Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Sorrows of the Bereaved Spread Before Jesus (Matthew 14:12) | Jonathan Edwards

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The Sorrows of the Bereaved Spread Before Jesus (Matthew 14:12) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. I am so glad you could join us
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  today for this deep dive. Now you know, usually when we
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  talk about a medical diagnosis, there is this expectation of
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  precision. It is kind of like engineering.
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  Right, very mechanical. Yeah, you break your arm, the
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  X-ray shows that jagged white line, and the doctor just points
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  and says there it is. That is the fracture.
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  You cast it, you wait six weeks and the bone knits back
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  together. It is binary, you know, broken
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  or not broken, you see the problem, you apply the proven
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  physical solution and you just move forward.
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  And that is comforting. I mean, we like things to be
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  visible. We like problems that can be
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  categorized and solved with a specific, tangible action.
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  But then you step into the world of human grief.
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  Oh yeah, that is a totally different landscape.
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  It really is, especially the shock of losing a spiritual
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  leader, someone you have looked to for guidance, sometimes for
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  decades. Suddenly that X-ray machine is
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  completely useless. You were looking at a landscape
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  of sorrow that just defines easy categorization.
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  Right when a congregation loses a pastor, the disorientation
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  affects the entire community sense of stability.
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  It feels like the ground has given way beneath your feet and,
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  well, no medical scan can locate the source of that specific
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  Vertigo. And modern advice on grief tends
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  to focus almost entirely on psychology.
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  It centers on processing emotions, finding closure, maybe
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  walking through the accepted stages of grief.
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  Yeah, the classic 5 stages, yeah.
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  But those are internal mechanisms.
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  They point the grieving person inward, asking them to examine
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  their own feelings and find a way to make peace with the
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  absence. Which brings us to our focus for
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  today. Now before we jump in, let us
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  just set some ground rules for this deep dive.
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  We are going to make sure this conversation flows seamlessly.
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  Today we have a strict rule to allow each other to finish our
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  thoughts without talking over one another.
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  Sounds good. We will keep it respectful, but
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  keep the ideas. Perfect.
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  So we are examining a single fascinating source today that
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  takes an entirely different approach to grief.
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  We are looking at a sermon preached to of the 18th century
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  theologian Jonathan Edward. An amazing historical figure.
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  Absolutely. He delivered this on September
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  2nd, 1741 in Hatfield, MA. The occasion was the funeral for
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  the Reverend William Williams. That is a tough setting for a
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  sermon. It is The sermon is titled The
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  Sorrows of the Bereaved Spread Before Jesus, and our mission
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  today is to analyze how Edwards counsels A grieving
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  congregation. And specifically, how a strictly
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  biblical Reformed theological framework addresses the visceral
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  reality of human sorrow. Yes, because he does not point
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  the congregation inward to their feelings.
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  He points them upward to the structural, objective reality of
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  Christ's reign. And that distinction changes
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  everything about how a person processes loss.
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  Edwards provides A robust theological limbs for handling
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  the death of a prominent Christian leader.
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  He really does. He builds A framework where
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  grief is not something you just manage internally, but something
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  you actively take to the Sovereign Lord.
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  The sermon demonstrates how high Christology, which is just a
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  theological term for a lofty, majestic view of who Jesus is
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  and the supreme authority he holds over the universe,
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  intersects with the lowest valleys of human experience.
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  Right. It is not just academic, it
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  touches the ground. Very much so.
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  Edwards takes the congregation's despair and redirects it toward
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  the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ.
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  As those of us who hold to the Westminster Confession
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  recognize, Christ is not just a sympathetic friend.
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  No, he is the active ruling head of the church.
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  Profusely so, let us set the scene with the biblical
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  precedent Edwards uses to anchor this entire worldview.
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  Yeah, let us get into the text. He does not start with a generic
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  soothing Psalm about green pastures, which you might expect
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  at a funeral. Not at all.
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  He goes to Matthew chapter 14, verse 12.
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  This text details the immediate aftermath of a gruesome event.
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  I mean the murder of John the Baptist.
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  Edwards paints the picture of John as a faithful minister who
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  had done massive good in Judea. He was the forerunner, you know
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  who. I'm preparing the way.
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  But he is cruelly murdered by Herod, Yeah.
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  And the reason for the murder sets the tone for everything
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  Edwards wants to say about ministerial faithfulness.
