Hope Beyond the Grave

I once attended an emotional family funeral and burial that took place in a large cemetery containing graves going back to the 1700s. The cemetery’s website explained that its oldest legible tombstone dated to 1764, more than 260 years ago. Walking through that old cemetery made me think: Many people had been in those graves for more than 200 years, far longer than they had lived.

Funerals, especially of loved ones, naturally bring to the front of our minds some of the sad certainties of life: The longer we live, the more loved ones we will lose, the more funerals we will attend, and the more graves we will see closed. The book of Ecclesiastes reminds us of such sobering realities. Though these heavy facts of life are unpleasant to think about, God’s word provides deep comfort—the hope that, on some real day in the future, graves will be miraculously opened.

The Bible describes death as an enemy that inflicts a painful sting (1 Corinthians 15:26, 55). A major cause of that pain is sorrow, often because it hurts to know that we won’t be able to see, hug, or talk to a loved one anymore as our physical lives continue day by day. Few things feel so permanent and moving as watching a loved one being lowered into a grave. In those moments, it can feel like death is a locked door, permanently bolted closed and separating us from our loved one.

Graves Opened at Last

But the comforting truth is that graves aren’t permanently closed. The book of Revelation records one of Jesus Christ’s most inspiring statements: “I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Revelation 1:18). The Bible also explains that not only does Jesus Christ possess the keys to open graves—He also possesses the voice that can and will wake those sleeping in those graves: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth” (John 5:28–29).

God inspired the prophet Ezekiel to tell us about one of the most hopeful events of the future: “I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves.… Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves… and brought you up from your graves” (Ezekiel 37:12–13).

The vast majority of human beings will have their graves opened in one of two resurrections. The called, chosen, and faithful will be raised in the first and better resurrection, which will take place when Christ returns at the sound of the seventh trumpet (1 Thessalonians 4:16; Hebrews 11:35; Revelation 17:14; 20:4–6). One thousand years later, the “rest of the dead” will have their graves opened (Ezekiel 37:12–13; Revelation 20:5).

The family funeral I attended took place in a small back corner of the cemetery, a peaceful and beautiful piece of land dedicated solely to the burial of infants one year old or younger. All the graves in that corner of the cemetery were small, containing little caskets belonging to those with the shortest of lives. I was comforted by the knowledge that, one day, all of those little graves will be opened, as will countless others all over the earth—including unmarked graves, lost graves, and even “graves” in the sea.

You can likely think of pieces of land that are special to you because they contain the graves of dear family members and friends—graves that you perhaps visit to keep them tidy, reflect, remember, and reminisce. In the section of the cemetery for infants, it was evident from the flowers, teddy bears, and other mementos left there that the parents of so many of those babies continued to visit the graves of their children years later—children who are “frozen in time” as babies, sleeping until Christ awakens them.

Followers of Christ, strengthened by God’s unbreakable word, can feel a fierce hope, an intense anticipation born from the sincere belief that the day will come when Jesus Christ opens not only their own graves but also the graves of their friends, parents, grandparents, children, siblings, uncles, and aunts—allowing all of them to awake, leave their graves, and live again.