Mourn Well - Funeral of Johnson Marsalis

Johnson Marsalis was born on July 28, 1941 to Walter Clifton Marsalis and Myra Indiana Eley Marsalis. Most people remember his mother as India Marsalis from running the nursery for decades at Paul Truitt.  Mr. Johnson and his sister Arie have lived on the very land off Highway 80 since he was 2 years old until he died last week. Mr. Marsalis went Brandon for first grade because there wasn’t a school in Pearl yet, but they soon built one and he was a 1960 graduate of Peal High School.

Mr. Marsalis met the love of his life, Gay, in July 1970. On their first date, a blind date, Ms. Gay called Betsy Pulliam to vouch for my Mr. Marsalis and thankfully she gave him her seal of approval. That night they went and had pizza and went bowling. Up until Ms. Marsalis passed this past February, every year on that date in July, my momma and daddy went bowling and had pizza. Even this past July, with after her death Mr. Johnson still went and bowling and had pizza on that date. They were married just 6 months later on January 16, 1971 by Brother Reeves at Paul Truitt. They just celebrated their 50th anniversary this year just a month before Ms. Gay passed away. They adopted their daughter, Amy, just 8 months later when she was born on September 15, 1972.

Daddy loved picking on people and messing with them to make them laugh. One year, Mr. Johnson asked Amy what she wanted for Christmas and she told him “I wanted a Lamborghini.” Mr. Johnson just said, “alright.” And on Christmas, a month or two later and she opened up a framed photo of a Lamborghini. His only response was, “Well, you said you wanted a Lamborghini”

My daddy was always a happy man. My daddy was always smiling. He was always laughing. He loved to laugh! He lived to make other people laugh and smile and be happy and feel good. He always had a kind word for someone and he very much lived the “if you can’t say something nice about someone then don’t say anything at all” kind of life.

Mr. Johnson and Ms. Gay loved singing, they loved going to the gospel singings in Pearl, wherever they were. And I can almost see them together today, sitting in heaven. They may be singing, or they may just be sitting back and smiling as they hear the angel choir celebrating the Jesus they both loved.

As we think about this let us remember:

Mourning is Natural

Our Mourning Should Not Be Ignorant

1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Death, Unbeliever’s Response To

The story is told of an author, William Saroyan, who had achieved great success in his field. His works had been acclaimed in the literary world, his name was a familiar entry on best-seller lists, and he had even been awarded a Pulitzer Prize. But now he lay dying in New York City of cancer, which had spread to several of his vital organs.

One evening, as Saroyan reflected on his condition and what the future held for him, he placed a phone call to Associated Press. After identifying himself to the reporter who answered his call, he posed a question that revealed the honest, searching sensitivity that had characterized his career. It was a final statement to be used after his death (which occurred later in May of 1981).

He said, “Everybody has got to die. But I have always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?” And then he hung up the phone. (Cited in Reader’s Digest, Dec. 1981, p. 136.)309

For many, death is like that. It’s a now what?

But God does not want us to be ignorant about what will happen to us.

1 Corinthians 15:50–57 ESV

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today is a day of mourning, but we do not mourn because we wonder “what will happen” we mourn knowingly.

Our Mourning Should Not Hopeless

One of the great truths of scripture is the fact that for those in Christ death is not a goodbye but a see you soon.

1 Peter 1:3–5 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

And in this passage

1 Thessalonians 4:14 ESV

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

1 Thessalonians 4:17 ESV

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

There is a promise from God that death is not the end. Death is merely a doorway into a better place.

Our Mourning Does Not Have to Be Fearful

John Piper, once said this in a sermon to Bethlehem Baptist Church:

I know why every one of you is here this morning. That is, I know why God in his providence brought you here. He brought you here so that you would know you don’t have to die. That’s why you’re here. He brought you here so that you would know who says, “I Am” — Yahweh God almighty not John Piper. That’s why you’re here. Those two reasons that you may know that you don’t have to die and that you may know that the authority behind that statement is not mine but God’s through Jesus. Then there are a few implications of that for your life — massive total ones. Nothing stays the same. If you don’t think you’re going to die ever, everything changes.

Today, I know why you’re here. On one hand, you’re here to mourn the death of your grandmother, your aunt, your sister, your friend. But on the other hand, Yahweh God, in his providential love brought you here to hear that death is not the end. You don’t have to die. You can live with him forevermore.

I don’t know what Aunt Betty is seeing right now. I don’t know what she’s doing, I have the authority of scripture to give me an idea, but I really don’t know. But I do know that if she could be here for a moment she wouldn’t talk about the weather, or about politics.

If she was here she’d look each of us in the eye and say, repent and believe on Christ Jesus so that you can one day see what I see.