Dear Christian friends:

Often in the Bible death is compared to sleep. Our choir just sang that popular and beautiful hymn. "Asleep In Jesus" which also compares death to a restful blessed sleep. We Christians use this word for death because God Himself has given us the idea. He doesn't want us to fear death, but to think of it as a good sleep. He wants to give us joy and hope, even in time of death.

Here in our text Jesus says about the girl who had died, "This girl is not dead; she only sleeps."

So let us attend to our text and learn about this strange and wonderful "sleep." In Death The Christian "Sleeps."

I. The nature of this "sleep"

When Jesus arrived at the ruler's house He saw many people weeping and men playing sad songs on their flutes. Jesus commanded them to stop crying and singing their sad songs and to leave the room. Then He said to them, "the girl is not dead; she only sleeps." They they mocked Him and thought He was crazy. They knew that she was really dead, her body was stiff and cold. She was not sleeping as they slept during the night. Her heart had stopped beating; life had left her body. Nevertheless Jesus says, "She sleeps." What does He mean? He means that He has the power to make her body live again. He said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life." Jesus is God. He in the beginning made all things that live. He made the first man, Adam, with dust (clay) and breathed life into him. So He has all power. He can give back life to a person who dies. Dust and dry bones can live again if Jesus commands.

And to show or prove His power Jesus took the girls hand and raised her up. She became alive again. Jesus did that also for two other men who had died! The young man of Nain whose mother was a widow and Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha who lived in Bethany. On Good Friday Jesus, Himself died on the cross, and you know how He arose and lived again on Easter morning.

So when Jesus compares death with a sleep He wants us to understand that we truly must die, but we will not stay dead forever. He is God. He has power to give our dead bodies new life and new health never to die again.

This girl and Lazarus and the young man of Nain later died again. They died twice and they like us sleep in their graves waiting for the glorious day when Jesus, our Lord shall come with all the angels and the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall hear His voice and shall awake and arise to a new and glorious life, never to die again, but live forever in the new world.

II. The comfort and hope in this "sleep"

Jesus calls death a sleep because He wants us to have comfort and hope when we die or a loved one dies. When we begin to die it seems like God is angry and forsakes us, punishes us because of our sins. We fear we shall never see God or our friends again. But God has forgiven all our sins because His Son, Jesus, suffered the punishment of sins - God forsook Him on the cross. So now God forgives our sins in Jesus. He loves us even while we die. Death for us is rest and peace. Rest from temptations and troubles of this sinful world and Death is the gate to eternal life. In death we begin a new day, fully free from all limitations of this world.

So St. Paul mocked death and the grave. He says "Oh death where is your sting? Oh, grave, where your victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." If we know that God loves us and forgives us, then we can die without fear and with hope that we shall live with Him in heaven.

When you go to sleep at night, you are not afraid. You know the rest is good for you, and you have hope. You hope to awake in the morning when the sun rises. You will get-up (arise) with new strength and eager for another day to work and serve God. So we should think of our dying as a good sleep. We die with faith in Jesus, our Savior, and with hope that we shall awaken, new and glorious when Jesus comes again on the Last Day.

The father had such faith in Jesus. He came and worshipped Jesus and said, "My daughter is now dead, but come, and Your hand place-on my daughter and she will live."

The woman sick 12 years with bleeding - no doctor could heal her. She followed Jesus while he went with the father to the house, and she said to herself, "If only I touch His robe, I will become well." And she touched the hem of His robe and became well.

Like that father and that woman let us believe in Jesus. Then death will be only a sleep for us.

Amen.