The Lord Looks on the Heart: Sermon for the Funeral of Ivan Jorgenson

Click here to listen to this sermon.

Today, you gather with heavy hearts, remembering someone you loved: Ivan, your Pa, your Grandpa, your friend, neighbor, fellow member of Zion Lutheran. In moments like this, we naturally reflect on the life a person lived—the things they did, the roles they filled, the memories we shared. Many of those things are recorded in Ivan’s obituary. He was married to Margaret for nearly 72 years. They were blessed with eight children. Ivan served his country in the United States Army. He farmed for many years. Taught his children the value of hard work. He enjoyed gardening and cooking, traveling, and spending time with his family. He was quick-witted. Loved to play Rummikub. These are the outward things—good and meaningful things—that people could see.

But God reminds us today that His gaze goes deeper. “The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). While we see the surface, God sees the heart—the truest part of who we are, the part shaped by faith and trust in Him.

That truth is at the heart of today’s Scripture reading from 1 Samuel, where God sends the prophet Samuel to anoint a new king for Israel.

The people of Israel had asked for a king so that they might be like the other nations. Though they had been warned of the downsides of a king, they wanted power, strength, and appearances. Saul initially seemed to meet their expectations. He looked every bit the king. But looks can be deceiving. Saul’s reign quickly unraveled as his heart turned away from the Lord. And so God sent Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint Saul’s successor.

Samuel himself approached the task with hesitation. He had watched Saul begin with promise and fall into fear, jealousy, and disobedience. He mourned for Saul and feared repeating the same disappointment. He also feared Saul’s anger, knowing how dangerous the king had become. Yet the Lord reassured Samuel and sent him on his way.

When Samuel arrived in Bethlehem, the elders trembled. The prophet’s presence often meant judgment. But Samuel assured them he came in peace, to offer sacrifice to the Lord. Jesse and his sons were invited, and one by one, Jesse’s sons passed before the prophet.

When Samuel saw Eliab, Jesse’s eldest, he was impressed. Tall, strong, and confident—surely this was the one. But the Lord stopped him short: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature… For the Lord sees not as man sees.” One by one, seven sons passed before Samuel. Each seemed qualified. Each appeared strong. Yet God rejected them all.

Finally, Samuel asked, “Are these all your sons?” Almost as an afterthought, Jesse mentioned the youngest, David, who was out tending the sheep. Jesse did not even speak his name. When David was brought in, Samuel saw a young man—healthy and handsome—but hardly the picture of a king. Yet God knew what others could not see. David had a humble and trusting heart. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

The name David means “beloved,” and it fit. God loved David’s heart—not because David was sinless, but because he trusted the Lord. David would know both great victories and great failures. He would be a warrior and a poet, a king and a penitent sinner. Yet through it all, David clung to the Lord as his Shepherd.

As Samuel poured the oil upon David’s head, God placed a kind of “reserved” sign on his life. The Holy Spirit came upon him in power, and David was set apart for God’s purposes. In time, David would come to understand that his calling pointed beyond himself—to the coming Messiah, the true King.

A thousand years later, the Apostle Paul would tell the story of David’s anointing and God’s testimony: “I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after My heart.” And then Paul adds the crucial truth: “Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as He promised” (Acts 13:22–23).

Jesus is the promised King—the Son of David. Yet, as Isaiah foretold, He came without outward splendor: “He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him.” Like David, Jesus was rejected by appearances. But unlike David, Jesus is perfectly a man after God’s own heart—because He is God in human flesh.

God’s choice of David was preparation for God’s choice of Christ. David was a shepherd who risked his life for the sheep. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep and took it up again. David was a good king, but Jesus is the King of kings. This brings us to Ivan.

God chose Ivan in Christ. In Holy Baptism, God placed His own “reserved” sign upon Ivan’s life and made him a member of His family. As St. John tells us, “To all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Ivan grew in faith and love toward God. He was, in that sense, a man after God’s own heart—not because he was perfect, but because he trusted in the mercy of God. Like David, Ivan was conceived and born in sin. Like all of us, he did not live a flawless life. But by God’s grace, Ivan was brought to faith in Jesus Christ, the great Good Shepherd.

Because of Christ, God no longer saw Ivan’s sins. He saw instead the perfect righteousness of His Son—righteousness credited to Ivan through Jesus’ perfect life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection. This is the heart of our Christian confidence today.

God still seeks people who will not run after other gods, but who come to Him humbly in repentance, trusting in His mercy. He gives them new hearts, just as He promised through the prophet Ezekiel: “I will sprinkle clean water on you… and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.”

And so today, as we commend Ivan to the gracious care of his Savior, we do so not with uncertainty, but with confidence grounded in Christ alone. The Lord who looked upon Ivan’s heart in mercy is the same Lord who washed him in Baptism, forgave him all his sins, and marked him as His own forever. Death has not undone what God has done.

Ivan now rests in the care of the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for him and who has promised to raise him up on the Last Day. Until that day, we grieve—but not as those without hope. For Christ is risen, and because He lives, Ivan lives also. And in that same risen Christ, we are given forgiveness, new hearts, and the sure promise of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.