“Everyone knows John 3:16, but nobody talks about the next two verses. Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, he came to save it. But verse 18 says, if anyone doesn’t believe in Christ, he’s already condemned, because he hasn’t believed in God’s one and only Son…If you don’t believe in that, he doesn’t condemn you, because the truth of the matter is we all stand condemned from the start. He came to condemn no one, he came to rescue. And Amanda figured that out, and that’s why she wanted to share his love!”

The Call

It’s been two weeks since my sister died. It was 9:24 pm. The next day I would fly out to speak at a friend’s church in California; so I was ready to turn in early for the night. My phone started buzzing. It was my mother. She never called that late. It was about Amanda. Amanda had crashed her car and my parents were already on their way to be with her husband and two children. We knew nothing more.

Then, just before midnight, I got the second call. She was gone. Amanda would have been 38 in three days. She was beautiful and she was fierce (a recurring word in all the family’s remembrances). She was fierce in the classroom; I’d be surprised if she ever got a B. Fierce on the sports field; she was an accomplished athlete, a captain of the University of Maryland lacrosse team that won a national championship in 2010. And she was fierce in her love for family; you’d be a fool to mess with either of her kids. But most importantly, in her college years, Amanda came to know Christ as her Savior, not just mom and dad’s. Sister by blood and sister by faith. I can’t wait for the day when I see her again.

Even though I knew it was likely that I’d be called on to preach for her funeral (slim pickings being the only preacher in the family), I still felt a lump in my throat when I read my brother-in-law’s text: “Amanda was so proud of you and would’ve wanted you to preach at her funeral above all else.” For a little brother who’d long been proud of his big sister, to hear that she was proud of me… no words. It was an easy and instant “yes.” But then came the question, “What to preach?”

The Sunday before her death, as God would have it, I preached Romans 8:28 to my congregation, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Talk about applied theology. It was certainly a contender, but it didn’t feel right.

I thought too about 1 Corinthians 15:50-58, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” But eventually, I settled on Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

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