Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

It was a strange and dreadful strife When life and death contended; The victory remained with life, The reign of death was ended. Holy Scripture plainly saith That death is swallowed up by death, Its sting is lost forever. Alleluia!

The fourth stanza of Martin Luther’s great Easter Hymn, Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands, recounts our Lord’s strange yet victorious battle over death. First, it is strange because Jesus conquers death by dying – but this is a topic for another sermon. Second, our Lord’s victory is strange because it is unlike every other outcome in humankind’s struggle against death. All of us try to fight death. We do our best to avoid getting hit by a truck or falling off a cliff. We go to the doctor when we are sick so that we will not succumb to illness and an early death. When someone has cancer, we often say, “He’s a fighter. He’s gonna try to beat it.” But try as we might, the outcome is always the same. No one beats death. Death always wins. You can take your vitamins, exercise, and eat organic food. You can struggle and fight, but no matter what you do, in the end, you will lose and death will win. You will die. Your friends will die. Your relatives will die. Your children will die. This sounds horribly depressing, I know, but it’s the truth.

All death is tragic, but when someone dies at the age of 98 there often is the sense that it was time. We’ll miss Uncle George, but he was ready to go. Not so with the teenage girl who loses control of the wheel on the way to a graduation party. She had her whole life in front of her. You can be sure that the church will be packed for her funeral, and her family and friends will be inconsolable. It seems so unnatural when a young person dies – and it is. Death, all death, for the young and the old, is unnatural. Death was never God’s intention for us. They say that only the good die young. That’s not true. Only sinners die. Death is not accidental. It’s a law of nature, and the law is this: The soul that sins, it shall die (Ezek 18:20). These two things are bound together: sin and death. God said to Adam and Eve, “If you eat from that tree, you will die.” Adam and Eve ate. They sinned and they died. Adam and Eve passed their disobedience on to their children. You too sinned and you also will die. Disobedience causes death. This has never changed.

As Jesus entered the city of Nain accompanied by a great crowd, he encountered another large crowd going the other way. Life and death met there at the gate of the city. The funeral procession was large – the whole town was there – as it often happens at the funeral of a young person. He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Can you imagine her grief? Would you dare to go up to that grieving widow and say, “I know what you’re going through. I know how you feel”? I think not. But Jesus does know exactly how she feels. Luke records that Jesus saw the widow and felt compassion. But Jesus’ compassion is not simply a feeling. It is the sure purpose of God to confront our pain at its source and get rid of it. That’s why God became a man. Our compassion doesn’t really do a whole lot and we know it. Jesus’ compassion brings him to earth to do battle with our sin and its consequences: death.

Jesus touched the coffin. No Jew would ever do this unless he had to. The pallbearers were so surprised they stopped in their tracks. Whoever touched a dead body would be made unclean. But not Jesus. When Jesus touched uncleanness it became clean. When life touched death, death lost. This wasn’t the first time that someone has been resurrected from the dead. The Old Testament reading for this Sunday recounts the story of a similar resurrection. Once again a young man, a boy, was dead. The prophet Elijah cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived (1 Kings 17:21b-22). Elijah raised a boy to life – he prayed. Jesus says, “I say to you, arise!” Jesus doesn’t need to ask God to raise the young man. He is God. He is life itself. And he had come to earth to confront sin and death. And how does Jesus create life? With his word. Jesus touched the coffin, but it was his word that raised the boy. Life is joined to Jesus’ speaking. If you want life you go to where Jesus speaks. But wherever Jesus’ voice is not heard, there is only sin, death, and judgment.

Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you arise!” Did Jesus tell him to exercise his free will and make a decision for God? Did Jesus tell him to pray the sinner’s prayer? Of course not. Dead people can’t choose God. Dead people can’t pray. They can only stay dead. Jesus made a decision for him: “Arise!” The same is true for you. You once were spiritually dead, lost in sin, and under the judgment of God. How were you made alive in Christ? Did you make a choice for God? Nope. Did you exercise your free will? Nope, not that either. The only thing your free will could choose was to keep on in sin and death. You would have stayed this way, spiritually dead, except Jesus had compassion on you. Moved with love and mercy he said to you, “Young man, young woman, I say to you, arise!” In baptism, Christ spoke to you and you too were raised from the dead. This was a spiritual resurrection, and though it might not seem so, it is far more important than the bodily resurrection of the young man.

Where is that young man today? Where are the other people that Jesus raised from the dead – Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter? Where is the son of the woman that Elijah raised from the dead? They’re all dead. After they were raised they walked around on earth for a while and then they died and were buried again. They were sinners and now their bodies returned to the dust from whence they came. But sin and death don’t get to have the last word. Why? Because of one death in particular. Of all the people that have ever died, one man died who was not a sinner. One man died who did not deserve to die. One man took all of our sin upon himself, was sentenced to death in our place, was crucified, died, and was buried.

This is what true compassion looks like. Christ, our Lord, who knew no sin, became sin and suffered death for you. And in his dying, life met death, and death lost. The grave was too small to contain him and death was powerless to hold him. St. Paul writes, “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:20-25).

Death has been conquered, but it has not yet been completely destroyed. To our eyes, it seems that death still reigns. It’s all around us. It’s inescapable. But you have the promise of Christ: “He who believes on me, even though he dies, yet will he live. For I will raise him up on the last day.” Cling to this promise, for whenever your funeral procession of sin, condemnation, and death meets Jesus, life touches death and destroys it. When you encounter the Lord of Life, righteousness touches sin and forgives it. When you meet Jesus in his Holy Word and life-giving sacraments, God touches you in a bond of love that nothing can break. And in response we join the crowd in glorying God together through Jesus Christ, his son, our Lord.

It was a strange and dreadful strife When life and death contended; The victory remained with life, The reign of death was ended. Holy Scripture plainly saith That death is swallowed up by death, Its sting is lost forever. Alleluia!