Dear Christian friends:

Often in the Bible death is compared to sleep. And we Christians have a beautiful funeral hymn. "Asleep In Jesus."

We use this word for death and God Himself has given us this word for death because He wants to give us comfort and hope in time of sorrow and sadness.

So here in our text Jesus says about Lazarus who had died, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps." So let us attend to these words of our Lord and Savior Jesus and find comfort and hope in this day of sadness.


It is natural for us to sorrow when a loved one dies. Even Jesus wept when he stood before Lazarus' grave. We mourn because we miss the loved one who is gone from our family circle. We remember all the nice things he did for us during his life and we feel sorry that we did not thank him more or appreciate him more, especially we feel this way about a good (father) who leaves us in death.

But Jesus does not want us to sorrow like the unbelievers in the world who have no real hope or comfort in death. So He says to us, "Death is the same as a sleep." "Your loved one sleeps." He wants us to believe that God loves us also in death. True, it really seems that God forsakes us in death. And we just read in Psalm 90, "You are angry and we must die ... You take our sins before You; Your face sees our secret sins."

Nevertheless God wants us to hope and trust in His mercy. He wants us to believe that He has forgiven all our sins through Jesus, His Son whom He offered upon the cross. (John 3:16)

So Paul said, "Whether we live, therefore or die, we are the Lord's." Again he writes: "I want to leave and be with Christ that is much better. (Philippians 1:24)

Your loved one sleeps in Jesus. He now has rest and peace from all sin, sorrow, pain and trouble. Jesus also uses the word "sleep" for death because He wants us to hope in the resurrection of the dead. When a person goes to sleep at night, he is not afraid. He hopes to awake in the morning refreshed and eager for the bright new day.

So Jesus says here, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go to wake him." We know that Jesus did later go to Bethany and called to Lazarus in his tomb, "Lazarus come out." And he who had been dead four days came out. (John 11:38-44)

So Jesus has shown His power to awaken those who sleep in their graves. He also Himself died and arose on Easter morning.

So we should think of our dying as a sleep. We die with the wonderful hope that we shall awake, new and glorious when Jesus comes again with power on the Last Day.

Amen.