God is Love and Mercy

a funeral sermon

Let us be reminded that our human life here on earth does not end with death. Death is not the end but the beginning of another part of our life. Human beings are eternal beings. This is because we are created this way. According to the Bible, God created us. He created us out of the dust of earth. When we die, our earthly bodies return to dust but our spirit and our soul continues on. One day, we shall all receive a new body, a body that is renewed, no longer plagued by diseases, stroke or aging.

Why did God create us? He created us because he loves us. He created us to be his children. He wants us to be his sons and daughters. He wants us to be his sons and daughters forever. That means now, here on earth and after death with him in heaven forever. God is Love. Human beings since the time of Adam and Eve, the first humans, have rebelled against God. Yet is spite of our rejection, God still loves us. He loves us so much that he sent his son, Jesus Christ to save us.

John 3:16 states “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
• God so loved the world…
• Gave his one and only Son…
• Believes in him…
• Not perish but have eternal life…

God loves the world. He loves us human beings. He does not want to destroy us but wants us to spend eternity with him. So he takes action. Notice that God is the one who initiate the action to save us. It is not us reaching up to a God up there; a God who does not care. It is a God up there who care so much that he initiates action and reaches down to us here on earth.

He did it by coming down himself. God is invisible. No one can see him. That is why God came down to earth as Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ in God incarnate. Jesus Christ is God who took on flesh and became man. God became man and lived as man. Here is a God who understands us because he has experienced what we all experience-love, hatred, pain, anger, sadness, and joy. This happened two thousand years ago. Our calendar still date according to when God became man. God not only become man but died on the cross bearing all the rebellions of human beings. God did what no human being can do. He died for all of mankind. However, that is not the end. To prove that he is God, Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day. He appeared to more than 500 people. He ate and drank with some of them. Some of them touched him to make sure that he is real. He is real. And now, two thousands years later, nobody has proved otherwise. God became man.

God has already done it. He have man possible a way for us to go back to him. It is not a difficult way. You do not have to have a million dollar to buy a ticket. You do not have to be a holy man. You have only to believe. Yes, it’s that simple. Just believe. Believe that Jesus Christ, God himself has died for you and you will receive God’s forgiveness and return to his family. God is love.

God is also merciful. He knows what is in our hearts, more than we know ourselves. He will judge each man, woman and child according to what is in their heart. Where human judges may make mistakes and condemn an innocent person, God never makes a mistake. He is God. God is omniscience, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Nothing is hidden from him. There is an incident in Jesus’ life recorded in the gospel that shows God’s mercy.

John 8:3-11
3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
JN 8:9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
JN 8:11 "No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

This incident shows two things: One is that Jesus knows what is in the heart of all people; the teachers of the law, the Pharisees, the group of men, and the woman caught in adultery. The other is Jesus is merciful. He could have let them stone the woman to death. According to the law of Moses, they have very right to do so. Yet Jesus let her go because he knew what was in her heart. He discerned that in her heart, she has repented and was truly sorry for what she had done.

We can all take hope in this. God is merciful. God is love. He will not condemn anyone unjustly.

amen