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Rev. Cary M. Richert

2^nd Sunday after Pentecost (C)

June 10, 2007

FROM DEATH TO LIFE

Luke 7:11-17

          Head-on collisions are power-packed events.  The outcome is governed by laws of physics.  The larger, heavier, more powerful object usually prevails over – even destroys – the smaller, lighter, weaker object … like an 18-wheeler meeting a VW Bug head-on at 60 mph.

          Today’s Gospel Reading opens with a head-on collision of two crowds of people.  In the small Galilean town of Nain, one crowd consisted of a burial procession.  The only-begotten son of a widow had died, leaving her grief-stricken, hopeless, without any means of support.  This sorrowful crowd of mourners was a picture of death, as they followed the young man’s corpse to its place of burial.

          The other crowd, including Jesus’ disciples, had traveled with Him from Capernaum, where the Lord had preached to them, taught them, and healed their sick.  These enthusiastic followers of Jesus were filled with hope and energy and happiness.  This crowd was a picture of life, as they followed the Lord of Life to Nain.  What happened when the irresistible force (Jesus) met the apparently immovable object (death) is a source of hope and joy for us today as we’re reminded:

CHRIST BRINGS US FROM DEATH TO LIFE

          The culture in which we live is a culture of death!  Just 10 days ago Michigan’s “doctor of death,” Jack Kevorkian, was released from prison.  His release brings to the forefront issues related to death, which is seen by our culture as natural, inevitable, and explainable:  the heart stops beating, the lungs stop breathing, the body shuts down.  Try as we might to cheat it, in the end death always prevails in this life.

          But, death isn’t natural.  It’s not simply the final event that closes the circle of life.  Death is the payoff for sin, as the apostle Paul wrote:  For the wages of sin is death [Romans 6:23].  And Paul also wrote:  through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, thus death spread to all men, because all sinned [Romans 5:12].

          God created Adam and Eve in His own image … sinless … to live into eternity.  Death wasn’t part of God’s perfect design for His creation.  Rather, it’s God’s punishment for sin.  God Himself said to Adam in Eden:  the day that you eat of (the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) you shall surely die [Genesis 2:17].  Sin took the widow’s husband from her, then her only-begotten son.  Because we, too, live in a world completely infected by Adam’s sin … death touches all of our lives.  It’s a certainty for each of us, as it was for the widow’s husband and for her son, and one day even for her.

          Jesus was witnessing the tragic effects of Adam’s sin on God’s creation and its impact on a sad and hopeless woman.  He felt deep compassion for her, the kind of compassion that reaches out in mercy … the kind of compassion that frequently moved Him to exercise His power over the effects of sin and to heal the sick.

          Stop weeping, the Lord said to her.  Stop weeping??!!  Her beloved son died!  Didn’t He understand her sorrow?  Perhaps His words sounded stoic and uncaring.  But, it was the Lord of Life speaking … the only One who has power over death … the One who was about to give the grieving widow a reason not to weep anymore.

          Then Jesus went and touched the open coffin, and those who carried the young man stood still.  And Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”  So the young man who was dead sat up and began to speak.  And Jesus presented him to his mother. [Luke 7:14-15]

          The miracle of life restored!  From death to life through the powerful, life-giving Word of the Lord.  Sin and death took the young man from his mother.  Jesus gave him back to her alive.  The first of Jesus’ “resurrection miracles,” demonstrated the truth of His bold claim:  I have come that they may have life and have it to the full [John 10:10].

          By nature you and I are born spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins [Ephesians 2:1].  As such, we’re doomed to God’s condemnation and punishment in the eternity of hell and Satan.  But, in grace and mercy Jesus called us out of the darkness of sin and death into His marvelous light of forgiveness … He called us to life and salvation [1 Peter 2:9].  Through simple water attached to the power and promise of the Lord’s Word, we were buried with Christ through Baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life [Romans 6:4].

          The stunned people of Nain said, A great prophet has appeared among us, God has come to help His people! [Luke 7:16]   Had He ever come to help His people!!!  In ways they never dreamed of!  Perhaps they recalled a similar miracle performed by their ancient prophet, Elijah, who miraculously restored life to the only-begotten son of another widow.  Jesus, a prophet greater than Elijah, was foreshadowed in today’s Old Testament Reading.  His ministry of bringing people from death to life was pictured in the raising of both widows’ only-begotten sons.  He has power to raise them from death to life … and He has the power to raise you and me from death to life too.

          He brought us from death to life the first time through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, as He raised us from the death of our sin to the life of righteousness and faith.  And by His own resurrection from death to life, Jesus has promised to raise us a second time:  I am the resurrection and the life, Jesus said to Martha, He who believes in me, though he may die, yet shall he live [John 11:25].

          You and I, dead in our graves, will hear the Lord of Life say, arise [Luke 7:14].  Like the corpse of Nain we too will rise from death to life at the powerful Word of Jesus … we too will speak again, in praise of our faithful Lord … and we will be restored to our heavenly Father forever!

          In His suffering, death and resurrection, Jesus, the irresistable force, collided head-on with the apparently immovable object of death for each of us … both physical death and eternal death.  He destroyed it completely.  He now graciously gives us His life-giving, life-sustaining Word, the Word of the Gospel, which teaches us that Jesus came to seek and to save the spiritually lost and dead … to bring sinners from death to life. 

          He says to you and me today:  I am the resurrection and the life, whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this? [John 11:26-27]