Jonathan Farris
Memorial Service
Rom
8:31-39
11/6/21
Jonathan
Farris was a character. And I mean that in the best sense of the term. He was always joking – always ready to laugh
… and to laugh at himself. He was a very
positive, engaging, and fun person to be around.
But Jonathan
was also very serious when it came to faith in Jesus Christ. He didn’t just attend the Divine Service each
week. He attended Bible class. He read Scripture during the week. He read
books about the Bible and the Christian faith. And Jonathan was certainly no
generic Christian – he confessed what is in the Small Catechism as his
faith. Jonathan was a Lutheran
because he knew what he believed, and he knew why he believed it.
When Jonathan
showed up at Good Shepherd, and told me that he had moved to Marion, I was
thrilled. Here was someone who was going
to be at the Divine Service and Bible class every Sunday. You knew that he would be actively involved
in the life of the congregation. He was
going to be a great addition to our congregation for many years to come.
And then
Jonathan had to go to the emergency room because of a pain in his side. As a result of that trip and ensuing tests,
he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
And everyone knows that pancreatic cancer is generally very bad
news.
Jonathan began treatment, and the news
went from bad to worse as it was discovered that the cancer had spread to other
parts of his body, including his spine. Because
of the nature of his cancer, the treatments were very hard on Jonathan. But in the midst of it all, two things
remained constant. Jonathan remained
very positive, which was remarkable, given the circumstances. He never ceased to joke around and remained
the same character he had always been.
And Jonathan never ceased to be very serious about faith in Jesus
Christ. I have met few people who have
demonstrated such deep faith and trust in the Lord in the face of suffering,
pain and the imminent likelihood of death.
In the end, it became clear that Jonathan
was going to die. He was experiencing
severe pain, and the cancer was advancing. Confident in his Lord, Jonathan
entered into Hospice care, and we learned that on October 20 the Lord called
Jonathan to himself.
I look at what happened to Jonathan and
part of me wants to say that its not fair.
He shouldn’t have died that young. He should have had more time with his
family. We should have had far more time
with him as a member here at Good Shepherd.
But the reality is that what happened to
Jonathan was entirely fair – it was entirely just. It is exactly what God’s law says must happen
to every sinner – he died. It has been
happening ever since the sin of Adam. Paul tells the Romans in chapter five, “sin came into the world through one man,
and death through sin, and so death spread to all men
because all sinned.” The apostle lays it out in plain words in chapter
six: “The wages of sin is death.”
Sin brought
death to Jonathan. And while I am glad
that Jonathan is no longer suffering, don’t ever give death the credit for
ending his suffering. It was sin and death that caused it in the first
place Because of sin, we are always in
the process of dying. As I said recently
in a sermon, once you get past your teenage years, you realize that getting
older does not mean you are getting better.
Instead, you are on a trajectory of decline that can only end in death.
Unless Jesus Christ returns first, like Jonathan, you will die. And like Jonathan it will be entirely just,
because you are a sinner.
In the
section before our text, Paul has been reflecting upon the presence of
suffering in our lives. He has said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are
not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” He has stated, “Likewise the Spirit
helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for
words.” He has just written the famous verse:
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for
good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
As we think
about Jonathan’s death and the sin that caused it, the apostle Paul gives us
words of encouragement and hope. He writes, “What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not
spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with
him graciously give us all things?”
What Paul says certainly has the sense of: “Duh!?!” If God is
for us, who can be against us? If
God, the Creator of all things is on our side, what is there to fear? After all, God is the One who did not spare
his own Son but gave him up for us all.
Paul has said in chapter five, “but God
shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us.” God the Father sent his Son into
the world in the incarnation in order to die for us on the cross. He did this
for Jonathan. He did this for you.
And this leads
Paul to ask the question in our text: “Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God
who justifies.” The ultimate issue is
not simply death, but the fact that we all must stand before the judgment seat
of God. Paul asks: Who is going to bring a charge against God’s elect when God
– the judge – is the One who justifies?
As we heard last Sunday from Romans chapter three, God is just and the justifier of the one who has faith
in Jesus. This means that because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ in
our place, we know that Jonathan will be declared just by God on the Last
Day. We know that God will do the same
for you, because like Jonathan, you believe in Christ.
Finally,
Paul asks, “Who
is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was
raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Our Lord died on Good Friday. But then on
Easter, God raised him from the dead. He
has won forgiveness and defeated death.
Now as the ascended Lord, he intercedes for us.
Jonathan was baptized into the death of Christ. Paul says about baptism in chapter six, “For if we have been united with him
in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his.” The apostle says that because Jonathan was baptized, he
will share in Jesus’ resurrection. Paul
says this because through baptism Jonathan received the Holy Spirit. In this
chapter he writes, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead
dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to
your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” That is why Paul
says just before our text that “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as
sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
In Christ,
Jonathan had justification and the assurance of resurrection. That is why Paul can say about Jonathan and
about us: “Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is
written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we
are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we
are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure
that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord.”
Death has not separated Jonathan from the love of God in
Christ. It has not separated him from
Christ. It is in this same letter that
Paul says, “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to
himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the
Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For
to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord
both of the dead and of the living.”
Jonathan has not been separated from Christ. Instead, he is with
the Lord. He is justified and ready to
stand before the judgment seat of God.
On the Last Day, the Lord Jesus will return and raise his body, for Paul
told the Philippians, “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by
the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” The Lord will do this to us as well. We will
stand with Jonathan on that day, as we live in bodies that can never die
again. We will live forever with our
Lord and with Jonathan in the new creation.
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