Peace is ours, even when what seems like the end draws near, because we know who Christ is and we know what Christ has done, and we know that who he is and what he’s done is all for us.
The question of Christianity is “Who is Christ?” A question that becomes increasingly clear in the face of death. In life and certainly in death, there is no way around him. Everyone is confronted with the question. Everyone must give an answer, and a non-answer is an answer.
St. Peter was asked this question by Christ himself. By God’s grace, Peter got it right. He replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). That is who Christ is, and the church is built on that confession.
That’s not the only question, though. The question of what Christ came to do comes next. Christ himself gives the answer to that. He told his apostles, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). And he is a good shepherd. He says elsewhere of his shepherding, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39).
This shepherd loses none of his sheep and he’s come to bring us somewhere. He proclaims, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). We are people with a destiny, a home beyond what we see and know. He promises, “In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3).
Jesus said that he is the Good Shepherd and no one will snatch even one of his sheep from his hand. In Holy Baptism, and with the preaching of his word, Jesus says that we are his sheep. We don’t have to find the way. The Way finds us. We don’t just learn the truth; we are owned by he who is Truth. We don’t just experience life. We live forever in Life himself.
In Holy Baptism, and with the preaching of his word, Jesus says that we are his sheep.
The fourth psalm is one of my favorite psalms. Like most psalms, it’s better when you read it the way the psalms are meant to be read. The psalms were the Old Testament hymnal. The psalms are the prayers of the church of all time. But the best way to read the psalms is the way that the famous German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, has reminded us to read them, and that’s to read them knowing that Christ prayed them, too. Jesus took up the whole Psalter and prayed them throughout his life and even on the cross, and now he gives them to us, fulfilled and yet always fervent.
In Psalm 4, the psalmist is frustrated. Life is hard. In fact, it seems easier for those who don’t believe. The psalmist has questions for God. And yet after some complaining, the psalmist finds peace, or better yet, peace finds him. The psalmist says that he will lie down and sleep in peace because the Lord himself makes him dwell in safety.
We all know the obvious frustrations of life in a fallen world. We all have questions for God. Death only heightens such anxiety and probing. And yet we don’t face our trials alone. We have this psalm, the fourth psalm, which is our psalm, because it’s Christ’s psalm. We have the conviction, like the psalmist, that we can sleep in peace, even in the midst of tribulation, because our ransom is our reward. It is a gift, the Gift we celebrated recently on Christmas and the Epiphany. Peace is ours, even when what seems like the end draws near, because we know who Christ is and we know what Christ has done, and we know that who he is and what he’s done is all for us.
May peace be yours. At the end of the day, after all, the psalm always ends the same in Christ who prayed it for us long ago: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Ps. 4:8).
In the face of the death of loved ones, we can rejoice. Our joy has not departed. Our Joy has come, and he has come for them. In the face of our death, we can rejoice as well, because our Joy will come for us. No saint has ever died to his or her disappointment. Every saint awakens to a new and glorious day. As he has wiped away their tears, he will wipe away ours. We can lie down and sleep in peace in that certainty and hope, in Christ our Jesus
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