Just Beyond the Rainbow's End
June 1, 2013
“If you have ever lost someone very important to you, then you already know how it feels, and if you haven’t, you cannot possibly imagine it.” That quote is from the opening paragraph in the first of a collection of thirteen books entitled, A Series of Unfortunate Events. The author, who writes dark tales for children under the pen name “Lemony Snicket,” explains that this is how the Baudelaire children felt when they became the Baudelaire orphans after both their parents died in a house fire.
Those words of how difficult it is to convey a sense of loss fit with today’s gospel reading. Martha is hurt when she sees Jesus. She says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Then she calls for her sister Mary who repeats that same accusation, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
If I had continued reading our Gospel further, we would have heard John tells us that, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’” And then, in the shortest verse in all of Scripture, we are told that “Jesus wept.”
Jesus, the Son of God, weeps at the grave of his friend. We too weep over the graves of those we love. Today, at this bereavement service, we remember those we love who have died. That remembrance comes with love and joy-filled memories, but it also comes with sorrow.
It is a sorrow that doesn’t go away. Real grief stays with you. In fact, not only can one not expect grief to go away completely, we also shouldn’t want it to because grief reflects our sense of commitment and love that we had for the person. And so, we pray not for an end to the grief, but for an unbearable sense of loss to be replaced by a sorrow we can bear. And in this, we are helped by the hope of the resurrection.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Our faith informs and transforms our understanding of death and tempers our grief. For through faith we know that our loved ones that we remember today are not gone…only their body has died; their spirit lives with God and has gone home to be with Jesus. They are home, home to where they have been welcomed and forgiven and loved…loved more than we could ever imagine. And so, grief is NOT a lack of trust or faith. We can experience profound grief and yet still believe deeply that our loved ones are at home with God. They are two different things. One is our response to our loss…the other is a response to their gain.
“Jesus wept” - the shortest line in Scripture, but also perhaps the most profound, because it reminds us that God can identify with our experience, that in becoming human, God was and is with us in Jesus, in a way that caused him to experience the depths of human pain and loss. God can readily imagine grief because he himself has known that pain firsthand.
God is not distant and reserved. God is close, caring, and compassionate. Scripture tells us that the time is coming when God will wipe away every tear from our eyes and when even death itself will be defeated. Yet, in the here and now, there are many tragedies, personal and even national or international, which cause people to question their faith.
In all these cases people ask, “Where is God?” And the answer is: “with us.” God was there when the flood waters rose during Super Storm Sandy. God was there grieving with the parents who lost their children to the violence on that December day in Newtown, CT. God is with the people of Oklahoma amidst the tragedy of the loss of life and property caused by the recent tornado there. God is there in the tragedies large and small that have us wondering why. God is there in the midst of suffering, present with those in pain, as one who learned the depths of human suffering while living among us.
Knowing that Christ knows how it feels to experience the death of a loved one, we can hear more clearly Jesus call to put away the fear of death. Jesus said, “Unbind him and let him go” to those around Lazarus. And he says the same to us. We are to be unbound, set free from the power of death and the hold that grief can have upon us. Grief is real, but the loss we experience is not the end. Don’t let grief overwhelm you. Grab hold of the sure and certain hope of the resurrection that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
I recently came across a song by Irish singer, Daniel O’Donnell. I think it beautifully conveys what our loved ones would want to tell us if they could this morning. The song is called, “At the Rainbow’s End”:
I have gone from sight but I am waiting . . .
Waiting just beyond the rainbow's end.
I'm happy in this place that I have come to
Because I'm here with my forever friend.
Now all your thoughts of me, let them be joyful . . .
Of things we've done and happy times we shared.
So don't be sad dear ones because I've left you . . .
Please laugh and talk of me as if I'm there.
Just look up in the sky: I am the sunshine . . .
I'm the mist that rises on the summer morn . . .
I'm the gentle breeze that cools the autumn evening . . .
When the birds sing in the trees I'm their song.
This journey I've made one day you'll make it -
You too will be with my forever friend.
It's there once more that we'll be together . . .
I'll meet you just beyond the rainbow's end.
It's there once more that we'll be together . . .
I'll meet you just beyond the rainbow's end.
Yes, I'm waiting just beyond the rainbow's end.