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  John exposed Herod and Herodias for their incestuous wickedness.
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  He reproved them to their faces. He did not soften the truth to
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  protect his own position or comfort.
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  And that faithful reproof cost him his head, literally.
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  Yeah, it is brutal. Herodias was not satisfied with
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  just having John executed quietly in a dungeon.
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  She wanted a spectacle. It was incredibly vindictive.
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  Having his head brought out on a platter during a banquet was a
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  deliberate desecration. Edwards points out that Herod
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  and Herodias were actually John's hearers.
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  They sat under his preaching. Right.
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  They had an obligation to treat him with honor, and instead they
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  threw a party and used his severed head as a prop.
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  It is a shocking text to choose for a funeral.
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  I mean, Edwards draws a pair between the bereaved disciples
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  of John and the bereaved congregation in Hatfield.
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  Obviously Reverend Williams died an aged man in his bed, not by
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  execution, but Edwards is isolating the emotional
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  devastation here. He is looking at the disciples
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  reaction to the sudden violent loss of their leader to show the
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  Hatfield congregation how they ought to react to their own
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  loss. And the text highlights two
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  specific actions from John's disciples.
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  First they they took up the body and buried.
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  It they did the physical practical duty.
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  Yeah, they showed honor to the remains of their master.
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  Despite the barbarous insult of the beheading.
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  They decently interred what was left.
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  That is the first action. Yes, the physical reality of
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  death must be handled, but the second action is the hinge on
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  which the entire sermon turns. Right after burying the body,
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  Matthew says they went and told Jesus.
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  Wait, I need to push back on this a little bit, or at least
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  look at this through the lens of basic human survival.
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  Go ahead. If you think about this like a
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  crisis in a major organization today, sure, the instinct is to
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  report the catastrophe to the highest authority.
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  You go to the CEO. Makes sense on paper.
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  But this is not a corporate shake up.
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  This is a brutal execution by a dictator in a moment of sheer
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  terror. Why would the disciples not just
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  scatter and hide? Because of the political
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  climate. Yeah, their leader was just
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  decapitated. Going to Jesus, who is publicly
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  associated with John, seems incredibly risky.
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  Why wouldn't they go underground?
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  That is a fairpoint. I mean, human nature says run,
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  do not walk away from the guy who might be next on Herod's
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  list. You were assuming their primary
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  motivation was self preservation, but Edwards argues
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  that their understanding of who Jesus was overrode their fear of
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  Herod. So theology beat out fear.
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  Exactly. I mean spot on.
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  They went to Jesus for two specific reasons.
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  First, for their own benefit, They were acting like sorrowful,
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  distressed children. They sought comfort from him
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  because they knew his character. Yes, they knew Jesus had a high
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  regard for John, having been baptized by him and having
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  called him the greatest born of women.
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  But the second reason is fascinating from a reformed
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  perspective. It really is.
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  They went to Jesus for God's glory.
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  How does reporting a murder glorify God?
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  In that moment, it seems like a massive defeat.
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  Well, because they understood the structural hierarchy of the
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  Kingdom of God. When a figure as significant as
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  John the Baptist is martyred, it is a massive event concerning
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  the common cause of the Gospel. I.
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  See. Therefore, the head of the whole
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  affair needs to be informed so he can conduct the future
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  affairs of his Kingdom accordingly.
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  So they were not just bringing Jesus their sadness, they were
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  bringing him a status report. That is a great way to put.
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  It they're basically saying Lord, your Forerunner has been
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  killed. The management structure has a
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  massive hole in it. How do we proceed with the
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  mission? Yes, and that completely
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  reframes grief. It shifts it from a purely
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  emotional breakdown to a strategic realignment under
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  sovereign authority. They recognize that the movement
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  does not end with John's death, because John was never the
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  ultimate leader in the first place.
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  And Edwards points out that Jesus immediately acted upon
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  this information. The very next verse in Matthew
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  says that when Jesus heard of it, he departed by ship into a
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  desert place apart. So the head of the church took
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  the information and adjusted the strategic movements of his
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  ministry, right? The disciples understood that
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  the mission had not failed. The management had just shifted
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  to the next phase and they needed to report to the King.
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  Understanding why John's disciples went to Jesus really
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  leads us naturally to the broader doctrine Edwards is
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  presenting. He wants to explain why anyone
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  bereaved of a gospel minister should take their sorrow to
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  Christ. And Edwards builds this argument
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  on 4 main pillars. Let us look at the 1st 2
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  experiential pity and purchase blessings.
