day, we especially think of our loved ones who have died and are with Christ, whom we shall see and embrace once again on that blessed Day.  And for all the pain borne here and now, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.        

            This is not just wishful thinking for the Christian.  Because Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again.  As a matter of fact, as St. John unpacks for us this morning, this victory of Christ is a present, albeit hidden, reality for us.  On that glorious Day of Christ’s return, what is hidden will be revealed.  Then we will see it.  Then all will know it.  And we will finally be what we were always meant to be, what Adam was created to be, what the Father has already declared us to be by virtue of our Lord’s saving work: Like Him, the Image of God restored, because we shall see Him as He is.

            But for now, we wait.  This is the time Luther calls the “Already/Not Yet.”  “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (v. 1).  That is a present reality.  It is already the case.  For you are baptized into Christ.  God has set His seal upon you, named you with His Name, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  He has marked you with the sign of the holy cross as one redeemed by Christ the Crucified.  You are God’s own child, I gladly say it.  And that means that you already have eternal life.  You are already righteous and holy in God’s sight.  That is to say, you are a saint.  For your sins are forgiven, and you are covered with the righteousness and holiness of Christ.  You are not a saint because of your own works or your own righteousness, but because of Christ.   

            But it sure would be nice to see that, wouldn’t it, in your life and your behavior?  But you don’t.  Not yet.  You can’t see that about yourself.  And you know the struggle, how often you wish you could be different than you are, do the things God wants you to do, stop with your sinful thoughts, words, and deeds, and be holy, as God would have you be, as He created you to be in His Image.  By faith, you know what is true of you in Christ.  By sight, well… Let’s just say the picture isn’t pretty.  You still sin.  Your heart is so often flooded by the evil thoughts of the flesh.  You open your mouth, and before you know it, evil things have poured out of your lips.  You’ve cursed.  You’ve spoken evil of your neighbor.  You’ve spoken hopeless words of discouragement and desperation to those around you.  And you can hardly believe it yourself, what you are seeing and hearing come forth from your own flesh.  Saint?  Hardly. 

            The world can’t see it, either.  Possibly it is because of your own sins.  To be sure, as those who bear the holy Name of God, we want to watch our behavior in the world, lest we cause offense by our sins and lay a stumbling block in someone’s path.  But St. John says it is for another reason.  It is because the world does not know Jesus.  The world doesn’t know the Savior, or the forgiveness of sins He has won for you and for all in His death and resurrection.  So it cannot recognize you as one who belongs to God.  If it does not recognize God’s Son, it cannot recognize you as God’s child.  The world looks at the Church of God and sees, not saints, but just a bunch of judgmental hypocrites.  That explains the enmity the world has for you.  The world didn’t see Jesus for who He is, and so it crucified Him.  The world doesn’t see you for who you are, and so you should expect to be despised and rejected, to suffer for the Name of Jesus. 

            These are the things we see.  But things are not as they appear.  We are God’s children now.  That is true in spite of all appearances.  But the Day is coming when the veil will be removed and what is hidden brought to sight.  Then we will appear as we truly are.  Now, what exactly that will look like we do not know.  We cannot now say.  But we know that we shall be like Him, like the risen Lord Jesus, because we shall see Him as He is.  That is to say, beholding Him who is the Image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15), the perfect Image that was lost and marred by our first parents in Eden, we become that Image once again.  Like the moon reflecting the radiance of the sun, in beholding Him, we reflect Him. 

            And this is true in some measure for the saints in heaven now.  Kathleen, Odessa, your loved ones who have died in the faith and are with Christ… they behold Him now in glory.  We don’t know much about heaven as the intermediate state of the soul between physical death and the resurrection of the body.  I’ve made this point to you many times, that most of what we read in Scripture about heaven is actually about the resurrection of the body and the new heavens and earth.  And that is a very important point, that going to heaven when you die is not the goal.  It is not the full and final blessedness for which we long.  We look forward to the resurrection of the body on the Last Day, when Jesus comes again.  But we would also be mistaken in minimizing the blessed condition of the saints now as they await that day from the other side of the veil.  What do we know about them?  They see Jesus in His glory.  We call this the beatific vision.  They are at rest.  They are at peace.  They enjoy fellowship with one another.  And they have great joy as they sing before the throne with the heavenly host.  They, too, are waiting and longing for the resurrection of their bodies.  But they do not suffer.  They are enraptured by the vision of Jesus.  And so also they have fellowship with us.  They haven’t lost touch, and this is very important.  No, they don’t watch over you from the sky.  No, they don’t hear your prayers to them, and you should not pray to them.  But they do join you in a much more profound and intimate way.  Here and now, in this place, where Jesus is, giving His gifts.  Where heaven comes down to earth.  Where we laud and magnify God’s glorious Name with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.  Where we receive a foretaste of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom.  Around the altar.  For the Supper.  They join us from the other side.  If you want to be with your loved one who has departed to be with Christ, you don’t go to their grave, or talk to the sky, or look deep into your heart.  You go to the Supper.  They are with you at the Supper, receiving Jesus with you, as they will for all eternity. 

            But as good as that is, that isn’t good enough for God.  He doesn’t only want His Image restored in you spiritually.  He wants His Image restored in you bodily.  And so we confess the resurrection of the body, as we know it from the Scriptures.  When we say we will see Him as He is, we mean what Job confesses, that as Christ is risen, so we, too, will arise: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27).  Could there be a clearer confession of the bodily resurrection?  And there it is in the Old Testament.  These eyes will see Him.  Standing upon the earth, the New Creation.  We will see Him as He is.

            And that will be the end of all that is not as He is.  We long for that Day.  Come, Lord Jesus.  He will.  He is coming soon.  So that being the case, St. John reminds us we can act even now as though it has already happened.  After all, we are God’s children now.  We can act as we are in Christ.  So what does John say?  Keep yourself pure, as He is pure.  That is what those who hope in Him do.  Already foster the Image within yourself.  Repent of your sins.  Give them up.  No longer wallow in them.  Strive against wickedness.  Live in holiness.  Where you fall, rest in forgiveness.  But do not make that a license for the flesh.  Be who you are.  Love your neighbor and serve him faithfully in your vocations.  Suffer for Christ and sacrifice yourself and all you have.  Hope in Christ and believe this as a certainty: Jesus is coming.  You will see Him as He is.  Already in the Gospel and in the Holy Sacrament you are catching your first glimpse.  And so it is already as St. Paul says.  Beholding the glory of the Lord, you are “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18).  This comes from the Lord.  He is in you.  You are in Him.  Soon you will see that it is so with your very eyes.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.