The Strife Is O'er, The Battle Done: Sermon for the Funeral of Fay Erickson

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

The strife is o’er, the battle done; / Now is the victor’s triumph won;
Now be the song of praise begun. / Alleluia! (LSB 464 st. 1)

How fitting to sing these words on a day like this, a day of sorrow and mourning, yes, but also a day of joy, praise, and thanksgiving to God for all the blessings He bestowed upon Fay for Christ’s sake, and to you, Ron, Judy, Gary, Tim, others family members and friends as exhibited through Fay’s faith, love, and life of service to God and her neighbor. Though we will miss Fay’s infectious smile and her joyful spirit, we take great comfort in the fact that she has gone to be in the presence of our Lord, where there is no mourning, crying, pain, or death anymore. And we look forward to the Last Day, the Day of Resurrection.

As you can read in her obituary, Fay was an active member of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church. Over the years, she helped with Sunday School, was a member of the couple’s group and ladies’ guild, and sang in the choir. Her daughter-in-law, Linda, said one of her favorite memories was singing in the choir with Fay. This Easter hymn we just sang reminded her of those times.

The text of this hymn proclaims that the central battle in the war against death is done, having been won in Christ’s death and resurrection. The hymn is based loosely on 1 Corinthians 15:54b-57, where Paul uses the triumphal conclusion of Isaiah 25:8 and the rhetorical questions to death in Hosea 13:14 as the basis for his proclamation of Christ’s victory over death: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

This hymn acknowledges the severe challenges of the battle Christ valiantly fought on behalf of all sinners. The last line of each stanza emphasizes that the Christian response to this victory is praise to the Lord. The refrain is a triple alleluia, which gives the hymn a triumphant start and finish characteristic of many Easter hymns. An alleluia also ends each of the five stanzas.

The first stanza uses language from warfare: “strife,” “battle,” “victor,” “triumph,” and “won.” The “strife” or “battle” referenced here is not the spiritual warfare of individual Christians but the battle against death fought by Jesus through His obedient life and atoning death. This strife or battle against death was completed at Jesus’ death; His resurrection means “Now is the victor’s triumph won,” and thus has “the song of praise begun.”

The second stanza continues the use of war language but emphasizes that the battle between Jesus and the “powers of death” was not easy and quick. Jesus, however, prevailed by overcoming the sin that is the cause of death and by dispersing death’s “legions.” This action is the unending source of “shouts of holy joy” within the Church.

The third stanza testifies to Jesus’ short rest in the tomb (“three sad days have quickly sped”) and His resurrection (“He rises glorious from the dead”). Although the life of Jesus is the obvious referent, the stanza also reflects the typical Holy Week experience of Christians as we remember Christ’s death on Good Friday, His rest in the tomb for three sad days, and His joyous resurrection. The final line of the stanza, “all glory to our risen Head,” testifies that because the Church has been joined to Christ in Baptism, with Him as the “Head” and the Church as His Body, the Body shares in the victory of the risen Head.

The fourth stanza vividly describes the impact of Jesus’ resurrection on the unseen spiritual realms: “He broke the age-bound chains of hell” and “the bars from heaven’s high portals fell.” Chains are associated with the punishment of hell (Jude 6; Revelation 20:1-2). The message is clear: Christ has freed sinners from hell’s bondage and opened heaven to them.

Unlike the proclamation of the first four stanzas, the fifth stanza is a prayer that the servants of the Lord, like their risen Head, might be freed one day from death’s sting. The stanza explicitly alludes to Isaiah 53:5 (“the stripes which wounded Thee”) and 1 Corinthians 15:55 (“death’s dread sting”). The prayer will be answered on the Last Day, at the resurrection of all flesh, when Fay and all the believers in Christ are raised in glory so that they “may live and sing to Thee.” I can’t even begin to imagine what a heavenly choir that will be!

As soon as the trumpet of judgment sounds, both dead and living believers will be changed and together we will be made imperishable and immortal. So we can inherit the kingdom of God, the “inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” (1 Peter 1:4). St. Paul writes in our Epistle: “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’”

Since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, sin, death, and the devil have seemed to hold the upper hand. Death has destroyed billions of people, from the poorest baby to the mightiest of kings and emperors. It has broken into every home and has taken its toll on every earthly family. It has robbed every one of its victims of all his earthly possessions. It has filled this world with futile tears and helpless groans. It has snatched away for all eternity the hour of repentance that could have saved the godless, and it has inflicted pain on even the greatest of God’s saints. Except for Enoch and Elijah, death has won every contest with life. There is no masking its ugliness nor wishing away its awesome power.

Despite all his little victories over disease and mortal injury, man still has no sword to slay or shield to ward off this cruel and hungry monster. But to one foe, death must yield. The King of kings has vanquished the king of terrors. Our Savior “has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10).

Death can no longer harm a child of God. More than that, for God’s children, the apparent victories of death are undone. The death that appeared to conquer and doom our bodies to decay will know its utter defeat when, in the resurrection, God’s believers will break death’s chains, and our bodies will be rendered imperishable and immortal. In the resurrection, our victory over death will be complete, and we will join Paul in his triumph song: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Death has a “sting.” Its sting is poisonous and deadly. What gives death its power to destroy, what gives it its sting, is sin. When man sins, he becomes death’s victim. Take sin away, and death is harmless.

“The power of sin is the law.” God’s law gives sin its final power. His law pronounces death upon sin. If there is no law, there is no sin, and there is no death. The penalty for sin is death. “The soul who sins is the one who shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). Death has the sinner in its power and demands his life because he has sinned against God’s law. So, sin becomes death’s final sting.

There is only one way to undo death’s final work. It is to nullify the sin that places the sinner into its power. Take away that sin and cancel its guilt by having someone else suffer its sting in the sinner’s stead, and death can no longer claim the sinner as its victim. With the penalty for human sin paid by the sinner’s substitute, the sinner escapes sin’s deadly sting; he thus conquers sin and overcomes the power of the law to destroy him. In the Resurrection, the believer’s victory over death is complete. Then, even temporal death is undone.

In Holy Baptism, Fay was baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Verdi, MN. Christ took on her sin and paid the penalty for it even as He gave her credit for His perfect life and sacrificial death. The Holy Spirit gave Fay saving faith through the water and Word and nurtured that faith through the years. In the Lord’s Supper, Christ fed her His true body and blood for the forgiveness of her sins and the strengthening of her faith.

For Fay and all the saints who died in the Lord, the strife is o’er, the battle done, now is the victor’s triumph won; now be the song of praise begun. Alleluia! Because the Lord Jesus came forth victorious from the grave, He was declared the victor over sin that held us in bondage to sin and death. Because He lives, we shall live also. By the power of His resurrection, Fay, they, and we who trust in the Lord shall rise to share Christ’s unending, glorious life. What life to celebrate! What a Savior to bless! Alleluia!