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  OK, the first pillar Edwards establishes is that Christ is a
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  Savior who pities the afflicted. He says it is natural for people
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  under deep sorrow to seek someone they can pour their
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  grief out to, someone who will have a fellow feeling with their
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  distress. And he traces this compassion
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  through the entire biblical narrative.
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  He starts in the Old Testament, citing Isaiah chapter 63, verse
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  9. In all their affliction he was
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  afflicted. Yes.
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  He then moves through the Gospels listing the proofs of
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  Christ's compassion, Jesus having compassion on the
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  multitudes. The demon possessed man, the
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  widow of Name, the blind man. But the pinnacle example Edwards
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  uses is Mary and Martha at the grave of Lazarus.
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  That is such a vivid scene. The professional mourners and
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  the prominent citizens who came to comfort Mary and Martha were
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  little regarded by them. Right.
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  They did not care about the crowds, but when they heard
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  Jesus was coming, they immediately went and poured out
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  their tears at his feet. And Edwards points out that
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  Christ groaned in spirit and wept.
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  The Creator of the universe stands in front of a tomb and
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  cries. It is stunning and Edwards
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  connects those tears directly to the atonement.
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  This is where we see a robust theological lens applied to the
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  emotional life of Jesus. Edwards argues that it was pity
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  that brought Christ into the world in the 1st place.
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  That pity induced him not only to shed tears, but to shed his
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  blood. Afflicted people want to talk to
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  someone who has experience with sorrow, and Christ, as the Man
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  of Sorrows has more experience with suffering than anyone in
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  heaven or on earth. Therefore he knows how to pity
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  the sorrowful, especially those mourning a faithful minister,
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  because Christ has a special pity for the souls of men.
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  OK, so that brings us to the second pillar, which I find to
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  be one of the most abrasive concepts in the sermon if you do
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  not understand the theology behind it.
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  You mean purchased comfort? Yes, purchased comfort.
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  Edwards states that Christ has purchased all that miserable men
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  stand in need of under all their calamities.
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  He purchased divine cordials, supports for sinking hearts and
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  comfort for the widow and the fatherless.
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  He even goes so far as to say that faithful ministers
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  themselves are the fruits of His purchase.
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  He references Ephesians chapter 4 verse 8 where Christ descended
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  on high and gave gifts to men. This concept of purchased
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  blessings is central to the covenant theology we hold to in
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  the Westminster Confession. The benefits of salvation,
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  including comfort and affliction, and the provision of
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  ministers, aren't just abstract gifts God hands out arbitrarily.
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  Right. They were legally secured by the
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  blood of Christ on the cross. The Atonement was a transaction
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  that bought these specific blessings for the elect.
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  Well, I have to stop you there though.
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  Sure, what is on your mind? If you are listening to this and
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  you have recently lost someone, hearing that your comfort was a
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  transaction might sound incredibly cold to you.
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  It does sound like an accounting term, yeah.
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  If I am mourning the loss of my father, healing that my comfort
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  is purchased. Sounds like a Ledger.
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  Doesn't this transactional language risk alienating the
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  bereaved? I can see why someone might feel
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  that way. It just feels mechanical.
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  It feels like we're reducing divine love to a receipt at a
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  grocery store. It feels mechanical if we
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  separate the legal aspects of salvation from the relational
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  aspects. But for Edwards, the
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  transactional language is the very foundation of warmth and
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  assurance. How so?
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  Well, let us look at the alternative.
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  If Christ merely offered comfort as a possibility based on His
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  mood or our performance, we might constantly doubt if we
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  qualify for. It.
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  Oh, I see, We would be wondering, am I grieving the
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  right way? Yes.
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  Or am I holy enough to get God's comfort today?
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  Did I pray hard enough to unlock the sympathy?
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  That kind of uncertainty is psychological torture when you
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  are already grieving. Exactly.
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  But because Christ secured these specific comforts through His
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  substitutionary atonement, the grieving believer has an
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  absolute objective assurance that the comfort is available.
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  It is a legal and spiritual certainty you.
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  Do not have to wonder if God is willing to comfort you.
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  Christ bought that comfort with His own blood, and the Father
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  will not deny what the Son is legally secured.
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  So the Ledger is actually what provides the relief.
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  Because the debt is paid, the grace is guaranteed to flow.
