Pastor’s Corner
A Grave? or . . . a Gate!
… and the grave that shuts us in
shall but prove the gate to heaven.
Jesus, here with You I die,
there to live with You on high.
Let Us Ever Walk with Jesus LSB #685 st. 3
Sometimes, I am struck by something I hear in church. We hear fascinating things in our readings, our liturgy, but especially in our hymns. The stanza from the above hymn caused me to pause a few Sundays ago. The words gave a striking image that I don’t know if I’ve thought about before: “. . . and the grave that shuts us in, shall but prove the gate to heaven.”
We’ve all been to funerals. If there is a viewing, our loved ones will be laid to rest in a casket. They will usually wear their Sunday best. The casket is lined with fabric; there is even a pillow for the head. We pay little attention to the lid. But we should. The same thing goes for a loved one who is cremated. We admire the nice case in which our loved one’s remains are resting, we pay little attention to the lid. How do we view the lid of a casket or an urn? Is it our enemy? Are we angry because that piece of metal is separating us from our loved ones? Either way, I doubt we view the lid of a casket or urn favorably. But we could. We should.
I said earlier that I was captivated by this hymn stanza. Here is why: from our perspective, the lid is a barrier between us and our loved ones. But think about it from the deceased’s perspective. What will the lid of that casket look like to them on the day Jesus returns? Because I tell you the truth, a day will come when our loved ones awaken from the dead, and the lids of their caskets and urns will be cracked open with an unbelievably warm light shining in. And our loved one will see a crucified hand pry that lid open and there, in that moment, he or she will see Jesus Himself face to face and eye to eye.
So, as Christians, how should we view the lid of a casket or an urn? We could look at it as the “grave that shuts us in.” But we can also see that lid as the “gate to heaven!” We can see it that way. I think we should see it that way. And thanks be to Christ, all of us will see it that way one day.
-- Pastor Grimenstein
