Deeper Reflection
THE THESSALONIANS WERE “TOTALLY UNPREPARED FOR the experience of bereavement”³¹. The death of their loved ones and friends before Christ’s return “took them by surprise and greatly disturbed them”, as they wondered what would happen to them.³² Paul points them to the “hope” (v.13) of the resurrection of “the dead in Christ” (1 Thess 4:16), which is founded on “Jesus died and rose again” (v.14a). And because of this, “when Jesus returns, God will bring back with Him the believers who have died” (v.14b, NLT).Now, when Paul says, “you may not grieve” in this context, he does not mean that Christians are not to grieve at all, but rather not as those with “no hope” (v.13). “Bereavement is a very poignant human experience. However firm our Christian faith may be, the loss of a close relative or friend causes profound shock. To lose a loved one is to lose a part of oneself. It calls for radical and painful adjustments, which may take many months.”³³ When the son of Leighton Ford, a Canadian evangelist and mission leader, died at the age of 21, he described his bereavement as “The struggle is to bring our faith and our emotions together” in a combination of “tears, questions and silence”³⁴. And he said, “When you love deeply, you hurt deeply.”³⁵When Jesus visited the funeral wake of Lazarus, did He excitedly say to the weeping Mary, “Mary, stop weeping! I am going to raise your brother from the dead in a moment!”? No, “Jesus wept”, instead – to share in the grief of the bereaved family (Jn 11:33-35).

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³¹ John R. W. Stott, 93 ³² John R. W. Stott, 93 ³³ John R. W. Stott, 93 ³⁴ Leighton Ford, Sandy: A heart for God (IVP, 1985), 164 ³⁵ Leighton Ford, 173