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  It removes the anxiety from the grief.
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  You do not have to earn the comfort, you just have to
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  receive what was already bought for you.
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  That completely changes how I view the word transaction.
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  It is not about keeping score, it is about guaranteeing the
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  provision. Which leads perfectly into the
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  third and 4th pillars of Edwards argument, Divine ability and
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  Sovereign office. Moving from Christ's willingness
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  and his legal right to comfort, Edwards shifts the conversation
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  to Christ's practical ability and his structural authority
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  over the church. Right, because pity without
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  ability is useless if my house burns down.
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  A friend sitting on the curb crying with me is nice, but a
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  friend handing me a check to rebuild the house is what I
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  actually need. That is a very practical way to
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  look at. It So how does Edwards cross
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  that bridge from Jesus just feeling bad for us to actually
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  solving the problem? He does it by highlighting
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  Christ's divine ability. It is one thing to have someone
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  pity you, it is another to have someone who actually has the
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  strength to fix the situation. Edward says Christ's ability and
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  his wisdom are as sufficient as his purpose, and they are
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  answerable to his compassions. And he paints a beautiful
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  picture here. He notes that Christ can divide
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  the thickest cloud with beams of heavenly light and turn the
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  shadow of death into the morning.
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  That imagery is incredibly vivid.
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  It is a reminder that people often laid open their sorrows to
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  friends who can only pity them but cannot actually help them.
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  Is saying why stop there? Go to Jesus, who is abundantly
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  able to fill up the breach and turn the sorrow into joy.
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  He even says that if the Great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls is
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  present, that is more than enough to supply the want of any
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  under shepherd who has died. And that leads directly to the
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  fourth pillar, which leans heavily into Reformed
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  ecclesiology. When we talk about ecclesiology,
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  we are talking about the doctrine of the Church and how
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  it is governed, right? Edwards discusses the special
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  Office of Christ. Jesus is the Head of the Body,
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  the Great Shepherd of the sheep, and the Lord of the harvest.
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  Because of this specific office, he has the absolute government
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  and supreme disposal of all ecclesiastical affairs.
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  He manages the entire universal church and every local part of
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  it, down to the smallest detail. Let us connect the dots on what
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  that means for a local congregation in mourning.
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  Edwards explains that when a minister dies, it was Christ who
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  appointed him to that charge in the first place.
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  Christ furnished him with his gifts, Christ continued renewed
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  him and his work for those decades, and eventually Christ
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  removed him in his own precise timing.
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  Therefore, it is Christ's specific job, His designated
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  office, to fill the vacancy, furnish a successor, and supply
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  the bereaved church. It is a completely sovereign
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  view of church leadership. The congregation is not left to
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  their own devices. The burden of replacing the
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  minister does not ultimately rest on a panicked search
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  committee. It rests on the head of the
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  church. Christ took the pastor away, and
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  Christ is obligated by his own office to care for the flock
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  that is left behind. I really want to visualize this.
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  Imagine a large naval vessel out in the middle of the Atlantic,
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  caught in a massive storm. OK, I am picturing it.
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  Suddenly, the captain has a heart attack on the bridge and
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  dies. Chaos ensues.
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  The crew and the passengers are terrified.
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  The waves are crashing over the deck.
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  What do they do? Well, they do not just huddle
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  together in the mess hall and ask each other to step up and be
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  the new captain. No, they run to the radio room
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  and contact the Admiralty. They contact the entity that
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  owns the fleet, the one who assigns the commissions and
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  manages all naval operations. And when they reach the
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  Admiralty, the response they get is not just we feel so bad for
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  you. Good luck out there.
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  Absolutely not, the Admiralty says.
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  We know the captain is gone. We are actively dispatching a
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  replacement via helicopter. Hold your course.
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  The new commander is on the way. This structural view removes the
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  panic from the congregation. It places the responsibility of
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  the church's survival squarely on Christ's shoulders.
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  The Admiral knows the captain is gone, and the Admiral will
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  assign a new one because it is his fleet.
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  That analogy captures the essence of Edward's Point,
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  Florida State. It is a matter of jurisdiction.
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  The local church is Christ's jurisdiction.
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  He is not a passive observer of the congregation's grief.
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  He is the active manager of their future.
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  This is why the doctrine of Providence is so comforting and
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  Reformed thought. Nothing is left to chance, not
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  even the death of a beloved pastor.
