Pastor Tom Johnson, 11/18/12
Today’s appointed Old Testament reading just happened to be about sleep and wakefulness. And today also happens to be the last Sunday of our Bible study on sleep and wakefulness during our Adult Education Hour. Daniel has a vision of the beginning of eternity. He sees the coming of the Kingdom of God. He sees the end of war and the ushering of final peace. He sees the radical and permanent transformation of God’s people. He sees the end and beginning of all things through the lens of something we all experience: sleep. He writes, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Our eternal future will begin like something we are very familiar with: getting up after a night’s rest.
We should keep in mind that Daniel’s original audience was a displaced and persecuted people. Daniel was speaking to people who saw the destruction of their capital city, Jerusalem. Many of them were carried off as spoils of war into Assyria and Babylon. They saw unspeakable violence and death. They witnessed a tragic blow to their homeland. They felt the disappointment of their kingdom’s fall. Daniel wants to give them a peak into the Kingdom to come. He wants to give them hope of a brighter future. He wants to comfort them just as we comfort our children as we tuck them in—assuring them that they will safely journey through the darkness to the brightness of a new day. Others, sadly, wake up to “shame and everlasting contempt.” This rude awakening happens when they finally realize the enormity of their sin. In both Daniel’s and John’s visions, these are especially those people who aligned themselves with evil and wickedness. They may have triumphed before the night, but they wake up to the greater reality of who has the victory.
Daniel sees the angel and great prince of angels, Michael, arriving for duty. His job is “Protector of God’s People.” He is Guardian Angel to the believer. He is invisible to our eye but puts a hedge of protection around us. In the Catechism, Luther instructs us to pray as a reminder to ourselves and a request to God, “Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.” God has answers our prayers. Michael sets up a security perimeter around our beds, our homes, and our lives. We lay our heads down on our pillows with a deep sigh of relief knowing that as we fall asleep, Michael and his army of angels are working the nightshift. Even though the world outside may be in a time of distress, we are secure in the strong hands of God. We close our eyelids and we fall asleep. We let go of the worries and troubles of the world. We rest in the guarantee that the day of salvation and deliverance will come. It is so certain, that our names are written in a book.
John’s vision in the book of Revelation is almost identical. Believers who die have simply fallen asleep. They have not vanished or ceased to be. From our perspective in time and space, they are sleeping. They are asleep in Jesus. They have been washed and forgiven by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Believers rest in the finished work of Jesus who was died and rose again. We are secure in faith and trust in his labors on our behalf. We also lay our heads on our pillows with the promise and assurance of a new day. “Weeping may tarry for the night,” scriptures says, “but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). We are simply on the darker side of the earth. The sun will arise just as surely as Jesus rose from his empty grave. And like the sun, which overcomes the darkness of the night, Jesus too will shine brightly when he comes to wake us up. With a trumpet blast and shout of command, we wake up to everlasting life.
And when we wake up, it is a startling realization. We open our eyes to everlasting life. And before we too quickly gloss over those words, “everlasting life,” we should understand that it does not merely mean “never ending” or “eternal.” It means life on a scale and life to a degree that far surpasses life as we experience it today. It is “everlasting” just as the Hebrew Bible describes the care God gives as his “everlasting arms” and the concern he has for us as his “everlasting love.” Everlasting life is the divine, magnanimous life of God.
From our perspective in time and space, we fall asleep in this life. But from God’s perspective, when we close our eyes here, we open them to this new and greater reality in eternity. We are clothed with Christ himself—dressed up in his righteousness—and we shine more brightly than the stars of heaven. Our Scripture says, “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” The wise are those who trust God—those who listen to the Word of God—those who put their confidence in the great Sleeper and Ariser in history, Jesus Christ.
He fell asleep on the cross of Calvary. He lay on a stone bed hewn out of rock. He was tucked in with linen cloth and spice. He rested from all his labors on our behalf. And then, early on the third day, just before the sun began to rise, Jesus woke up and got up in victory. Death no longer has the final word. For those who trust in God, death is simply a brief nap before a bright, and eternal day.
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