The Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Kings 20

In Christ Jesus, who alone is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Joh. 14:6), dear fellow redeemed:

King Hezekiah, as we heard, was very sick. Our reading tells us that he had a boil, the same word used for the boils the LORD sent on the Egyptians and the boils that afflicted Job (Exo. 9:9, Job 2:7). Hezekiah’s boil had presumably caused a serious infection that had brought him to “the point of death.” The LORD sent the prophet Isaiah to visit him with this message: “Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” That was a shocking word for a king who was only thirty-nine years old at this time and had ruled well for fourteen years.

But as you know, death does not often—or even ever—come at the “right time.” From our perspective, the death of a loved one always comes too soon. Even when a medical treatment or a miracle extends a life by the grace of God, we are still not ready when death comes. No amount of time is enough time. The number of days a person will have is not known to us, but it is known to God.

When He created us in our mother’s womb, He had already determined the length of our days. Psalm 139:16 says: “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” The psalmist in another place asks God to keep him from getting too caught up in his life in the world: “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” (Psa. 39:4).

In the oldest Psalm in the Book, Moses makes this request of the LORD: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” There is wisdom in recognizing the shortness of our life here on earth. There is wisdom in making preparations for our death. As Christians, we know that death is not the end of our life; it is the beginning of our eternal life in the Lord’s presence.

So if a prophet visited you and said, “Set your house in order, for you shall die,” what would you do? I suppose that depends on how much time you had. What if you had two years to live? Two months? Two weeks? Two days? You would get your legal papers in order. You would contact your family members and friends to express your love for them. You might take a trip you always wanted to take.

It is good to give some thought to these things, since we don’t know when our death will come. You can save your family members a lot of trouble by making your wishes known in a will and by doing some advance planning for your funeral and burial. But it is much more important to make sure you are prepared spiritually, to get rid of any sin you have been holding onto, or has been holding on to you.

Are you keeping any old grudges that you could try to resolve? Have you been hiding something that has compromised you spiritually, endangering your faith, something that could cause embarrassment to your family if it were discovered after you are gone? Are you waiting to talk with an estranged family member or friend until “sometime down the road”—a time that may never come?

Our Lord Jesus teaches us to forgive others as God has forgiven us. We deal with anger, bitterness, and pain not by hoping they will go away, but by dealing with them through confession and absolution. This is also what we do with secret sins. We get rid of any snares in our home or life that are tempting us or leading us to sin, and we lay all our sins out in the open before God through repentance.

We do these things each week in the Divine Service, so your attendance here is a big part of preparing for your death. Here you are taught to examine your heart and life for sin. Here you are absolved of those sins by the Word of Jesus. Here you are pointed to the work He has done to save you through His death and resurrection. Here you receive the gifts of His life and salvation through His Word and Sacraments. Here you are encouraged to pray and bring your needs and requests before Him.

After hearing the word from Isaiah about his imminent death, Hezekiah prayed to the LORD. Our reading contains a short version of this prayer. The book of Isaiah records a longer version. In the longer version, Hezekiah acknowledged that he had been prideful and not given all glory to God. He said, “Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back” (38:17). This prayer of confession was accompanied by great weeping. The LORD’s message through Isaiah had hit home; Hezekiah recognized his own mortality.

The LORD listened to his prayer. He sent Isaiah to tell Hezekiah, “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD, and I will add fifteen years to your life.” “On the third day”—that didn’t make Hezekiah’s ears perk up like it does ours. But it is one in a line of hints about a future “third day,” the greatest “third day.”

Jonah was swallowed up by a huge fish for three days before it spit him back on shore (Jon. 1:17), and Jesus later applied this account to His own burial “in the heart of the earth” (Mat. 12:40). When the Jews asked Jesus for a sign for His authoritative teaching and work, Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple [talking about His body], and in three days I will raise it up” (Joh. 2:19). At least three times before He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Jesus told His disciples that He would be condemned and killed and “after three days rise again” (Mar. 8:31, 9:31, 10:34).

Jesus’ prophecies about His resurrection “on the third day” were not empty words. He was crucified, died, and was buried on Good Friday, and on the following Sunday morning—the third day—He rose from the dead. Death could not hold Him because He had conquered death. And He didn’t just conquer it for Himself; He conquered it for you and me. His disciples didn’t believe it until they saw Him alive in the flesh with their own eyes. Then they wrote down what they saw. Their eyewitness account stands as a testimony to the whole world that Jesus the Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

His resurrection is why we don’t view our physical death here on earth as “the last thing.” We do not want to die, but it does not terrify us like it does unbelievers. They run from death and even distance themselves from loved ones who are dying because they cannot bear the thought of their own death. On the other hand, we Christians sing, “For me to live is Jesus, / To die is gain for me; / Then, whensoe’er He pleases, / I meet death willingly” (ELH #473, v. 1).

We meet death willingly because Jesus has turned our earthly death into the entrance to eternal life. When a believer in Jesus dies, his soul goes immediately to be with the Lord. His body is laid to rest, put to bed in the casket, for an unknown amount of time. The body rests in peace until Jesus comes back visibly in all His power and glory on the last day. He will come with a shout, and all the dead will wake up from their slumber (1Th. 4:16). Then He will gather all believers to Himself, whole, glorified, soul and body joined once again, to go with Him to His heavenly kingdom.

Until that day comes, those who have died in the Lord are only sleeping. That’s what death is to God, nothing more than a sleep. We have no power over death, but He does. He can wake us from it as easily as we can wake someone from an afternoon nap. We often use the term “pass away” for death, but that does not come from the Bible. The Bible often uses the term “sleep.”

Jesus described His friend Lazarus as having “fallen asleep” after he had died (Joh. 11:11). Several times, St. Paul referred to believers who had died as “those who have fallen asleep” (1Co. 15:6,18,20; 1Th. 4:14,15). In today’s Holy Gospel, Jesus told the mourners who had gathered at the house of a dead girl, “the girl is not dead but sleeping” (Mat. 9:24). And in our reading from 2 Kings, we hear that “Hezekiah slept with his fathers.” He died as they had died and was buried where they had been buried.

But for them—for you—death is not final. Hezekiah may have died, but he lives. His soul is with the LORD, and his body will be resurrected on the last day. This is God’s promise for all who trust in Him. He died to blot out every one of your sins. He rose in victory over your death. It does no good to try to hide your sins away or to imagine that death will not come for you. Jesus took your sins on Himself, and He paid the price for them. He took on your death, and on the third day, He overcame it to win for you eternal life. Your hope is not in what you can do about your sin and death; your hope is in what He has done to save you.

As Isaiah said would happen, Hezekiah recovered on the third day and went up to the house of the LORD. Because of Jesus’ resurrection on the third day, you also go to His holy house with rejoicing. You thank and praise Him that He has rescued you from temporal and eternal death. Though you are dying, yet He gives you His life. You receive this life through His Word of life and through “the medicine of immortality”—His holy body and blood—which He gives for you to eat and drink at His holy table.

Because Jesus is “the resurrection and the life,” because He imparts His life to you, you and all who believe in Him will live, even though your body dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Him shall never die (Joh. 11:25-26).

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.

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(picture from woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)