1 Kings 17:17-24; Ephesians 3:13-21; St Luke 7:11-17
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear people loved by God, in today’s Gospel you have set before you a beautiful and magnificent battle. A battle between good and evil. Between sin and grace. Between Satan and Christ. It is truly a battle between life and death. And as you shall sing in the great Easter hymn, “the victory remained with life, the reign of death was ended.” (LSB 458:4).
Soon after healing the centurion’s servant by a word; a word of power and authority, a life-giving, creative Word that does what it says, Christ Jesus went to a town called Nain, whose name means “beautiful meadow.” But the sight that our Lord and we behold is not beautiful. It is a common scene, to be sure, as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But the dead son of a widowed mother being carried out in funeral possession is not beautiful.
It is an ominous procession; a parade of death. The grime trophy of Satan’s power out front, the dead son. Following in its train his widowed mother and with her a considerable crowd of mourners from the town. They grieve with this poor woman who lost her husband, her family, and now her son. In losing him she has lost her hope. She goes to the cemetery once more, a place she know too well. This time to bury her little boy and with her hope and love. Her very life, it seems, has come to an end.
Though she is surrounded by a considerable crowd she is alone. Frightfully and desperately alone. You widows and mourners among us have experienced this kind of loneliness. You have buried your other halves, your one-fleshments. And in so doing you have buried a portion of yourself. You grieve with these poor women from Zarephath and Nain. Half of you is in the grave. Not only your flesh, but also your heart; your love, your life. You are not whole. You are alone. Frightfully and desperately alone.
But you don’t have to lose a spouse or a child, dear Christians, to experience loneliness. Perhaps you have not been given the gift of a Christian husband or wife. You’re single and you pray for a godly marriage, though you don’t have it. Your family and friends are married. You have nieces and nephews, but no one to call your own. This is a loneliness all its own.
Or perhaps you are married, but have not been given the gift of children. Barrenness or even difficulty conceiving is its own unique form of loneliness. One to which the Church ought to respond in compassion and love, especially in our culture of abortion.
You see, all of these - loneliness, loss, pain, suffering, sorrow - are symptoms of the greater enemy of death, that weapon and tool of the devil himself. You can’t see him, but it is Satan who leads this somber procession out of Nain. He paints the beautiful meadow gray and decaying just as he did Eden. It is the devil who separates man from God and man from woman. He drives a wedge of animosity and bitterness between husbands and wives, plants seeds of discontent among the single, and jealousy and anger with the barren. Satan hates the godly marriage of one man and one woman, and the fruit of their union, children. In death he took this widow’s husband. Now her son. And he dances at the front of this parade.
But to this procession of detain which we all follow in its train, the whole world held captive under its pall, dying from the moment of conception, making our long steady march to the grave, come the Lord of Life, Jesus Christ, the Son of God our Savior. He encounters this parade of death and He stops death dead in its tracks! Like Gandolf standing his ground against the Balrog, so death and Satan shall not pass Christ Jesus our Light and Life, wielding the divine sword of His Word.
He beholds this lonely widow, this childless mother, grieving in her pain and misery and He has compassion on her. You’ve heard this word before. Compassion. The Samaritan felt it for the man left bloodied and dying in the ditch. The father felt it for his prodigal son returned home safe and sound. Christ feels it for all the lost souls of men and women, His dear children, created to be in community with Him and one another, rent asunder by sin and death and Satan.
But it doesn’t stop there. Compassion, love, is more than a feeling. It moves one to action; to showing mercy. The Samaritan gets off his horse and dresses the wounds of the dying man; places him on his own animal and takes him to the inn. The father jumped off the porch and ran to meet his wayward son, throwing the coat over his shoulders, putting the signet ring on his finger and the shoes on his feet. He kills the fattened calf and celebrates.
Your Father in heaven looks down with compassion and sees you in misery and ruin, trapped in sin and death, captive to the devil and hell. All alone, cut off from your neighbors, though surrounded by them, all of you marching in this deadly procession to destruction. And He acts. He sends His Son who likewise has compassion.
Jesus comforts the grieving, childless widow. Do not weep. As it is written, 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 (Rev 21:3-4). Then He came up and touched the bier and the bearers stood still.
