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Seven days ago, Trinity Baptist Church lost a dear, beloved friend, church member, and devoted follower of Jesus. She was a wonderful, kind, young woman who had so much love and grace, whose laugh and smile were instantly infectious, and whose life shone with a joy that could only come from her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To say she will be missed is a huge understatement because she was involved in almost every aspect of Trinity’s life, and she touched the lives of everyone who knew her.

“Why?” is the question all of us now ask. “Why, Lord, would someone who was loved so much and who loved so much die at such a young age?”

These questions are ones I cannot answer right now. Oh, I know that there are profound theological and biblical answers to the question of suffering, answers that remind us that we live in a fallen world, a world of our own rebellion against God, where sin, death, and the devil continue to wreak havoc in us and, sadly, through us and because of us; a world where we are the cause of sin and we suffer because of sin – and much of the time we cannot make sense of any of it. With sin and evil, there is no such thing as “fair play.” So “Why?” is a real, honest question.

But this question invites us to see things differently. It's as if we are caught between the horror of Good Friday, when Jesus the Son of God was crucified, when all seemed lost, and the wonder, joy, and victory of Easter Sunday, when Jesus was raised from the dead, triumphant over sin, death, and the devil. So, we live in a broken world where death appears to hold sway and where answers in the face of suffering and death seem hard to come by. Yet, we know crucifixion is not the end, suffering is temporary, death does not have the last word. We wait for that greater Sunday morning when death’s power and the devil’s ways will finally be destroyed, and the unalloyed glory of Christ’s eternal kingdom will be revealed at his second coming. As Colossians 1:18 reminds us, Jesus is the “firstborn from among the dead, so that”, the verse says, “in everything he might have the supremacy.” For, Revelation 21:4 declares, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

I think about our dear friend a lot. Like all of us at Trinity, I miss her so much. I ask, “Why? Why her? Why now?” I cannot answer these questions. But I don’t think I’m meant to. Instead, I trust my Lord Jesus, who suffered, died, and rose again; and I rest in the truth of the Gospel that Sunday is coming and then the questions I have now won’t matter, for the old order of things will have passed away.

視頻大意翻譯(video Chinese translation):

大家早。

七天前三一浸信會失去了一位摯愛的朋友、會友、耶穌虔誠的跟隨者。她的名字叫Andrea。他是一位很棒、善良和年輕的女性，充滿了愛和恩典，她的笑聲和笑容能馬上感染別人，而這充滿喜樂的生命只能從她的主和救贖主耶穌基督而來。說她會被大家懷念實在是太輕描淡寫了，因為Andrea幾乎參與了三一教會生活的各個方面，她觸動三教會一認識她的每個人的生命。

她的過世很難理解。“為什麼？”是我們所有人現在都會問的問題。“主啊，為什麼一個如此被深愛著、和充滿愛的人會在這麼年輕就過世呢? 就在她活著還有那麼多事情可以做，可以幫助許多的人的時候呢？”

這些問題是我現在無法回答的。哦，我知道苦難這個問題有深奧的神學和聖經答案，這些答案提醒我們，我們活在一個墮落的世界，一個我們自己悖逆神的世界，可悲的是，透過我們，也因為我們，罪惡、死亡和魔鬼繼續在我們身上做破壞的工作。在這個世界裡，我們是罪惡和邪惡的受害者，但也是罪惡和邪惡的媒介。在這個世界，我們是罪的起因，我們也因罪而受苦—而且很多時候我們無法理解。對於罪惡和邪惡，沒有所謂的“公平競爭”。所以“為什麼？”是一個真實和誠實的問題。

但這個問題讓我們以不同的方式來看待事物。在許多方面，我們被夾在耶穌受難日的恐怖，當時神的愛子耶穌被釘在十字架上，似乎失去了一切，和復活節主日的奇跡、喜樂和勝利之間，耶穌從死裡復活，戰勝了罪惡、死亡和魔鬼。因此，我們活在一個破碎的世界，死亡似乎完全佔有主導地位，面對痛苦和死亡似乎很難找到答案。然而，我們知道釘十字架並不是結束，痛苦是暫時的，死亡沒有最後的決定權。我們等待那個更大的主日早晨，那時死亡的權能和魔鬼最終將被摧毀，基督永恆國度純潔的榮耀將在祂第二次降臨時顯明。正如歌羅西書1：18提醒我們的，耶穌是“從死裏首先復生的，使他”，這節經文說，“在凡事上居首位。”因為，啟示錄21：4說：“神要擦去他們一切的眼淚．不再有死亡、也不再有悲哀、哭號、疼痛、因為舊事都過去了。”

我常常想到Andrea。就像三一教會的所有人一樣，我非常想念她。我問：“為什麼？為什麼是她？為什麼是現在？我無法回答這些問題。但我認為我不應該這樣做。相反地，我繼續信靠我的主耶穌，祂受苦、死了又復活;我安靜在福音的真理中，星期日即將到來，然後我現在的問題將無關緊要，因為舊事將過去。

讓我們禱告…