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  So, having laid all this massive theological groundwork, Edwards
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  pivots sharply. He turns to address the specific
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  people sitting in the room at Hatfield.
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  This is a classic Puritan sermon structure.
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  They always move from the doctrinal foundation to intense
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  practical application. The doctrine is the theory.
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  The application is where the rubber meets the road.
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  And the application here is very direct.
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  Edwards begins by providing a profile of the deceased Reverend
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  William Williams. He describes him as a father in
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  our Israel. Williams possessed uncommon
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  natural abilities, distinguished learning, solid and accurate
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  judgement, and a holy savour in his public and private life.
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  Edwards calls him an evangelical preacher whose sermons were
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  solid, wise compositions. He was not a negligent man.
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  He was constantly diligent, studious and laborious in his
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  public work. Edwards mentions how Williams
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  guided the congregation with authority, judgment, prudence
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  and steadiness, but also with meekness and gentleness.
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  He says Williams presence commanded awe and respect, yet
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  he was humble and condescending. And we should clarify, in the
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  18th century, condescending was a high compliment.
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  It meant he willingly associated with people of lower status.
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  Good clarification. It is a beautiful tribute to a
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  man who clearly shaped the spiritual life of that entire
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  town for decades. But then, right after this
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  glowing profile, Edwards introduces a chilling morning.
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  There is a sudden, severe shift in his tone.
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  The shift is jarring. Edwards tells the congregation
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  to remember how they received and heard their pastors
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  teachings and to hold fast. He warns them to humble
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  themselves if they made poor use of his ministry.
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  And then comes the terrifying part.
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  He tells them to beg God for help, to remember the warnings
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  and counsels they might have slighted, lest those very
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  warnings cry against them and rise up in judgement against
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  them on the last day. He actually paints a picture of
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  the deceased pastor sitting with Christ at the judgement seat.
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  It is intense. Edwards says to the
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  congregation, Be where, lest you see your pastor, who
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  affectionately exhorted you, bearing testimony against you.
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  He warns that they might see Reverend Williams judging and
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  condemning obstinate listeners and adoring God's awful justice
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  regarding their aggravated punishment.
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  It is a staggering rhetorical move.
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  He takes the beloved figure they are currently weeping over and
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  places him in the role of a prosecuting witness at the end
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  of time. The pastor's love and diligence
• 19:44
  now become the evidence of the congregation's guilt if they
• 19:47
  reject the godable, he preached. Wait, I have to interject here
• 19:51
  because this is wild. It is definitely heavy.
• 19:53
  He is telling a room full of weeping people that the dead
• 19:56
  body in the casket right in front of them is going to come
• 19:59
  back and testify against them in divine court.
• 20:02
  That borders on emotional abuse by modern standards.
• 20:06
  It really clashes with our modern sensibilities.
• 20:08
  How did the congregation not walk out?
• 20:11
  Why would Edwards introduce the threat of the deceased pastor
• 20:14
  testifying against them while they are actively crying over
• 20:18
  his death? It feels like he is weaponizing
• 20:20
  their grief. To understand this, we have to
• 20:23
  frame it within Edwards theological urgency and the
• 20:26
  Puritan view of eternity. OK, lay it out for me.
• 20:29
  For Edwards, the ministry of the Gospel is quite literally a
• 20:33
  matter of eternal life and death.
• 20:35
  The pulpit is not a place for sharing helpful life tips or
• 20:38
  giving a motivational speech. Right, it is the place where the
• 20:41
  terms of the covenant are declared by an ambassador of the
• 20:44
  King. Therefore, the highest honor you
• 20:46
  can pay a deceased minister is not to cry over his body, but to
• 20:50
  obey the gospel he preached. So mourning without obedience is
• 20:55
  actually a mockery of the minister's life work.
• 20:57
  Yes. And if you take that a step
• 20:59
  further, to ignore the ambassador is to commit treason
• 21:02
  against the king who sent him. This ties directly back to
• 21:05
  Reformed thought on the gravity of hearing the word preached
• 21:09
  when a minister opens the Bible and proclaims the truth God is
• 21:12
  speaking. And to ignore that is to incur
• 21:15
  massive guilt. Edwards is using the shock of
• 21:18
  the pastor's death to wake up any hypocrites or complacent
• 21:21
  people in the pews. He is essentially saying you are
• 21:24
  crying because you lost your pastor, but you should be crying
• 21:27
  because you ignored his message and that message will judge you.