Life and death contend in this combat stupendous. Christ Jesus touches the casket. He defiles Himself with our death. He acts in solidarity with us. He doesn’t theatrically splay Himself on the boy as Elijah died with the widow’s son. In fact He isn’t showy at all. He speaks His Word, Young man, I say to you, arise. And the little boy sits up and speaks and Jesus gives Him back to His mother. She is no longer alone. For the Gospel Word of Christ, which raises him from the death to life, does far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. It also restores this poor into community and fellowship.
But even more than solidarity with us, Jesus shall take the place of the young man on the funeral bier. He shall take the place of all humanity. He is the only Son of His widowed mother who is lead out of the valley of the shadow of death; taken outside the gate of Jerusalem to die. He shall be abandoned by His disciples and friends, leave His mother and be forsaken by His father. He was utterly and completely alone.
For when Christ Jesus looked down with compassion on the poor souls of His creation, held in captivity to sin and death, He came. He came as true Owner of all men’s souls and bodies. He came to conquer Satan, to destroy his kingdom, to remove hi plunder, to free us from his dark power and to lead us through this valley under the cover of His reign of grace into His reign of eternally glory.
But as it was for the widow, so it is for you. This is not it. Though you await the joyous resurrection of your loved ones on the Last Day, you already have now the promise of the resurrection and the foretaste of the Feast within the communion, that is, the fellowship of saints.
For Christ Jesus has stopped your death dead in its tracks. He has taken your place upon the Cross and in the grave and has given you His place within the water, under the Word and Spirit. He raised you from your watery grave and placed you back into the arms of your parents. Even more, He adopted you as an heir and has given you a true family in Himself. Fellowship together with His Father and the Holy Spirit in the blessed Trinity, and the joy of life together in the community of saints within your true Mother, the Church.
You are surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses, the saints in glory and the saints on earth, united in one head, Jesus Christ. And being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Death’s power holds us still in thrall and bears us toward the tomb. But He who by His powerful Word of truth and life raised the son of the widow at Nain, He who raised you from your watery grave in Baptism, raises you even now from your sin through repentance and forgiveness to live with Him in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness all the days of your life.
He shall indeed, at the last, come to your graveside and with His Word, raise you from death to life and give you into the arms of your heavenly mother, the New Jerusalem, to sing with all the saints in glory.
To Him be glory in the Church and in Jesus Christ, together + with the Holy Spirit, through all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear people loved by God, in today’s Gospel you have set before you a beautiful and magnificent battle. A battle between good and evil. Between sin and grace. Between Satan and Christ. It is truly a battle between life and death. And as you shall sing in the great Easter hymn, “the victory remained with life, the reign of death was ended.” (LSB 458:4).
Soon after healing the centurion’s servant by a word; a word of power and authority, a life-giving, creative Word that does what it says, Christ Jesus went to a town called Nain, whose name means “beautiful meadow.” But the sight that our Lord and we behold is not beautiful. It is a common scene, to be sure, as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But the dead son of a widowed mother being carried out in funeral possession is not beautiful.
It is an ominous procession; a parade of death. The grime trophy of Satan’s power out front, the dead son. Following in its train his widowed mother and with her a considerable crowd of mourners from the town. They grieve with this poor woman who lost her husband, her family, and now her son. In losing him she has lost her hope. She goes to the cemetery once more, a place she know too well. This time to bury her little boy and with her hope and love. Her very life, it seems, has come to an end.
Though she is surrounded by a considerable crowd she is alone. Frightfully and desperately alone. You widows and mourners among us have experienced this kind of loneliness. You have buried your other halves, your one-fleshments. And in so doing you have buried a portion of yourself. You grieve with these poor women from Zarephath and Nain. Half of you is in the grave. Not only your flesh, but also your heart; your love, your life. You are not whole. You are alone. Frightfully and desperately alone.
But you don’t have to lose a spouse or a child, dear Christians, to experience loneliness. Perhaps you have not been given the gift of a Christian husband or wife. You’re single and you pray for a godly marriage, though you don’t have it. Your family and friends are married. You have nieces and nephews, but no one to call your own. This is a loneliness all its own.
Or perhaps you are married, but have not been given the gift of children. Barrenness or even difficulty conceiving is its own unique form of loneliness. One to which the Church ought to respond in compassion and love, especially in our culture of abortion.
