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INJ
St Luke 7:11-17
'The Halted March of Death'
Matins
The 16th Sunday after Trinity Sunday | September 22, 2007
Dear Casey, the newly reborn, still dripping with the waters of regeneration, and to all of you who are baptized and washed of all of your sin by the blood of the holy Lamb of God,
If the Lord has a few more years for us on this earth, your father and mother will teach you the catechism, and then you'll take to heart this wonderful question and this even more wonderful answer:
What benefits does Baptism give?
It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.
Which are these words and promises of God?
Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Mark: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." [Mark 16:16]
Forgiven of sin, rescued from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation, now that's marvelous, wonderful. But perhaps we're getting a head of ourself. If we come into a middle of the story when a man is being pulled out of a pit, we ask the question: How did he get in the pit in the first place? So it is, Casey, (and all of you), that we should try to figure out how we got into this sin, and death, and bondage to the devil.
It's a story that starts at the beginning. There was, after all, a time when there was not sin and no death and no bondage to the devil, but son there was the tempting serpent and the listening Eve and the doubting of God's Word by Adam and Eve, and then sin and the devil and then the thundering “You will surely die.” And from that ancient garden their began the history of all mankind which is nothing more than a huge relentless, unyielding, unswerving funeral procession lead by death.
You know how it is, or how it used to be a few years ago anyhow, that when the hearse drove down the road everyone else pulled over, people on the sidewalk stopped and took their hats off. To show respect to the dead? Yes, but more, to show respect to death, because death demands that respect. No one can stand in the way, no one can stop this persistent march of death. Death goes where he wants, does where he wants, and the tyrant's grasp he has on all humanity is stifling.
We hear about this march of death in our Gospel text today. Luke 7:12, “And when [Jesus] came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her.” A funeral procession in Nain, and they were coming out of the city. A widow, a mother, walking with the corpse of her son. And coming the other direction there is Jesus with His disciples and a crowd with Him. And these two processions meet at the gate, and one must yield. And now we expect (or at least I expect) Jesus to pull over, to stop the car, to take off His hat, to show death the respect that all mankind shows to it.
But look, dear saints, this is where the great joy is in the text. Jesus doesn't pull over, He doesn't step down, He doesn't yield. Jesus, the first and the only person ever, in the history of the entire universe, stands up to face death, and He wins. He stands there in the middle of the gate and says to the weeping woman, the one who had been dealt a double portion of sorrow from death (first her husband and now her son), Jesus says the this woman, “Do not weep.” And He walks up to the bier, the platform on which the corpse lies, the coffin we call it: “14Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still.”
Well, would you look at that! A funeral procession stops, the relentless, unyielding, unswerving funeral procession lead by death comes to a halt. Jesus does not step out of the way of death, but stands with compassion in the middle of the road, and He doesn't budge.
And now death must yield to Him; death must yield to Jesus.
14b[Jesus] said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother.
“He who was dead,” there are not many people you could describe that way, but more when Jesus is around. At Jesus' simple word death yields back his victim.
16Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.” 17And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.
What other reaction could they have? What other reaction could we have? Death has never yielded thus, this must be God. It is God, God with compassion, our Jesus.
Yes, Casey, your Jesus, and the Jesus of all of us baptized. He is not afraid of death, in fact He has no respect for death at all. So little respect does our Lord have of death that He in the end would make a public mockery of it, walking out of the tomb, having had a few days of rest. Jesus is so uninterested in death that He stands up and walks out. Ha! That's our Jesus, our Savior, He stands in the way of death, stops the funeral procession, and makes an all out joke of the grave.
This is great news for us sinners, for us diers, for we who hear the echo of the funeral procession marching up behind us, for we do not have the power or authority to withstand the relentless, unyielding, unswerving funeral procession lead by death, but your Jesus does. He is yours and you are His, and He has marked you with His death destroying cross “on you forehead and on your chest.” Marked by His forgiveness. And marked as those who the Lord Jesus will say, on the last day, “I say to you, arise.”
Jesus halts the march of death, and He marches on, with us and with all the saints in a march that is more like a dance, the march of life, eternal life. He has marched through here this morning with His life. His “I baptize you” life, His “I forgive you” life.
What benefits does Baptism give?
It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.
Now that's marvelous and wonderful, and it is true of you, Casey, and all who are baptized. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
