Matthew F. Leighty
Executive Director

I was 7 years old when a boy a few houses down from us was killed by a drunk driver. The boy was 13. A Boy Scout. A seventh grader. His sister was a close friend of my sister, and his mother, who worked for the local emergency services, was among those who responded to the scene that night. And so, when tragedy reached our street on that April evening in 1985, it impacted not just our street, or our small town community, but our very home, as well.

What I remember most is not the particular details of that day. What I remember is the weight of grief in the days and weeks that followed. The packed funeral. The way a community can fall quiet. The way people search for words and cannot find them. The way the loss of a child feels profoundly wrong in a way that nothing in this world seems able to fix.

That kind of grief is loud. Not always in the sense of sound, but loud in the sense that it can’t be set aside or hidden away. It is constant.

It is precisely into that kind of grief that the Gospel speaks most clearly. As the hymn “Jesus Lives! The Victory’s Won” (LSB #490:1) reminds us:

“Jesus lives! The vict’ry’s won! Death no longer can appall me; Jesus lives! Death’s reign is done! From the grave Christ will recall me. Brighter scenes will then commence; This shall be my confidence.”

Scripture does not ask us to grieve quietly. The psalms are full of anguished cries to God. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, even knowing what was about to happen (John 11:35). The apostle Paul writes that we grieve, yes, but not as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). That hopeful distinction matters enormously. Paul does not say we do not grieve. He says we grieve differently. We grieve as people who know something that changes everything.

In John 16:33b (NIV), Jesus speaks plainly to His disciples on the eve of His crucifixion. He does not soften what is coming. He says: “In this world you will have trouble.” There it is, stated without apology. The world will bring loss. The world will bring grief that is loud and heavy and does not resolve on our timetable.

But He does not stop there. He continues: “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Not “take heart because the grief will pass quickly.” Not “take heart because things always work out.” But take heart because Christ has conquered sin, death, and the grave. The victory is already won. His resurrection is already accomplished. Our Lord speaks these words not for comfort alone but from authority, the authority of the One who bore our sin on the cross, rose bodily from the grave, and now delivers that victory to you personally through His Word and Sacraments.

For those of you walking through grief right now — perhaps the loss of a spouse, a child, a dear friend, or the accumulated sorrows of many years—I want you to hear this: Your grief is not a failure of faith. Your grief is honest. And Christ meets you there in the loudest and heaviest moments of it with a promise that is not a platitude but a proclamation.

He has overcome.

Some of you reading this have carried grief like that for decades. A child lost. A spouse. A friend taken too soon and too senselessly. The years pass but the weight does not fully lift. I want you to know that grief is not forgotten — not by those who loved alongside you and not by God. The Lord who says, “I have overcome the world,” speaks that promise over every life cut short, every loss that never made sense, and every sorrow that still surfaces when you least expect it.

The ministry of Worship Anew exists, in no small part, because of this truth. We serve those who have known loss deeply, sometimes repeatedly. We bring the Word of God to the kitchen table, to the hospital bed, and to the quiet spaces where people may have no one else carrying the Gospel to them. We proclaim God’s Word so that no one faces their tribulation without also hearing His triumph.

Thank you for making that ministry possible through your faithful prayers and generous support. You are part of this proclamation.

“Jesus lives! And now is death But the gate of life immortal; This shall calm my trembling breath When I pass its gloomy portal. Faith shall cry, as fails each sense; Jesus is my confidence!” (“Jesus Lives! The Victory’s Won” LSB #490:5).

Above photo by Jim Garringer: These five crosses were placed on the highway as a memorial to five Taylor University (Upland, Ind.) students and staff who were killed in a motor vehicle accident in 2006.