Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
[Intro]
Our gospel lesson this morning begins with two processions. One
procession is following the Lord of Life, while the other procession is
following a dead man.
The first procession has much optimism as the disciples and the
crowd just witnessed another miraculous healing by the Lord of Life in
Capernaum. The second procession, however, has much pessimism as there is much
grief and worry.
Along the way, these two processions met outside the gate of the
city of Nain. Here, life meets death.
[The
Processions]
As the two processions meet, the Lord of Life is met with His
final enemy – death. Jesus also knows that the dead man being lifted to the
cemetery was the only son of his mother. More than that, the mother is also a
widow.
Now that her son – her only child – has died, she is alone. This
widow has lost her security within Israelite society. She will soon be literally
alone. As was custom at the time, everyone would likely ignore her as soon as
her son was buried. Jesus knows this fate and He does not ignore her.
As soon as Jesus saw the man’s mother, He had compassion on her
and said to her, “Do not weep” (Luke 7:13).
Now, do not be mistaken, Jesus is not rebuking her from weeping.
For, He Himself has also been filled with compassion. His gut has also been
moved. Instead, Jesus is telling this woman that she does not have to continue
to weep.
And, just like that, the woman stopped weeping.
Could this have been a miracle of its own? Jesus spoke and
immediately, she stopped weeping. Maybe she had heard about Jesus and His
previous signs and miracles. Or, maybe she had never heard of Jesus.
Then Jesus touched the open coffin and those who carried the
dead man stood still. Everyone was watching. Then Jesus said, “Young
man, I say to you, arise” (Luke 7:14b). Immediately, the young man sat
up and began to speak and Jesus gave the man to his mother.
Everyone was then filled with fear: those who followed Jesus and
those who followed the funeral. What had just happened?! No one had ever seen
with their own eyes a resurrection! They have only heard about resurrections
from the prophets of old. Everyone was terrified and filled with awe. They are
scared and amazed. Then the crowd began to speak, saying: “A great prophet has risen up
among us” and “God has visited His people” (Luke 7:16b).
[Unique
Resurrection at Nain]
What had just happened? No one had ever seen such an event. And,
the stories of resurrections never happened this way.
In our Old Testament lesson this morning from 1 Kings 17, the
prophet Elijah raised to life a boy who had died. This is eerily similar to
what happened in Nain – a widow loses her son – but there is one considerable
difference.
Elijah raised the boy to life by stretching himself three times
over the boy and crying out to the Lord: “‘O Lord my God, I pray, let
this child’s soul come back to him.’ Then the Lord heard the voice of
Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived” (1
Kings 17:21b-22).
Did you catch the difference? Elijah
prayed to God to bring back the widow’s son. Jesus, however, brought the
widow’s son back from the dead by His own Word. Jesus simply commanded the
young man to get up and he got up.
This is another reason why the crowd was
filled with fear. The crowd knew that something was special about this
resurrection.
But, what did the crowd believe about
Jesus? Was Jesus just a great prophet? Was Jesus just a teacher? Was Jesus a
miracle worker? Was Jesus the promised Messiah?
The crowds appear to only affirm Jesus as
a great teacher and miracle worker. The crowd spoke: “A great prophet has risen up
among us!” “God has visited His people!” (Luke 7:16)
Is that all? What is the crowd saying? Are
they just saying Jesus is just a great man of God? It appears to be so. But,
there is more here. They said “A great prophet has risen up among us.” They
may not have realized it then, but what they said would come true. Jesus rose
from the dead – physically.
And, “God has visited His people.” The
crowd meant that God cared for His people, but in fact God had literally
visited His people. Jesus is Emanuel, God with us – the Second Person of the
Trinity who came down from heaven to save His people. This crowd didn’t realize
how truly it spoke.
In this miracle at Nain, there was no
mention of anyone’s faith. One day prior, Jesus healed a centurion’s servant
because of the centurion’s faith. Here, Jesus shows that His healings
ultimately were not dependent on the faith of the person being healed, but on
His own power and might. By His Word alone, the sick are healed and the dead
are raised.
The young man could not save himself from
death. Only Jesus has to power to save us from death.
[Processions Going in Opposite Directions]
The two processions meet outside of Nain,
but now each procession is going in opposite directions. The processions are
trading places.
From this point on, Jesus is now focusing
upon His upcoming death, so He would die so we don’t have to die eternally.
This is what God the Father sent Him to do. He came to destroy the power of
death and to destroy the power of His other foes: sin and Satan. He came to
show compassion. As Martin Luther writes in his hymn “Dear Christians, One and
All, Rejoice”:
“God said to His belovèd Son:
“It’s time to have compassion.
Then go, bright jewel of My crown,
And bring to all salvation.
From sin and sorrow set them free;
Slay bitter death for them that they
May live with You forever.” (LSB 556, stanza 5)
With the raising of the widow’s son, we
receive a glimpse of what is to come. The Creator has come to re-create His
fallen creatures.
At the cross, Jesus gave us a new beginning.
As God the Father’s only-begotten Son, Jesus took upon Himself our sins as He
suffered and died in order to bring eternal life to everyone who believes in
Him.
And, like the young man at Nain, Jesus
rose from the dead. Three days after He was beaten, had nails pounded into His
bones and died, He walked and talked. Through Christ’s death and resurrection,
He has reversed our destination from eternal death to eternal life.
Christ continues to show His compassion
upon us as we receive His very Body and His very Blood within the bread and
wine at this altar. He forgives our sins and strengthens our weak faith as we
receive His Sacrament.
Likewise, God the Father shows compassion
upon us when we repent and confess our sins to Him. For everyone in Christ, God
the Father only sees the righteousness of His Son as He forgives our sins. Our
sins vanish.
[By Grace through Faith, We will Rise]
On that day at Nain, death and life met
face to face at the gate of the city. Jesus did the unexpected. He touches the
coffin and speaks His creative words of life: “Young man, I say to you, arise.”
We, too, by grace through faith in Christ alone will rise to everlasting life
with our body and soul when Christ returns in glory. Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
T SOLI DEO GLORIA T
Today's sermon was preached at St. John's Lutheran Church in Plato, MN.
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