• 21:30
  He leverages their natural grief to produce spiritual conviction.
• 21:34
  It is a severe mercy. He refuses to let a funeral be a
• 21:37
  sentimental event. He forces it to be a moment of
• 21:40
  eternal reckoning. And following this severe
• 21:42
  warning to the general congregation, Edwards softens
• 21:45
  his approach significantly. I noticed that he turns to speak
• 21:49
  directly and intimately to the immediate family, but even in
• 21:52
  his tenderness he is methodically dismantling their
• 21:55
  earthly reliance piece by piece. Let us look at his counsel to
• 21:59
  the Widow, the honored relic, as he calls her.
• 22:01
  Edwards advises the widow to turn to a spiritual husband.
• 22:05
  He acknowledges that God has taken away her best friend, her
• 22:08
  wise guide, and her affectionate companion.
• 22:11
  He admits that earthly friends are miserable comforters who
• 22:14
  cannot make up the loss, but then he points her to Jesus.
• 22:18
  He tells her that Christ is the infinite fountain of all the
• 22:21
  wisdom, prudence, and tender affection she enjoyed in her
• 22:24
  earthly spouse. He says to her, in him is an
• 22:27
  infinite fountain of all these things, and of all good.
• 22:31
  He is telling the widow that the love she received from her
• 22:33
  husband was just a stream flowing from the ocean of
• 22:36
  Christ's love. If she goes to the spiritual
• 22:38
  husband, she gains access to the source.
• 22:41
  But how does a widow wake up to an empty house and actively
• 22:44
  apply this? Yeah, it is one thing to know it
• 22:46
  theologically. It is another to live it on a
• 22:49
  Tuesday morning when the house is quiet and she's making coffee
• 22:52
  alone. That is a very real challenge.
• 22:53
  That is where the practical application of what philosophers
• 22:56
  call Christian Platonism comes in.
• 22:58
  Hold on, Christian Platonism applied to grief is a heavy
• 23:02
  phrase. You mean this idea that
• 23:03
  everything on earth is just a cheap knock off of a perfect
• 23:06
  ideal in heaven? That is the core concept.
• 23:09
  Everything good, beautiful and true we experience on earth is
• 23:12
  just a copy, a shadow, an image of the perfect goodness, beauty
• 23:16
  and truth found in God. OK, so when the widow misses her
• 23:20
  husband's wisdom in making a financial decision, or when she
• 23:23
  misses his gentle affection, Edwards wants her to recognize
• 23:27
  that her husband's wisdom and affection were just tiny drops
• 23:29
  from Christ's ocean. She has not lost the source of
• 23:32
  the affection, she has only lost the conduit.
• 23:34
  So on that Tuesday morning when the grief hits her physically,
• 23:38
  she can say the love I am missing right now exists fully
• 23:41
  and perfectly in Christ, and Christ is still with me.
• 23:44
  That gives her a tangible place to direct her longing.
• 23:47
  She does not have to just stare at an empty chair.
• 23:50
  She can look to the Sovereign Lord who originated the love
• 23:53
  that used to sit in that chair. And Edwards details similar
• 23:56
  counsel for the children. He says that they will no longer
• 23:59
  have their Father's wisdom to guide them or his tender love to
• 24:02
  delight them. But he says in the Blessed Jesus
• 24:05
  they may have much more. He makes his even more explicit
• 24:08
  when he addresses the sons of the deceased, specifically those
• 24:12
  who are also in the ministry. Yes, Edwards uses a brilliant
• 24:15
  astronomical analogy here. He calls their father a star
• 24:18
  that shone with reflected light. But he directs them to Jesus,
• 24:22
  whom he calls the sun, that have light in himself, and shines
• 24:25
  with infinite, unfailing brightness.
• 24:28
  It is a beautiful metaphor. The star is glorious in the
• 24:31
  night sky. It helps sailors handle the
• 24:33
  dark. It provides beauty, but it
• 24:34
  generates no light of its own. It only reflects the light of
• 24:37
  the sun. When the sun rises, what to the
• 24:40
  stores? They disappear, or rather, they
• 24:42
  do not disappear, but they are completely eclipsed by the
• 24:45
  superior brightness of the sun. Precisely, Edwards is telling
• 24:49
  these sons, who looked up to their father as a master and
• 24:52
  guide, that their father's light has been veiled by death.
