Empty Place Settings

by Rev. Marvin Bublitz

Like many of you, I was able to gather with some family and friends over the Christmas season. It seems that special occasions like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, anniversaries, and birthdays always find people gathering around a table feast.

But for some, myself included, there was an empty chair around the table. I do not mean those who could not join because of schedules, circumstances, or weather; I mean those who will no longer join again this side of heaven. Some of you had one or more fewer place settings. Those losses cut a little deeper at times when we gather with family. Though we may not set an empty place setting, we still know that someone is missing. We recognize the absence left at the table by missing loved ones. Often, we take time to remember them and talk about celebrations gone by when they were there.

For some of you, this might have been the first Christmas without a loved one. Your new reality was no doubt overwhelming. It is easy to focus on that one empty place setting. It is easy to focus on what we have lost. But I encourage you to redirect your focus. Gaze not on that empty place setting. Rather consider that while there is one fewer place setting here, one more was set in heaven.

While it is hard not to reflect on our loss, the Lord refocuses us in His Word to what His saints now enjoy. Jesus said: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3).

Dwell not on the empty chair. Rather rejoice that our Good Shepherd kept His promise for your loved one. See death from His side: “Write this: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on’” (Revelation 14:13). Also, “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15). It is the Lord taking His lamb home. He bestows the everlasting life He won on Calvary. They wait there for the resurrection of all flesh on the Last Day. In that day, all believers will be joined together as one chorus around His throne to sing His praise eternal: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new’” (Revelation 21:3-5).

For those of us left behind though, the pain can be unbearable at times like Christmas celebrations. This is especially true if all we see is the extra place setting here and not the new place setting there. At those times it is even more important to turn to Jesus for care and comfort.

It is then that we need to return to His table and His feast. For it is there we are reminded we join with “angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven.” We can remember those who have gone before us while we gaze at the empty place or linger at the cemetery. However, we are closest to them when we kneel at the altar and with all the company of heaven feast at our Lord’s table.

Marvel that the Son of God comes down not in a manger this time but in a chalice. Marvel how the Lord and Creator of all gives Himself as the life-saving feast of heaven. He prepares a feast of His Body and Blood for us. Marvel how He joins us with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven at His table. That is your peace in those difficult days.

The Lord Christ bestows such peace upon you.

Rev. Marvin Bublitz is Regional Pastor for Lutheran Church–Canada’s East Region.

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