GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
ZECHARIAH 14:6-8
Will we grieve for those who are not in heaven?
6 On that day there will be no light, cold, or frost.
7 It will be a unique day, known only to the LORD,
without day nor night,
but in the evening there will be light.
We remember once again that this is not about Judgment Day. Concerning Judgment Day, Jesus said, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). The final coming of Christ is always depicted with terrible fire, “a blazing fire with his powerful angels” (2 Thessalonians 1:7; also Hebrews 10:27; 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 20:7). But in this vision, on a unique day, known only to the Lord, something will come (verse 8) that will benefit all mankind, even though it is a dark day with no light, cold, or frost. This thing will come when it seems least likely, on a day of defeat and of nothingness.
The darkest persecution of the church would happen on that day, that terrible day. It was Good Friday, the day when darkness covered the earth for hours. This was no eclipse of the sun. It was God the Father letting darkness cover the world once again, just as it had before light came into being on the very first day (Genesis 1:3). That sweet light (Ecclesiastes 11:7) had been the very first blessing, the first sign of God’s love for the creation, the clearest daily sign that his love endures forever.
Darkness fell over the cross, and darkness remained, not for a moment, but for hours while Christ suffered hell in our place. Then, after the death of God on that cross, the light of evening came at last, for God’s providence does not end. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Genesis 8:22). But on that day, that terrible Friday, there was a pause in the way of things, as if the angels looked away and held their breath.
8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem,
half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea.
It will keep flowing in summer and in winter.
Jesus said, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). It flows to fill up everything, whether the most lifeless sea on earth (the “eastern sea” here is the Dead Sea) or the gateway to all other oceans and seas in the world (the “western sea” is the Mediterranean). This living water is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The gospel does not stop flowing. The prophetic image is of the way that rains and rivers (or gulches, known as wadis in the East) work. The winter rains fill the channels and swell the river banks. Then in the summer, things dry out and dry up. So we in the West think of rivers flowing in summer but stopping in the winter because they freeze, but the opposite is meant here. Yet the idea remains either way, because the gospel knows no season. It keeps flowing always. And the whole gospel stands on the Second Article of the Creed. This is because before the coming of Christ, there was no help, no comfort for anyone for the guilt of sin. A few Patriarchs had been handed the promise, which really had its origin with words spoken for Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15). But sinners do not naturally trust God’s word, and the gospel was doubted and rejected except by a handful. Now the prison of hell has been broken; the very lids of our tombs are cracked and shattered, because the life offered by Christ is more than spiritual life. Spiritual life is a life that is able to walk in step with God’s commands (Galatians 5:25). But Jesus also offers us physical life, eternal life in heaven with him in the flesh. Both his spirit and ours will be clothed in our human flesh, and to prove this for us, his spirit only left his body for a few days. He rose, body and spirit, already on Easter dawn and later ascended bodily into heaven. We will follow, clothed in a similar way with our human flesh, but rid forever of sin and all its effects. Without sin we will have no fear of death, no submission to temptation, no guilt or shame, no pain or sorrow, no feeling of loss or regret. If one or another of us has trouble understanding this, they should not think that they are alone.
Those who have the most trouble with this doctrine of joy at the resurrection are those people who have a loved one, perhaps especially a child or spouse, who has died in unbelief, or who we fear will die that way, without Christ. Will I not grieve for that person? Grief is an experience in this world, not in the next. But in heaven, “we will forget all earthly things,” as Gerhard explains. That is, anything tainted with sin, corruption, pain, grief, etc., will not be part of our life and thought in heaven.
Since emotions run high and cloud our judgment and reason in this matter, let me use an illustration which will bring few if any emotions along with it: Opera. In the church I serve (indeed, in my family and even in the city I live in) I am just about the only person I know who is interested in opera in the least. So if I tell a friend or a loved one that on a coming Saturday my favorite opera is going to be performed or that it will be on the radio, they shrug it away as if I’m trying to promote a trip to the dentist or to come and scrape peeling paint from a barn window. While I am listening to the opera, I have no thought for the people who are not there enjoying it with me. My joy soars with the music, and my experience is not at all dulled that I alone, of all the people I know, have the same joy. This will be our experience of heaven, except that for most of us, many or even most of our loved ones will be there with us, and our joy will only be that much more overflowing. But like me sitting at my desk on a Saturday afternoon with Puccini blaring through the speakers, we will not think of those who are not there. There will be no empty chairs at the Lord’s banquet; every single seat will be filled, for the Master has commanded that the wedding hall will be filled with guests (Matthew 22:10). His invitation went to the dearest friends first, but many of them made excuses and stayed away. So he brought in “the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” (Luke 14:21) and then anybody who happened to be walking by on the open roads and country lanes (Luke 14:23). All who answered the invitation, all who come to his door, are brought inside, and for each and every one there will be a place prepared (John 14:2). We will rejoice with God and with one another, but we will not miss those who are not there or grieve for them any longer. If anyone has such grief today, this, too, will end, and there will be the only possible comfort for it: the comfort that comes from Christ for all who put their faith in him.
Until then, the living water of the gospel continues to flow, for this is the time we live in, the time of our grace. Put your trust in Christ, and a garland of grace will be placed on your head and a crown of splendor (Proverbs 4:9), and we will be filled with joy in the presence of God (Psalm 16:11).
As Luther prayed about his lectures on this chapter, so we also pray today: “May Christ help and protect us in the singleness of his mind. Amen.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Zechariah 14:6-8 Will we grieve for those who are not in heaven?