• 24:56
  But the source of that light, the Sun of Righteousness, is
• 24:59
  still shining with unfailing brightness in the sky.
• 25:02
  They must go to the sun for their continued strength and
• 25:04
  ministry. The stars are gone, but the
• 25:07
  daylight remains. This recurring theme of source
• 25:09
  versus reflection is incredibly striking.
• 25:12
  Mourning the father is like missing the reflection of light
• 25:15
  in a mirror while forgetting that the actual sun is still
• 25:18
  blazing outside your window. How does this specific framework
• 25:23
  shift the grieving process? It moves it from looking
• 25:25
  backward at what was lost to looking upward at what remains.
• 25:29
  It is a brilliant pastoral maneuver because human beings
• 25:32
  have a terrible tendency toward idolatry.
• 25:34
  John Calvin famously said that the human heart is a factory of
• 25:37
  idols. When someone great dies, we tend
• 25:40
  to deify them. We elevate them to a status they
• 25:43
  never held in life. We convince ourselves that we
• 25:45
  cannot survive without them. Edwards cuts that off entirely.
• 25:49
  He honors the man, but he insists that the man was just a
• 25:51
  pipe delivering water from a reservoir.
• 25:54
  If you recognize that the man was just a reflection, you can
• 25:57
  mourn his absence without losing your foundation, because the
• 26:01
  source of the reflection is eternal and unchanging.
• 26:04
  It keeps the family's reliance strictly on the savior.
• 26:07
  They're not left destitute, they are simply forced to draw
• 26:11
  directly from the well instead of receiving water through a
• 26:14
  pipe that has now been removed. That brings us to the final
• 26:17
  section of the sermon, where Edwards shifts his sights one
• 26:21
  last time from the immediate family.
• 26:23
  He turns to his own peers, the surviving pastor of the local
• 26:26
  church and the regional ministers of the county.
• 26:29
  The weight of leadership has now shifted.
• 26:32
  Let us look first at the surviving pastor of the Hatfield
• 26:35
  Church. This is the younger man who was
• 26:37
  serving alongside Williams. Edwards notes that the great
• 26:40
  work has now wholly devolved upon him.
• 26:43
  He compares this transition to God taking the older prophet
• 26:46
  Elijah away from the younger prophet Elijah.
• 26:49
  He instructs the young pastor to seek a double portion of the
• 26:51
  Spirit from his master. He reminds the young pastor of
• 26:54
  the affectionate, fatherly counsels he received from
• 26:57
  Reverend Williams on the very last evening of his life.
• 26:59
  But then Edwards points him to the reality.
• 27:02
  The father figure who guided him, who took the brunt of the
• 27:05
  criticism, who bore the heavyweight of the work, is
• 27:08
  gone. The young pastor has nowhere
• 27:10
  else to go but to his great Lord and Master to seek strength,
• 27:13
  wisdom, and divine influence. He has to step out of the shadow
• 27:17
  and lead. After addressing the local
• 27:19
  pastor, Edward zooms out to include himself and the other
• 27:22
  ministers of the county. He addresses the ministerial
• 27:25
  associations. He calls the deceased Williams
• 27:27
  their father and master, and the head and ornament of those
• 27:30
  conventions. Edwards argues that since they
• 27:33
  have lost their earthly guide, the man they used to resort to
• 27:36
  in difficult cases, they must now rely on Christ to preside
• 27:40
  over their meetings. It is an acknowledgement of the
• 27:42
  intellectual and spiritual vacuum left by William's death.
• 27:46
  These ministers used to rely on his solid judgement when they
• 27:49
  faced theological disputes or tricky pastoral situations.
• 27:52
  Now Edwards says this awful Providence must bring them to
• 27:56
  look to Christ as the everliving head of the whole church, the
• 27:59
  fountain of light. They must have a more immediate
• 28:01
  and entire their dependence upon Jesus for instruction and
• 28:04
  direction in all their difficulties.
• 28:07
  And Edwards ends this section with a demographic reality check
• 28:10
  that is quite sobering. He asks the local clergy to
• 28:14
  consider what God has done in the county of late years.
• 28:17
  He says it was not many years ago that the county was filled
• 28:20
  with aged ministers that were our fathers.
• 28:24
  But our fathers, where are they? It is a stark observation of
• 28:27
  generational turnover. Edwards uses the shifting
• 28:30
  demographics of the local clergy as a severe wake up call.
