Funeral Marvin Groth
Marvin Groth Funeral
John 11:21-35, 38-44
February 23, 2007
An AppetizerAn Appetizer
Introduction: Lois, David, John, Paul, and Cheryl, grandchildren, family and friend of Marvin Groth, grace to you and peace from our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes it seems like life is a slow motion process. We don’t quite notice how much life has changed until we look at pictures from our past. Then events happen like last Saturday morning, when Marvin had His aneurysm, and the days following. In the blink of an eye your lives are changed forever. This is always the case when one of our loved ones dies in so abrupt a manner. Then life slows down again, we reflect on all the things that happened. We wonder why God allowed things to happen as they did. We ponder the nature of our relationships with each other. We wonder what is important. For some of these questions we find answers. . All the while you have been a family together, weeping tears of grief.
In our gospel lesson today we find the shortest verse in the entire Bible: “Jesus wept.” John’s Gospel is the only one which relates this story about John’s beloved friend, Lazarus. Lazarus had been sick. By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been dead four days. Some Jews were consoling the family — perhaps in ways much as people have spoken to you and tried to console you these past few days. But, instead of going to the family in order to console them, Jesus went to the tomb. And, like you and me ... he wept. He wept because of a friend’s death. Jesus, at that moment, also experienced, the truth of the passage in Ecclesiastes: There is a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
Yes, in this life there is a time for everything. And Jesus, as you and I, wept at the tomb of death. And yet, he knew that in the eternal reaches of God’s time, there is something more. For he says to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall never die.”
When Jesus speaks these words, Lazarus lies dead in the grave. When He speaks these words it will only be a short while before He too will suffer the agony of death on the cross. Jesus speaks these words even as He mourns the suffering, the agony and death of His beloved friend Lazarus.
Jesus does not say that the dead will live on in the memories of the living ... although that may be true in some cases. He indicates something more important: the dead will live on with God through the resurrection; that is, through Jesus Christ. Still, despite his knowledge of God’s victory to come in his own resurrection, Jesus wept. Why? Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, was with God when all things were created. Matter of fact we are told that all things were created through Him. He is the life giver. When He created man in His image, death was never intended to be part of it. Jesus weeps because of the curse that has befallen all of us. Because of sin we die. Because of actual and inherited sin our bodies are frail and weak. As Jesus stands outside of His friend’s tomb, the reason He came into the world is staring Him in the face. This is why He came, to suffer and die, to bear our sins, to suffer our curse, so that by believing in Him we would have life in His name. Jesus is still the life giver and life creator.
We meet the human Jesus of Nazareth crying over the loss of a friend ... while at the same time he knew the outcome for Lazarus and for himself. Jesus wept and felt our human grief ... just as you do now. And because of those tears, our Lord can comfort us because he has been here in grief. He is here with us now. Jesus was with Marvin and Lois on Saturday morning. He was with you all as you journeyed through those long days and nights as the doctors desperately tried to save Him. Jesus with us all as Marvin went to be with the Lord. Through it all, Jesus wept too.
Jesus walks through the valley of despair ... loneliness ... and grief, with you, as your companion. Because of this, we, who are Christians, look at death differently. We can speak as the Aposlte Payl did when he wrote, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” For we know, with Paul, that Christ is the resurrection and the life; Christ has conquered death, and as a result, death has no longer a sting, no longer a victory over us.
True, like Jesus, we weep; but it is for our loss, not for those who have died in the Lord. For those who die in Jesus Christ are in the presence of God.
Yet, the grief remains for us. We think it will linger on forever. We find it hard to imagine that we will laugh. But even in the midst of your tears and grief you have shared moments of laughter. Why?, because you are people with hope. In our reading from 1 Thessalonians we heard these words, “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about of those that fall asleep, or to grieve like those that do not hope.” You have hope. You may have taken it for granted, but I have been in hospital rooms with people who were not Christians. Their grief was unbearable. For you, even as we were preparing to watch Marvin die, to fall asleep in the Lord’s arms, you shared laughter. You remembered the special and maybe not so special moments of your lives together, times when you went fishing and hunting. Times like catching that grand old musky with a broken pole and a broken net, wrestling that fish into the boat. Times like when you were about to go over a water fall, struggling to throw an anchor line out around a tree on the shore. We wept, we laughed and we worshipped the Lord even in the face of death. You were witnesses to the doctors and the nurses that Christians are a people of hope which based on Jesus Christ, our Rock of Ages. Just like an anchor on shore that saved you from going over that water fall, you have even a greater anchor, Jesus Christ.
Anchors are important. Not just boat anchors, but the things that give us a foundation to live our lives. What were the anchors of Marvin’s life? What was important to him? Many of the decisions that he made, how he tried to live his life, were based on a simple yet wonderful verse in scripture, Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” He understood what was important in life. God, family and church. He was not ashamed of thinking that going to church as often as possible was important. He wasn’t ashamed of serving his Lord through his time in various church offices and financial offerings. Because he wanted the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed, the church fund that mattered most to Him was the scholastic scholarship fund that supports young people that want to become teachers and preachers. Marvin was not ashamed of the gospel, and he was not ashamed of his family as he loved you, cared for you and instilled that love in you that you continue to share now as you support each other through this difficult time. What a man does, and how a man lives is evidenced in the lives of his children. It is evident in you. Lois, how could a man show his love for a woman any more than wanting to be with that person as you said, “24/7?” You were and are a family together, sharing life and sharing love. But most especially Marvin’s life was anchored in Jesus Christ and in these words of our Lord, that were Marvin’s confirmation verse, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. Now, more than any day of Marvin’s earthly life, he understands these words as he is in the presence of his Savior, and ours.
Jesus resurrected his beloved friend Lazarus. He raised him from the tomb and Jesus’ raising of Lazarus was a foretaste, of Jesus Christ’s own resurrection — and of ours. I believe. You believe. Marvin knew and believed. That our redeemer lives! And we know that whoever believes in him, though he or she dies, yet shall they live with a resurrected body eternally in the presence of God. You had the opportunity to say goodbye to Marvin. Remember, because of Jesus, someday, you will be able to say hello again, and share your lives together for ever. Jesus Christ, wept and suffered at death’s tomb, He suffered death itself, but because of Him there will be laughter again as the eternal morning dawns. Until that time comes, may the peace of the Lord be with you. Amen.