Matins Devotion: September 9, 2025

Philippians 1:21-2:11

Very often, when people go to funerals, they feel like they need to say something to those who were closest to the deceased. And in this quest for the right words, they often say extremely dumb things, chief of which is the bizarre utterance, “God must have needed him more than we did.”

It’s a foolish thing to say for a couple of reasons. One, God is all-powerful. He doesn’t need us to do anything. The Lord who brought the universe into existence doesn’t need to kill your loved ones so they can run errands for Him in heaven. Second, it’s foolish because, as St. Paul shows us, the place that God uses us is here on earth. He uses St. Paul to proclaim the Gospel for which Paul suffers. He uses us to confess the name of Jesus to our children, our neighbors. He works through our hands here on earth to feed the hungry, befriend the lonely, and comfort the grieving. Here we labor for God. In Abraham’s bosom, we rest from our labor. Here we rejoice to live as Christ’s servants, serving him through tears and sweat and tenacity. In the life to come, there will be no sorrow we must fight to overcome. The fighting is over. The bliss and joy of paradise is all that will remain.

So here’s the true comfort that we can find in Paul’s words to the Philippians. Every day of this life, no matter how agonizing and heartbreaking it may be, is a gift from God because He is blessing you to be the means through which He serves your neighbor, even if the only way you have left to do that is through the prayers you utter with crusted lips while folding your withered hands. And when God draws any Christian home, He has ended all suffering and distance from Him, something that we can rejoice over even if those who lived in this valley of tears only did so for a few years or days or even minutes.

All death is tragic because man was made to live forever. But all death has been conquered, which means we can always rejoice. God doesn’t bring us into the grave because He needs us more than our loved ones did. God brings us into the grave because He loves us more than His loved ones did, which is why He has transformed the grave into a bed for all His children. And on the last day, we will rise along with all His saints and we will rejoice to rest forever in the embrace of the God who didn’t need us, but who still chose to clothe us in the righteousness of His beloved Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

So if you’re looking for something to say to people when their believing loved ones have gone into the grave, don’t say, “God needed him more than we did.” Say “the cross of Jesus Christ proves that God loved him more than we ever could, more than we could even fathom. And because of that, we will see him again on the day when our Lord lifts us all from the grave and delivers us into His kingdom.”