• 28:34
  Imagine sitting in that room, looking around at your peers and
• 28:37
  realizing that all the mentors, all the old guard who taught
• 28:40
  you, are dead. You are the old guard now.
• 28:42
  Yes, the death of Williams is not an isolated event.
• 28:46
  It is a signal. Edwards interprets this as God
• 28:49
  giving them frequent warnings to prepare to give up their own
• 28:52
  accounts. He turns a moment of communal
• 28:53
  mourning into a call for rigorous self examination and
• 28:56
  ministerial faithfulness. He urges his peers to seek grace
• 29:00
  so that they may be faithful while they live and that when
• 29:02
  they are called hence, they may give up their account with joy
• 29:05
  and not with grief. He wants them to shine forth
• 29:08
  with those who have gone before them as the brightness of the
• 29:11
  firmament and as the stars, forever and ever.
• 29:13
  It brings the whole sermon to a very eschatological conclusion.
• 29:17
  And by eschatological we mean looking toward the end of all
• 29:20
  things, the final judgment and the ultimate destiny of
• 29:23
  humanity. Edwards does not let the funeral
• 29:26
  end at the grave. He forces the congregation to
• 29:29
  look past the grave to the resurrection and the judgment
• 29:31
  seat. Let us summarize the flow of
• 29:34
  Edwards logic today, because it is quite a massive look through
• 29:37
  the text. He starts from the gruesome
• 29:39
  death of John the Baptist, examining the visceral shock of
• 29:42
  that event. He uses the disciples reaction
• 29:45
  to establish a biblical precedent for reporting our
• 29:48
  grief to the sovereign CEO of the universe.
• 29:50
  From there he builds the theological case for Christ's
• 29:53
  absolute sovereignty and compassion, resting on 4 massive
• 29:57
  pillars. The pity of Christ who knows our
• 30:00
  sorrow intimately. The purchased comforts of Christ
• 30:03
  which guarantee our relief through a legal covenantal
• 30:06
  transaction. The divine ability of Christ,
• 30:09
  who has the actual strength to fix what is broken, and the
• 30:13
  special office of Christ acting as the Admiral of the fleet who
• 30:17
  manages every detail of the Church's existence.
• 30:20
  Then he moves to intense application, issuing a stark
• 30:24
  warning to the congregation about their accountability for
• 30:26
  hearing the preached word. And finally, he methodically
• 30:30
  points the widow, the children, and his peers away from the
• 30:33
  reflected light of the deceased star and toward the infinite
• 30:37
  blazing Son of Jesus Christ. It is a master class in applying
• 30:40
  reformed theology to the darkest moments of human experience.
• 30:44
  It provides a structure that psychology simply cannot offer.
• 30:47
  Psychology can help you cope with the absence.
• 30:49
  Theology fills the absence with the presence of a sovereign
• 30:52
  king. I want to turn directly to you,
• 30:54
  the listener, as we wrap up this deep dive.
• 30:57
  Think about your own life. When you face a devastating loss
• 31:01
  or a sudden void in leadership, whether in your church, your
• 31:03
  family, or your career, how do you react?
• 31:06
  Do you panic about the missing reflection?
• 31:08
  The star that has gone dark? Or do you take your sorrow to
• 31:11
  the fountain? If you are mourning right now,
• 31:13
  does hearing that your comfort is legally secured by Christ's
• 31:17
  blood offer you a sense of relief?
• 31:19
  How does viewing Christ as the active sovereign manager of
• 31:23
  every detail change the way you process a crisis when the floor
• 31:26
  drops out from under you? And I want to leave you with a
• 31:28
  final thought to Mull over. Edwards claims that every
• 31:32
  virtue, every piece of wisdom and every ounce of love we
• 31:35
  admire in other people is just a tiny copied image of what exists
• 31:41
  infinitely in Christ. Think about the most brilliant,
• 31:44
  kind and steady people you know, the people you lean on the most.
• 31:48
  If their absolute best qualities are just small reflections, what
• 31:52
  does that suggest about the staggering, overwhelming
• 31:55
  brilliance of the original source?
• 31:57
  That is something to sit with for a long time.
• 31:59
  The medical X-ray machine might be useless when it comes to
• 32:02
  locating our grief, but this theological framework gives us
• 32:04
  something much more solid to stand on.
• 32:07
  Thank you for joining us for this theological investigation.
• 32:09
  We will see you next time.