Pentecost 3
Jesu Juva
“A Confrontation of Life and
Death”
Text: Luke 7:11-17
Grace, mercy, and peace to
you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Whenever someone dies, you know one thing for
certain: that person was a sinner. It
really doesn’t matter whether a big sinner or a little sinner. “The wages of sin is death.” (Rom
And you know, I don’t think most people have a
problem with that! Mankind has invested
a lot of time and effort trying to deal with death, and make sense out of
it. Perhaps we’ve grown numb to it. And so you’ll hear people use such phrases as
“Death is just a
part of life.” That’s like saying
sin is just a part of perfection; or, hate is just a part of love; or, wrong is
just a part of right. It’s an utterly
ridiculous saying! Life is life, and
death is death. They’re opposites. Life is a gift and death ends that gift. And that makes death not a friend, but the
enemy. Yet death is an enemy that many
people have made peace with.
But death will not be so easily tamed. And so even people who do
not seem to have a problem with death itself, do often have a problem with the when
and the how of death. We can handle death, as long as it’s on my
own terms. For example, a person who has
lived a long and full life – its okay for them to
die. Sad to be sure, but
okay. However, a young person, a
child, that’s not okay! . .
. I have often heard people say, “I want to die in my sleep. I want to die quickly – not suffer and have
it drag out.” That kind of death is
okay. But cancer, AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s
disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s – that’s not.
Parents dying before their children is okay (as long as its after the child is grown!); but a parent who has to bury
a child, that’s not. . . . Death shows that it is still the enemy when
these things happen.
But it has now even gotten to the point where we
want to control the when and the how of death – so much that people are killing
themselves to control it. Assisted suicide, euthanasia, mercy killing. We want death to behave. We want to be in control. . . . But
we’re not in control. People die when we
don’t want them to. People die when
we’re not ready for them to, and at most inconvenient times. People die in ways we don’t like. Car accidents. Wars. Terrorism. Negligence. Crime. No matter what
we have tried to do with death – tame it, control it, make peace with it, deny it – it is still the enemy.
So then what do we do? How do you deal with such an enemy? Do you appease it? Tolerate it?
Try to contain it? No, it must be defeated.
Today we heard two stories of people who died when and how it was not wanted, when it was not okay. Children. The only sons of widows. Both then and now, this is not right. This is not how it is supposed to be!
The Holy Gospel tells us of a funeral procession
that was coming out of the city of
So which will it be? Which will give way? Life or death?
Jesus puts His hand out and touches the bier, the
board carrying the dead, lifeless body of this widow’s son. And the processions both stop. One big, marvelous divine traffic jam in the
middle of the city gate! It probably
began to grow quiet, and Jesus speaks twice.
First to the widow He says, “Stop crying.” We say that too, at funerals. But it always sounds so hollow. We say it, but we can’t do anything to stop
the tears. We are so helpless in the
face of sin and death. But Jesus then
actually does something about it; something to stop the tears. He speaks to the dead boy: “Young
man, I say to you, arise.” And the enemy is defeated. “The dead one sat up and began to speak.”
Jesus did not come to make peace with death. He did not come to contain it, appease it, or
tolerate it. He came to defeat it. He came to defeat death because He came to
defeat sin. And so what happened that
day in the city gate of Nain is a picture of what happened on the cross. Life and death met, and something had to
give. One had to reverse course.
It was for this very moment that Jesus came. This was the reason that “God had visited His people.” Yet as Jesus went to the cross, it looked as
if the when and the how of death was all wrong! There was still much more for Him to do; much
more for Him to speak; many more for Him to heal and raise and take care
of! This was too soon. Mothers shouldn’t have to bury their
children. The Son of God shouldn’t die
this way! . . . But the
Son of God had to die this way. To take our death-causing
sin upon Himself and pay its wages.
To die in the most brutal and ugly and humiliating
way; to face death at its worst, in its most twisted and true form. To die like we die. For death is not beautiful,
it is not peaceful, it is not a friend, it is not a part of life – it is the
enemy. The
enemy that had to be confronted, and defeated.
And so for this very moment Jesus came. Despite appearances, the when and the how of His
own death He would and did control. In
this confrontation, no one could take His life from Him. He had the power to lay down His life,
and the power to take it up again. (Jn 10:18) And so the
true, only-begotten Son, the son of a widow named Mary, takes the place of the
dead man on the funeral bier, takes our place in the grave, and takes the place
of every sinner who ever lived, that in dying the death of all He might defeat
the death of all. And on Easter morning,
He did! He rises from death not at the
word of another, but in His own power and authority. The same power and
authority that forced sin and death to retreat at Nain now completely defeats
death in the resurrection of Jesus.
And so death is defeated – not just for one, but for all.
And for this moment Jesus continues to come to us
today. That He might confront the sin
and death in us and speak those same words to us, “I say to you, arise.” And as He comes to us, as God visits His
people today in His Word and Sacraments, this is exactly what is
happening. The gate of the city of
That is the new life that was given to Paul, that he writes of in Galatians. A new life that can change
a persecutor of the Church into a great apostle. This was no self-help plan. Only a death and resurrection could change
such a man. And only a death and
resurrection could change sinners like you and me. And in Christ, that is exactly what has
happened. For this is the reason “God
has visited His people.” To confront us – fully dead, fully sinners, fully without hope and
in mourning – and to give us life.
Life through the forgiveness of sins.
And yet this confrontation between life and death here
on earth, in God’s Word and Sacraments, is only a prelude to the ultimate
confrontation, which is coming soon.
When Jesus returns and two great crowds again meet – when all who have
died are raised to life, and Jesus returns with all the Heavenly Host. And those who were given a new life, a life
of faith here and now, will enter with our Saviour into the
Blessed is He . . . For He has done what we could
not do. He has given us freely what we
could not earn. He has confronted sin
and death, and won. And just as this
report about Him “spread through the whole of
In the Name of the Father,
and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Amen.