“Jesus Visits a Cemetery”
Luke 8:26-39

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost—October 9, 2022

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Sometimes when people learn that I live in the community of Block, Kansas, they ask what the population is.  It all depends on how you look at it.  According to the census, the population of Block would be perhaps a dozen or so.  However, according to our Christian faith, there is really a much bigger population here—my neighbors, right next door to our church.

The word “cemetery” actually originated as a distinctly Christian term.  No one else before ever called a burial place a cemetery until the earliest Christians uniquely starting using that word to describe the places where they buried their dead.  But, the strange thing is, the Greek word they used, “koimeterion,” from which we get “cemetery,” does not mean a burial place, but a “dormitory,” a place where people sleep.

The first Christians boldly picked THAT word to describe their places of burial as a powerful WITNESS to the pagan population—testifying with the very word “cemetery” to their Christian faith in “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”  As Paul declares in 1st Thessalonians: “We would not have you be ignorant, brothers, about those who fall asleep, or to grieve in the same manner as the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. . . And so we shall be forever with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”  So, if you include in your census all those who “sleep” here at Block, you could say the population is nearly 700!

An interesting thing about living in the parsonage has been seeing the large number of visitors to our cemetery.  People come at all hours, sometimes very early, or very late, or even in the middle of the night.  And people visit our cemetery not just on Memorial Day, or the Christian festival of All Saints Day, but throughout the year, and in all kinds of weather.  When I see people out visiting a loved one’s grave in the cold, or rain, or snow, I assume it must be some kind of special day for them, such as a birthday, wedding anniversary, or perhaps the date of their loved one’s death.

The Gospels report three times when Jesus visited a cemetery.  Today’s Gospel Reading is the first instance, when Jesus dramatically frees from the power of the devil a demon-possessed man, who is living in exile out in a cemetery.  And that’s exactly what Jesus has also done for YOU.  As Martin Luther beautifully says in his explanation of the Apostles’ Creed in the Small Catechism: “[He] has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death, that I may be his own and live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. . .  This is most certainly true.”

Like people visiting their loved ones in our church cemetery, the second time that Jesus is recorded visiting a cemetery is when he went to the graveside of his dear friend Lazarus.  And just like us shedding tears over the loss of our loved ones, the shortest verse in the Bible tells us that as he stood with Mary and Martha before the grave of their brother Lazarus, “Jesus wept.”

“‘Lord,’ Martha said to Jesus, ‘if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’”  “Martha said to him, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’  Jesus answered, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live.’”

That is also the message Jesus has for you, as you mourn your loved ones who trusted in him, or face your own death: they will rise again—YOU will rise again.  For, you see, it wasn’t just Jesus who was only visiting the cemetery that day, as he stood at the grave of his friend Lazarus.  Because, he proclaims to those mourning the death of Lazarus the Good News, that in fact Lazarus too was only visiting the cemetery, the Good News that the grave would not Lazarus’ permanent home.  “Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live.”

In the case of Lazarus, that promise was fulfilled just a few moments later, when Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” and “the dead man came out” from the grave.  “Do not be amazed at this,” Jesus says. “For a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear [my] voice and come out.”  Just as Lazarus rose from the dead that day and walked away from the grave, Jesus promises that when you are dead and buried, you will be in fact only visiting the cemetery.  For, the grave will not be your permanent home—YOU will rise again, at the Last Day.

Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”  That is where the souls of all those who died with faith in Christ are right now, with him in paradise.  For, at the moment of death the soul departs the body and goes immediately to be with Jesus in paradise.  As Paul says in Philippians, “I desire to depart, and be with Christ, which is better by far.”

And in the resurrection at the Last Day, you and all those who trust in Christ will rise again to life everlasting.  For, when he comes again in glory, our bodies will be reconstituted, raised up, revived, restored, and reunited with our souls.  “For my Father’s will,” Jesus says, “is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

It was just a few weeks after Jesus visited the grave of his friend Lazarus that the Gospels report his third and final visit to a cemetery:  “At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. . . [and] they laid Jesus there. . . The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee . . . saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.”

The grieving women at the tomb of Jesus sadly thought THAT would be his final resting place.  But, the tomb was only temporary, for he was just visiting that cemetery for a few days.  As the angel proclaimed to the women on Easter morn: “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He is risen, he is not here!”

“Because I live,” Jesus promises, “you also shall live.” By his suffering and death upon the cross Jesus paid for all your sins, as Peter and Paul declare in the book of Acts: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. . .  everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. . . Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.”

And because Jesus was only visiting the cemetery when he was buried, and the grave was not his permanent home, when your body is buried, perhaps here at Block, that place of burial will truly be for you a “cemetery” in the original Greek meaning of the word, a dormitory where your body peacefully sleeps, awaiting the resurrection at the Last Day. Because, for you and all who trust in Christ, when you are buried, like Jesus himself you will be only visiting the cemetery, and the grave will not be your permanent home. For, because he rose from the dead on the third day, you will rise from the dead on the Last Day.