Seasons and Seasons to Follow

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die

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And when I die, and when I'm gone
there'll be, one child born
in this world
to carry on, to carry on

"And When I Die" by Blood, Sweat, and Tears

For everything there is a season, and the best thing about seasons is that they come and they go. Seasons work in cycles. There needs to be a winter for the earth to recover before spring can come and the world become restored. In a wheat field, one kernel must die to produce a stalk that will supply more kernels. As there is a season for life, there will come a season for death. As there is a season for death it will lead to a season of new life.

John 11 reminds us in the face of the death of his friend Lazarus, he wept. Jesus wept. Is there a more emotional sentence in scripture? Nothing greater has ever been said in fewer words: Jesus wept. Jesus shares our human pain. Jesus mourns with us. In this single moment, the fully-human fully-divine Lord has never been more human. Jesus wept.

Jesus wept knowing full well that he would raise Lazarus from the dead. He could have been filled with joy and glee, he knew this illness wouldn't end in death, John 11 says that too. But when he sees Mary, when he sees her grief, Jesus weeps. Then Jesus goes to work. In this moment this first season of death for Lazarus comes to an abrupt end with his return to life, new life in Jesus Christ.

For everything there is a season, a time to live and a time to die. Blood, Sweat, and Tears shares the word of Ecclesiastes that this season will surely end in our death. And just as surely that death will lead to new life.

Thanks be to God that the death of Jesus leads not to the death of faith, but the death of death itself. Death will come, but death is already defeated. Death is already conquered. The season of new life in Christ began that Easter Sunday and continues. By this there'll be, one child born in this world to carry on. To carry on.