You’re Not Dead
St. Luke 7:11-17
September 27, 2020 anno Domini – Redeemer
I do not want to be raised from the dead. Let me clarify that. I do not want to be raised from the dead like the young man in the text. Saint Paul defends my choice. When he wrote to the Philippians from jail, believing he would soon be executed, he said, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”
Life is tough for the Christian. God has redeemed you by the blood of His Son. He has freed you from sin and death. Once you go from death to life you no longer live for yourself, but for Him who died and rose again. You’re Christian. You follow Christ. You want His Word. You need His Supper for your forgiveness. The Christian life is not about you. It is Christ for you and your life is now for your neighbor. It is hard for you to go against you.
Once you die, if you die in faith in Jesus, you are freed from this battle. Your old sinful self is finally put away and your soul dwells with Christ in paradise. On the last day your body will rise. The greatest thing about heaven is that you will no longer be selfish. You’ll no longer sin. You’ll no longer be tempted and fall. You’ll love everyone as you should and you’ll know God fully.
We know the widow was overjoyed to have her son back, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the son was a little ticked off – to live with Christ was far better than living with his mother. Life for the Christian, this side of the resurrection is a battle between death and life, between sin and righteousness, between selfishness and service, between Jesus your Lord and the Devil who wants to enslave you again.
It is an odd thing, but being dead in sin is easier than being alive in Christ. Isn’t it easier not to go to church? To serve yourself instead of your wife or children? To choose sports over Sunday School and pleasures over piety? To spend all your wealth on you instead of sacrificing a goodly portion to the Lord? To read a love story instead of Leviticus or a thriller instead of First Thessalonians? The only problem with death however is just that – you’re dead. Without Christ you’re the walking dead now, and on the last day you’ll be forever dead. Christianity isn’t easy, but faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection is the only way of life.
The Devil has us tricked into believing death is the easy route through life, but those of you who have buried a loved one have felt the sting of sin. Sin tears apart what God has joined together. In death the soul is torn asunder from the body. Marriages are ended. Parents are taken. Children are ripped from their parents.
The Son of God came into the world to raise the dead, not just for a few more years like the young man in the text, but for eternity. Jesus came into the world to interrupt your funeral as He did in the city of Nain. It could not have been a worse funeral to stumble upon. Behold, a man who had died was being carried out. Whenever Saint Luke uses that word “behold” he’s telling you, “Quit daydreaming. Check back into the sermon. Something huge is about to happen and it’s going to be great – something no one else (not even Donald Trump or Joe Biden) can do.” Behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. You know about widows in Biblical times. A widow had no means of making a living. She relied on her son – sons if she had more than one. This widow had one son and he was dead – which likely meant she too would soon be dead.
Lest you think that the Biblical prescribes such a life for women you are wrong. Christ had many women among his disciples – which was unheard of. Christianity is the only world religion that has fought for equal rights and freedoms for women in every nation where it spread. The reason women can vote, work, drive cars and enjoy the same right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in our country is the direct result of Christianity. I know you won’t hear that on CNN or learn it in government run schools, but the evidence confirms it. If you don’t believe me I’ve got a few books on my shelf you can read.
Christ has compassion on this woman, but He has no manners when it comes to the decorum around death. He blocks the hearse from Benson Funeral Home and stops the procession. The grave diggers at Trinity Lutheran Cemetery will have to fill in that hole and use it another day. He tells the widow “Stop crying” and then pulls the casket out of the hearse and pops it open and talks to the dead guy, “Get up.” or in Greek “Young man, I say to you arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to His mother.
Jesus has no manners when it comes to death. He is not a God who keeps Himself at arm’s length from sin and death. Instead He touches death. He took on human flesh so He could be bathed in our sins at His baptism and numbered with the transgressors. He always kept company with dead people – sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, criminals, his chosen twelve. Then He and He alone became the whole company of sinners on the cross. Every sin of every sinner (that includes the whole load of your sin) is laid on Jesus. He is filthy with our sin and so God the Father throws Him out – the hell He suffers on the cross is the real death for sin, the final death for sin. He died not for Himself, but for you. It would have been far easier to let you die, but He could not do that, not to that young man and his mother and not to you.
After Jesus took hold of sin and death for us He rose from dead. Now there is no stopping Him or those who believe in Him. Life for Jesus is easy now – sin is gone. He sits in glory. God the Father has put all things under His feet. It may not feel like it or look like it, but everything that is allowed to happen in this world serves God’s purpose in Christ. That purpose is to keep His bride the church alive, that she may give birth to more and more children of the heavenly Father. Life in Jesus is not so easy for us now, not yet. We have been raised from the dead in baptism, like that young man in the text – to live not for ourselves but for Christ by loving others, by serving those nearest to us, by fighting against death and sin, and living in the confidence of the resurrection.
I want to commend you as a congregation for not living like dead people during Covid-19. You attended parking lot services – you came in the snow and the rain and the cold. You welcomed our return to the sanctuary and gave ideas on how we could open the Lord’s house to as many people as possible. You put up with a lot of technical difficulties from your pastor, his gadgets, YouTube, and Facebook. Sunday School teachers are willing to teach and parents are willing to bring their children to learn of Jesus. We did not let the fear of death rule here. While I commend you I also warn you – during Covid 19 we have seen what the fear of death will do – it will separate us from one another. It inhibits love and freedom and faith. It makes people serve themselves instead of others. Don’t let death do that to you because you’re not dying. You’ve been raised from the death of sin and you are living in the name of Jesus. Amen.