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spent0304
Resurrection
Text:
Luke 7:11-17
Date: Pentecost 3
6/20/04 map search
In
the Lord's half of the church year (Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy
Week, Easter) we hear the Gospel from the eyewitnesses as if for
the first time, as if we were there. In the Church's half of the
year we hear the Gospel already knowing the whole story and so are
able to go back and hear Jesus' words and consider his works with
greater insight. Today the sermon title is just one word: Resurrection.
The issue is the Biblical doctrine concerning the teaching, as we
say it in the creed, of “the resurrection of the dead and the life
of the world to come.”
Jesus
came to set at liberty those who are captive and oppressed, that
is, to bring release from the bonds of sin, sickness, disease, disability,
separation from God and the ultimate sickness, disease, disability
and separation, namely, death. As with all of his preaching and
teaching, so also all of Jesus' healing miracles were signs that
proclaimed him to be the Messiah. The raising of the dead, then,
is the miracle that demonstrates that Jesus is the promised
Christ and Deliverer.
Today's
account of the raising of the son of the widow of Zarephath is but
the first of three accounts of Old Testament resurrections (1 Kings
17:22-24; 2 Kings 4:32-37; 2 Kings 13:21). The doctrine or teaching
of the promise of resurrection from the dead is clearly taught throughout
the Old Testament (cf. Isaiah 25:6-9; Isaiah 26:19; Ezekiel 37:1-14;
Hosea 6:2-3; the entire Book of Jonah; Daniel 12:2-3; Psalm 16:9-11;
Psalm 23:6; Psalm 73:24). Take for example the passage from Job
that we hear at most funerals:
For
I know that my Redeemer lives,
and
at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And
after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet
in my flesh I shall see God,
whom
I shall see for myself,
and
my eyes shall behold, and not another.
[Job
19:25-27 (ESV)]
Jesus'
raising of the son of the widow of Nain clearly follows the pattern
of the great prophets of the Old Testament. The point is clear:
if Jesus had the power to raise this widow's son from death, and
later on Jairus' daughter, Lazarus and, finally, himself, he certainly
is the Messiah and Savior of the world, and he certainly has the
power to raise everyone who hears and believes in him. In fact,
the scriptures teach that on the Last Day all flesh, everybody that
ever lived with be raised with their bodies (Matthew 25:32). The
only question will be to what end, as the Book of Daniel has it,
“those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” [Daniel 12:2 (ESV)].
The
promise of the resurrection to everlasting life is of great comfort
to the Christian. It is of great comfort not just because it says
physical death is not the end, but because it reveals the goodness
and power of God. St. Luke goes out of his way to describe the deep
emotions involved in this miracle. When Jesus and the crowds following
him entered a town called Nain, they saw a funeral procession—not
just for a man who had died, but an only son of his mother. How
tragic. But even worse, his mother was a widow. He son was her only
means of support and now she was left absolutely alone and dependent
on the community.
Luke
says, “when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said
to her, ‘Do not weep.'” Jesus was deeply moved with a mixture of
sorrow and anger over what sin and death has done to his creation.
And Jesus knew what it felt like and what it means to be driven
to tears. When he told the woman, “Do not weep,” however, he also
provided the answer for her sorrow.
“Then
he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.” Normally,
as with the pallbearers, to touch a dead body renders a Jew unclean,
separating him or her from the community, requiring an extensive
ritual of reconciliation and restoration. Not so with Jesus, however.
For Jesus to touch the bier did not mean any uncleanness for him.
Rather, when Jesus touches the bier he brings his own holiness,
release and life for the dead person. He said, “Young man, I say
to you, arise.” And with the power of his Word, life was restored
not only to the young man but also to his mother. Can Jesus' life-giving
Word be any less powerful when he touched you in your Holy Baptism,
cleansing, washing and calling you his own? Can Jesus' life-giving
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