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Sunday, November 1 · Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

All Saints Sunday

On All Saints Sunday the congregation names those they have lost, and Jesus calls the mourning blessed while God promises to come close enough to wipe away every tear.

The passages

In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered. He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.

Romans 8:26–27

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Matthew 5:4

Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Matthew 5:5–7

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:4

Go deeper

How does the Spirit help the saints when they do not know how to pray in their grief?

Paul says that in our weakness, when words will not come, the Spirit prays for us with sighs too deep for words. It means the groan that has no sentence in it is already a prayer, and it is heard.

In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered. He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.

Romans 8:26–27

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day. Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.

Psalms 42:1–5

Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me. He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.

2 Corinthians 12:8–10

Why does Jesus call the mourning blessed while they are still crying?

Jesus does not wait for grief to be finished before pronouncing God's favor. He looks at people with broken hearts and puts them first in line, which is not how the world around them orders things.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Matthew 5:4

The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.

Isaiah 61:1–3

Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.

Psalms 34:18

What does God wiping away every tear show about how close God comes to the saints?

To wipe a face you have to be near enough to see it. The picture in Revelation is not a distant God declaring grief over, but one close enough to touch a cheek, and that closeness is what the whole promise rests on.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:4

He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.

Isaiah 25:8

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They told him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.

John 11:33–35