Two crowds meet in the gate, a funeral procession and Jesus.

 

You should see the scene in your mind.

 

In the ancient world a city, if it could, would have a wall all around, for protection. There would be a few roads in and out, and these roads would go through the gate. The gates are important places, mostly because the people were funneled into this place. People would come to the gate to sell things, to beg. The elders of the city would hold court in the gate, teachers would come to the gate to teach.

 

Nain, the city in the text, had such a gate.

 

Now, on this day, there was a funeral in Nain, the young son of a mother who had also lost her husband. The service had ended, and they were going out to the cemetery for the committal service, the pall bearers with the casket, the weeping mother, and all the family and friends in procession, a “considerable crowd” from the city. And they come to the gate.

 

Now, at the same time, from the outside of the city, coming in, is Jesus with His disciples, and (Luke tells us) a “great crowd” of people with Him. They meet in the gate.

 

The procession of death, led by the casket and the weeping mother, and the procession of life: Jesus. And they are not going to be able to move past one another, one of them is going to have to give way.

 

Now we have customs for this sort of thing. When a funeral procession is coming down the street we are to pull over and let it go by. When a funeral procession goes by, we stop and take off our hats and say a prayer for the family. (By the way, I get to see this often on funeral processions, and this is one of those good customs that we need to be reminded of, that when we see a funeral procession we pause and take off our hats and say a prayer for the mourning that the Lord would comfort them.) I suppose we do this out of respect for death itself, and there is an acknowledgment that we, too, if Jesus doesn’t return soon, will one day be in the casket and in the ground.

 

And, in a very profound way, the story of history is the account of this procession of death. The funeral procession began in the Garden of Eden, and it has marched across the earth, and we’ve all joined it, we’ve all mourned the death of friends and family. And, one day, each of us will take turns leading it. We’ll be at the head of the line, carried by six men, brought to our final resting place.

 

Depressing, I suppose, but it is one of the marks of maturity and wisdom that we know our mortality, that it is appointed for man once to die. This is why we have a will, why we have the funeral planning worksheets to fill out. (How many of you have those things on your to-do list? Don’t raise your hand, this is just a reminder. But I did print out a few copies and put them in the track rack.)

 

But this is also why we know what should happen when these two processions meet in the gate of Nain. Jesus, His disciples, and the crowd should step to the side to make way for death.

 

In fact, I don’t wonder if the disciples and the crowd following Jesus did just that, they say the casket and they stepped to the side. But not Jesus. He stands there, in the middle of the road, in the middle of the gate, right in front of this casket. He stops the procession of death. He sees the mourning mother and has compassion on her. “Do not weep.” He reaches out and stops the casket. No one says anything, except Jesus. “Young man, I say to you, arise.”

 

And he does. He sits us there in the casket and starts to talk. Amazing. And Jesus takes him and gives him to his mother, and all the people are amazed and afraid. “This is a great prophet. This is God visiting us.”

 

Jesus stands in the way of death. Jesus does not step aside. He shows no respect for this funeral, for death itself. Jesus, in fact, hates death, and it is His business to destroy it. And He has done it.

 

Here in Nain He gives us a peak at the power and authority that will be on display at Easter.

 

He and He alone has stopped the relentless march of death. Jesus has stands where Adam and Eve fell, where every other person has fallen. He says to death, “That’s enough!” and to the grave, “No more.”

 

Right in the middle of the path of the relentless march of death stands the cross, the death of God which is the death of death. Jesus dies your death, suffers the punishment of your sin, carries the wrath of God in your place. It was your cross, your darkness, your tomb in the garden, and Jesus took your place; He stole your seat. And He came up out of the grave with life and victory and peace and forgiveness for you.

 

This is why Jesus can say to this young man, “Arise.” And it is why Jesus will return to the earth and, on the Last Day, say the same thing to you, sleeping in the grave, “Arise.” To glory, to life, “Arise!”

 

To all of us who are in this great procession of death this is the greatest comfort. We are marching toward the grave, but there, above our grave, is the cross, is Jesus. The one with compassion. The one with holes in His hands. The one who was dead and is alive, who knows how to open the door of the grave from the inside.

 

And this is what it means to be ready to die, not to have our will finished or our funeral planning worksheet filled out and on file in

the church office. To be ready to die is to have faith in Jesus, in the One who died and rose for you. It is to know that He has you, your life, your death, your everything in His scarred hands.

 

And now we too stand triumphant in the shadow of death and say, “O grave, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but praise be to God who gives us the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Two crowds meet in the gate, a funeral procession and Jesus, and death gives way to life. Amen.