You see, all of these - loneliness, loss, pain, suffering, sorrow - are symptoms of the greater enemy of death, that weapon and tool of the devil himself. You can’t see him, but it is Satan who leads this somber procession out of Nain. He paints the beautiful meadow gray and decaying just as he did Eden. It is the devil who separates man from God and man from woman. He drives a wedge of animosity and bitterness between husbands and wives, plants seeds of discontent among the single, and jealousy and anger with the barren. Satan hates the godly marriage of one man and one woman, and the fruit of their union, children. In death he took this widow’s husband. Now her son. And he dances at the front of this parade.
But to this procession of detain which we all follow in its train, the whole world held captive under its pall, dying from the moment of conception, making our long steady march to the grave, come the Lord of Life, Jesus Christ, the Son of God our Savior. He encounters this parade of death and He stops death dead in its tracks! Like Gandolf standing his ground against the Balrog, so death and Satan shall not pass Christ Jesus our Light and Life, wielding the divine sword of His Word.
He beholds this lonely widow, this childless mother, grieving in her pain and misery and He has compassion on her. You’ve heard this word before. Compassion. The Samaritan felt it for the man left bloodied and dying in the ditch. The father felt it for his prodigal son returned home safe and sound. Christ feels it for all the lost souls of men and women, His dear children, created to be in community with Him and one another, rent asunder by sin and death and Satan.
But it doesn’t stop there. Compassion, love, is more than a feeling. It moves one to action; to showing mercy. The Samaritan gets off his horse and dresses the wounds of the dying man; places him on his own animal and takes him to the inn. The father jumped off the porch and ran to meet his wayward son, throwing the coat over his shoulders, putting the signet ring on his finger and the shoes on his feet. He kills the fattened calf and celebrates.
Your Father in heaven looks down with compassion and sees you in misery and ruin, trapped in sin and death, captive to the devil and hell. All alone, cut off from your neighbors, though surrounded by them, all of you marching in this deadly procession to destruction. And He acts. He sends His Son who likewise has compassion.
Jesus comforts the grieving, childless widow. Do not weep. As it is written, 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 (Rev 21:3-4). Then He came up and touched the bier and the bearers stood still.
Life and death contend in this combat stupendous. Christ Jesus touches the casket. He defiles Himself with our death. He acts in solidarity with us. He doesn’t theatrically splay Himself on the boy as Elijah died with the widow’s son. In fact He isn’t showy at all. He speaks His Word, Young man, I say to you, arise. And the little boy sits up and speaks and Jesus gives Him back to His mother. She is no longer alone. For the Gospel Word of Christ, which raises him from the death to life, does far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. It also restores this poor into community and fellowship.
But even more than solidarity with us, Jesus shall take the place of the young man on the funeral bier. He shall take the place of all humanity. He is the only Son of His widowed mother who is lead out of the valley of the shadow of death; taken outside the gate of Jerusalem to die. He shall be abandoned by His disciples and friends, leave His mother and be forsaken by His father. He was utterly and completely alone.
For when Christ Jesus looked down with compassion on the poor souls of His creation, held in captivity to sin and death, He came. He came as true Owner of all men’s souls and bodies. He came to conquer Satan, to destroy his kingdom, to remove hi plunder, to free us from his dark power and to lead us through this valley under the cover of His reign of grace into His reign of eternally glory.
But as it was for the widow, so it is for you. This is not it. Though you await the joyous resurrection of your loved ones on the Last Day, you already have now the promise of the resurrection and the foretaste of the Feast within the communion, that is, the fellowship of saints.
For Christ Jesus has stopped your death dead in its tracks. He has taken your place upon the Cross and in the grave and has given you His place within the water, under the Word and Spirit. He raised you from your watery grave and placed you back into the arms of your parents. Even more, He adopted you as an heir and has given you a true family in Himself. Fellowship together with His Father and the Holy Spirit in the blessed Trinity, and the joy of life together in the community of saints within your true Mother, the Church.
You are surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses, the saints in glory and the saints on earth, united in one head, Jesus Christ. And being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Death’s power holds us still in thrall and bears us toward the tomb. But He who by His powerful Word of truth and life raised the son of the widow at Nain, He who raised you from your watery grave in Baptism, raises you even now from your sin through repentance and forgiveness to live with Him in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness all the days of your life.
He shall indeed, at the last, come to your graveside and with His Word, raise you from death to life and give you into the arms of your heavenly mother, the New Jerusalem, to sing with all the saints in glory.
To Him be glory in the Church and in Jesus Christ, together + with the Holy Spirit, through all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
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