George Frank Paul Funeral Sermon - Luke 22:39–46 April 16th 2025 / Courage, Peace and Strength

George Frank Paul Funeral Sermon / Regina Memorial Gardens & Funeral Home / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Wednesday April 16th 2025: Season of Lent / Luke 22:39–46, “Courage, Peace and Strength in the Face of Death.”

And He came out and went, as was His custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. And when [Jesus] came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends and family of George Paul near the very end of Psalm 23 we hear these words, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,” when reflecting on his long life George was quick to respond that he had a good life. George credited that good life to the LORD and the goodness and mercy of God that followed him right through to this day. And as it became clear that death was on the horizon for George I shared with him these words from the Bible, you can find them in the Book of Isaiah chapter 41; these are words of promise from God to His people:  

        “Fear not, for I am with you;

               be not dismayed, for I am your God;

        I will strengthen you, I will help you,

               I will uphold you with My righteous Right Hand.”[1]

The righteous Right Hand of the Lord there in that bit of Scripture is the promised Jesus and it is the promised Christ Jesus, as the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23, who likewise follows the Christian all the days of their life in goodness and mercy. Trusting in this George was able to face his death with courage and peace and strength. This is one of the wonderful and enduring gifts of faith, to trust that you are in safe hands even when nothing around you feels or seems safe, when the Valley of the Shadow of Death lies ahead of you and the green pastures and still waters lay behind you.[2]

I often reminded George that, in his baptism he was made part of God’s family, and that Jesus was in this way George’s older brother and that as his older brother Jesus had gone on ahead paving the way for George. Jesus had already walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death to its other side and so Jesus was uniquely qualified to walk with George through that Valley now in these days; that Jesus was leading on before, that Jesus was at George’s side as he went along his way and that Jesus was following behind George, protecting his back, straight through to the end. And so we have this Gospel Reading today from the Gospel of Saint Luke in the Bible, this is from the wee hours of Thursday Night in that first Holy Week and we find Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives across from the city of Jerusalem. Jesus knows the cross of His crucifixion is coming, that enemies are on their way to drag Him off to His death and that He will die at their insistence, that He would suffer under the Roman Imperial Governor Pontius Pilate.[3] That night before coming to the Garden Jesus had said to His disciples, those who followed Him, “greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends,”[4] and as Jesus knelt down to pray He knew He was about to do this very thing.

Now thinking back on what you heard in that Gospel Reading today something might have jumped out at you as odd when Jesus prays to His heavenly Father saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” On the one hand Jesus is asking if there is a way to save everyone that won’t include His death while on the other hand as a faithful Son to God the Father He accepts the will of His heavenly Father in the face of death. Is this a prayer of uncertainty or a prayer of trust? As Christians we confess that Jesus was, and “is at the same time both God and man. He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; And He is man, born from the substance of His mother [the Virgin Mary] in this age: Perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh; equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity. Although He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ: One, however, not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ, who suffered for our salvation.”[5] 

In the beginning man was not created to die, God made man to live.[6] Forget whatever our modern culture and learned scientists says about it, the truth is that death is unnatural and in The End on the Last Day death will die and be no more.[7] For this reason the perfect Son of God, Jesus, who had no sin in Him faced death innocently.[8] “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[9] Man was not made for sin, man was made for life. Dear ones death goes against the grain of what is true and pure and good. So the question Jesus asks in His prayer is, on the one hand, coming from the knowledge that His heavenly Father is Almighty and that all things are possible for Him, while, on the other hand, this question comes from a childlike faith of innocence and trust in His Heavenly Father.[10] Jesus teaches us saying, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”[11] He Himself displays this same faith here, modeling it for us, showing it to us. Jesus is not naïve, He knows well what death is and that it’s coming but leading into Good Friday He had not personally experienced it yet.[12] The corruption of death was a horrible blight on creation and Jesus in our Gospel Reading was about to experience it firsthand at the cross—all the ugliness of it—[13] so that men like our dear George could face death not with fear and weakness but with courage and strength.[14] Knowing that whatever sin was in him had already died on the back of Jesus at the cross in his friend Jesus’ death and that as a result George was free of it.[15]

Again this is one of the wonderful and enduring gifts of faith, to trust that you are in safe hands even when nothing around you feels or seems safe, when the Valley of the Shadow of Death lies ahead of you and the green pastures and still waters lay behind you. That Christ Jesus who is your friend, who has laid down His life for His friends, for George and for you and for me, is right there with us, not far away but willing and able to experience every aspect of it all personally in His very flesh and blood, to experience it all with you. And with that firmly in your heart you can face death the way George did reflecting back on life and seeing where Goodness and Mercy followed after him all the days of His life, with the solid and firm promise and hope that on the other side of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, on the other side of death, George “shall [likewise] dwell in the house of the LORD forever,” as Psalm 23 says. Yes, the Lord is faithful, He has done this for George and He does this for you. This mighty work of salvation is not only for George; Jesus came and endured death that you too would have life in Him. Believe this, share this same faith with George and you will have a good life no matter what you face along the way:[16]

       “Fear not, for I am with you;

               be not dismayed, for I am your God;

        I will strengthen you, I will help you,

               I will uphold you with My righteous Right Hand.” Amen.    

Let us pray: Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Isaiah 41:10
[2] Psalm 23:1, 4
[3] 2nd Article of the Apostles’ Creed, “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried”
[4] John 15:13
[5] The Athanasian Creed, Lutheran Service Book, Concordia Publishing House 2006, Page 321, vs. 28b-36a.
[6] Genesis 1:26
[7] Revelation 21:1-4
[8] 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 2:6-8; 1 Peter 2:24
[9] Romans 6:23
[10] Mark 14:36
[11] Luke 18:17
[12] Matthew 16:21-25; Matthew 20:18; Matthew 27:62-66; Luke 9:22; Luke 24:26
[13] Luke 23:18-55
[14] Psalm 23:4
[15] Romans 5:6-9
[16] Hebrews 13:7

Photo Credits: Main photo provided by family and Mount Olive Lutheran Church; photo of George suplied by family, detail of "The Crucifixion" (1597-1600) by El Greco from rawpixel; photo of The Last Sermon of Our Lord (1836–1902) James Tissot from brooklynmuseum; photo of Monument Valley Park in Arizona During Sunset from pexels (In the last number of years George loved visiting Arizona with Lorraine, especialy Mesa).