Life wins! Jesus wins!
Luke 7:11-17
September 20, 20226 anno Domini
Jesus meets death in today’s Gospel reading and He destroys it. It must have been quite the scene outside the little village of Nain. Jesus was coming from Capernaum where He had healed the Centurian’s servant. The servant was at the point of death, and Jesus, without a Word, without even seeing the servant, healed him. Around Jesus the disciples were like a team fresh off an amazing victory. Recounting all the details of the miracle. Marveling at Jesus and what He did. Boisterous, excited, a spring in their steps and then they meet death, a particularly cruel death.
A man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother and she was a widow. Every word brings more sadness and despair. A dead man, an only son, his mother, a widow.
You wonder what his mother thought? What would you think? We know what the mother in the Old Testament reading thought when her son died. Elijah was a guest in her house and by the Lord’s miraculous provision this little family of mother and son survived a famine. Then the boy got sick and he died. And his mom lashed out at Ezekiel (really she was lashing out at God), “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!”
This mother draws two conclusions from her son’s death. First, she assumes that God is against her if her son dies. Second, she assumes her own sins have led to the death of her son. I wouldn’t be surprised if the widow of Nain had those same thoughts. God is against me. I have sinned. That’s why I’m being punished.
There is truth in everything the widow thought – Because I am a sinner God is rightly against me and I deserve His punishment. But both of these stories teach us that is not the fullness or finality of God’s Work. God did not punish us sinners with death so that would be our end. Instead, He punishes you with death so you seek a way out of death and find it in Christ. Death should call to mind your sins. When death comes, repent, and turn from sin and death to see your Savior Jesus Christ, who died for your sins and rose again. Don’t dwell in the fear of death, but the life that Jesus wins and delivers to you through forgiveness. By the power of God Elijah raised the widow’s son. By His touch and Word Jesus brought the boy of Nain back to life and back to his mother.
Back to the funeral procession at Nain. If you had met this funeral possession, if you had known this woman and the suffering she was enduring, you would have pulled over. You might have wept. You might have asked God, “Why must she bear so much?” You couldn’t do anything for that widow, but show a little kindness to her as she buries her son.
Jesus doesn’t pull over. He doesn’t let the procession pass. He crashes right into the hearse because He is more than kind. He is compassionate and He is God in the flesh. He has come take on death and He wants to do that for this woman.
We know none of the details, simply that Jesus did this out of compassion. Maybe the boy wasn’t a believer. He hadn’t darkened the door of the Synagogue for years. Jesus might be answering the prayers of his mom, that somehow her boy would return to faith. Now raised from the dead he would have that opportunity.
Or perhaps the boy was a believer. In that case Jesus would be pulling him out of the joys of paradise to come back into this valley of sorrow to care for his mother. If so he might be a little ticked at Jesus. He was freed from sin and now he’s back in sin. He had gone through death and he would have to die again – and funeral homes don’t give refunds because resurrections just don’t happen – unless you’re Jesus.
Young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak and Jesus gave him to his mother. This is why Jesus came. He came to bring the dead back to life. That doesn’t mean everyone will rise to life again on the last day or enter heaven. Unless you are separated from your sins you will not be separated from death and hell. The resurrection is yours only through faith – when you trust the death of Christ for your sins and His resurrection from the grave.
Today as we celebrate a confirmation I could not help but think how this story of Jesus meeting the funeral procession is a picture of what happens in baptism. We often think confirmation is mainly connected to the Lord’s Supper, but if you listen carefully to the rite, it’s really connected to the gifts given at baptism.
In baptism parents bring their child who is born sinful, spiritually dead. This is the reason we prize baptism so highly and why we take it so seriously and why grandparents are troubled when their grandchildren aren’t baptized. Baptism is resurrection for dead sinners.
Like the widow of Nain you have a family bringing a spiritually dead child. except we’re not sad when we bring our children to baptism because we know we’re going to meet Jesus there. Unlike the widow, who thought her day would end leaving her son in the cemetery.
So this crowd of death meets a crowd of life at the baptismal font. All of heaven is watching. The angels are eager with excitement because another lost sinner will be found. The Father looks down in love as another child is adopted into His family and the devil loses another slave. Christ is there with His perfect life, His sin-atoning death, and His grave busting resurrection. And the Holy Spirit works all of that on the child, in the child – Evelyn Avis Wick, baptized, August 3, 2014, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The church has also seen a connection between these resurrections and baptism. I’ve asked this question before in a sermon, and I’m sure you remember the answer. How many resurrections are there in the Bible before the resurrection of Jesus?
There are seven – you’ve got the two we’ve heard today – Elijah and Jesus raising widow’s sons.
In 2 King 4 Elisha raises a Shunamite woman’s son.
In 2 Kings 13 a dead man is thrown into Elisha’s grave and touching his bones comes to life again.
Jesus raises Jairus daughter in Luke 8
Jesus raise Lazarus in John 11
Finally, when Jesus dies on the cross, many saints around Jerusalem rose from the dead.
Seven resurrections – seven is the number of creation. 8 is the number of the new creation. Easter is sometimes called the 8th day of creation because when Christ rose from the dead life began anew for the whole world. The church even translated this teaching into her architecture – guess how many sides a traditional baptismal font has? 8. We even reflect that here at Redeemer – we have 8 panels of artwork in the sanctuary to confess our life in Christ.
So as we celebrate this confirmation, remember your baptism, the 8th day of your life, when you parents carried you helpless, sinful, and dead to meet Jesus and join the great, exciting, boisterous crowd of all those who live in the name of Jesus. Amen.