Sermon - Trinity XVI 2019 - Luke 7:11-17

St. Paul says, “This is how one should regard us, as stewards of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” Thus, when we have visitors in church, it’s my job as the pastor, as the steward of the mysteries, to at least briefly examine them before admitting them to the Lord’s Supper, just as it’s my job to examine you as well. So I ask a handful of questions, a couple of them being: “What God do you worship?” and “Why?”

So permit me to ask all of you this morning, what God do you worship, and why? Why are you here in church this morning? Why are you a Christian? What are you doing here? Why is this important? Or is this even important? Do you know? Do you care? 

Some are in church because they think that’s how they merit salvation. Some are Christians because they want to be virtuous people. Some are Christians out of habit or tradition. But why are you here? You’re not going to merit salvation by going to church, although you should go to church. There are many ways to become virtuous, and you don’t have to be a Christian to live a virtuous lifestyle, although as a Christian you should strive towards virtuous living. Being a “Christian” merely out of habit or tradition isn’t going to save you, although it’s a good thing if your parents handed down the faith to you and your habits are shaped by Christianity.

So why are you here and why are you a Christian? Why is this important to you? Because it’s good that you’re here and a Christian, this is the most important thing in the world! But why? Well our Gospel lesson makes it abundantly clear. As the old folk song goes, “I am a man of constant sorrow, I’ve seen trouble all my days…” As people of this great sorrow, our Lord has compassion on us, and so by His Word dispels our mourning and weeping.

Consider the dramatic scene Jesus enters into: As Jesus and His followers approach a small village called Nain, Jesus is greeted with a funeral procession. A young man has died and is being carried out of the city in an open-faced casket on the way to the burial grounds. Behind the deceased young man walks his grieving mother, a widow, with no other children. Though behind her follows a considerably large crowd, all grieving at the death of this young man, still the mother is alone. Her family is dead; now it’s just her. 

It’s a pitifully sad scene and to say it’s emotional is an understatement. But Jesus isn’t just a rock or emotionless bump on a log, this depressing scene causes Jesus real sorrow, as Luke describes, “When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’” Up until now the grieving widowed mother had every reason to weep; her husband had already died leaving her with just one child, and now this only child of hers, her beloved son who had just reached adulthood, now lay dead. So the words of Christ may come off a bit rude, “Do not weep.”

But no sooner after our Lord Jesus commands the woman to stop mourning, He then does the unthinkable! To everyone’s amazement, He approaches the casket and touches it! He’s not afraid of becoming unclean and breaking the law against touching a dead body; death doesn’t scare Him! He then speaks to the boy, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” With such simple words, our Lord commands the dead to rise and live. “And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.”

Resurrection from the dead and life is what Jesus comes to deliver! Jesus isn’t afraid of death and sorrow, but He enters into it, interrupts our funeral processions, in order to bring us out of death to life. So the same powerful word spoken to the young man which gives him life, is spoken to the mother which takes away her tears and places her son in her arms.

The dramatic scene we hear of from Luke happens today in our midst. We live in a world of many sorrows, where death and disaster plagues us all around. This isn’t a doom and gloom view of the world, it’s a realistic picture of life in a world corrupted by sin. While we may be afraid of death and sorrow, Jesus is not. Jesus isn’t afraid of the death, nor the sorrow, nor the tears, but He sees it and has great compassion upon us, He marches right on into the thick of our grief, facing it head-on! So Christ Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, He entered into this sorrowful world of His own volition, and He even became one of us! Jesus was “despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.”

Then having entered into the world, He doesn’t hold us at arms length, but He draws us near to Him. He brings us to the font and adopts us as His own dear children. In those waters he cleanses us from the uncleanness of our sin and our death. He removes our tattered garments of sin and clothes us in His robe of righteousness. He clothes us in baptism and feeds us in the supper, where He truly comes to fill us with His body and blood. He’s not a stranger, but a friend, a helper, and a brother.

When He draws us near to Him, He speaks words of consolation and hope! He commands us who mourn the death of so many loved ones, He commands us who suffer under the heavy load of depression or anxiety, He commands us who are agonized by the depravity of our hearts: “Do not weep.” Those words of hope aren’t empty words, but with the next breath He raises the dead, He raises and reunites us together in the resurrection. 

This is who your God is! He’s the Triune God who comes to you and raises you out of death to life! On this day and everyday that you enter into this house of God, Christ is present with you in order to comfort and uplift. He speaks so that you may have hope. This comfort of the resurrection is exactly why you gather here, for Christ speaks to you saying: “I have called you mine and you shall live. You shall arise from the dead and your loved ones with you. Into your arms once again you shall hold your Father, your wife, your brother, your daughter. I shall give you eternal life, so rejoice!”

 The reason you come to church is because the most important thing in your life is happening right here on Sunday mornings! Here in the Divine Service God is entering into the lives of His people in order to comfort and heal, in order to take away the sting of death and even death itself! In this place, people like us who’re dead in our trespasses are made alive again. My friends, this whole thing is a matter of death and life and the God who brings us out of death to life is here, standing at the casket, commanding us to stop weeping and arise.

Does this not invigorate you?! Does this not cause you great joy and happiness?! When the considerable crowds saw what Jesus did, “Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.” Does not this news of the resurrection of the dead cause you to fear and glorify God? Do you not believe that a great prophet has arisen among us? Isn’t it true that God has visited His people?

If the miraculous resurrection of the dead doesn’t invigorate you such that you desire to tell the whole world, let alone your closest relatives, then take a look inside your heart. Bring to your remembrance your many trespasses against God’s holy law. Recall again the faces of death you’ve met in this life. Know that thou art dust, O man, and unto dust thou shalt return. You and everyone you know and love will one day die.

But you have hope beyond the grave and beyond this life! This only hope and comfort is found in Jesus your Lord who looks upon your sorrowful existence with compassion and wipes away every tear from your eyes by giving life to the dead. So with the widowed mother of Nain, with the widowed mother of Zarephath, be comforted to know that the dead rise and that the word of God truly dispells your mourning and weeping. That is the God we worship, and that’s why.