Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, You have the words of eternal life; speak to us. Amen. (Joh 6:68)
Text: Luke 7:11-17
Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd. And when He 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. When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother. Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us;” and, “God has visited His people.” And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.
Devotion
Here on this earth we carry one another to the grave; it is one continuous funeral that no one can stop. Thousands of times parents’ hearts have said: “No, I don’t want to place my child in the coffin; you shouldn’t carry him out to the grave!” All in vain! The whole earth is a graveyard, and the whole race of humanity a funeral procession. We don’t simply follow the dead when we walk behind a coffin; we carry death in ourselves and hasten to our own graves. These eyes, this tongue, these hands will decay, dry up, and turn to dust in the dark hollow of the earth or the deep sea. What is so intimately united must be separated. Your place you surrender to another, and they again to someone else, and soon you are both forgotten like the grass whose place knows it no more. This is a physical death; but there is also a death of the soul, when man is separated from God by sin and unbelief. Everyone who does not believe in Jesus from his heart is the living dead and is on the way to eternal death. Here such a person is darkened in understanding so that he does not know Christ and his heart is cold to God, without love’s regard for Him or joy in Him. And in the next world he is eternally excluded from light and life. Nothing is so frightening as pitch-darkness, but eternal death is precisely “that uttermost darkness,” that is: eternal sadness, eternal hopelessness and comfortlessness.
We human beings have brought this upon ourselves by our falling away from God, and no one can rescue us or others from it. But look at the funeral procession that leaves the city of Nain; they meet the procession of life: Jesus and His disciples. And He is powerful to transform the day of death’s darkness and to change it back to life and songs of praise. He always walks before the flock of His disciples, the Holy Christian Church, and restrains death and increases the number of His people; and they go back to Nain, the land of eternal beauty,1 transformed and renewed. For as many as believe in Jesus Christ are made alive from the dead: their understanding is enlightened and their hearts are wakened. They love God and they live in loving fellowship with Him. “They have passed over from death into life” and have nothing to fear from eternal death. When their body dies, it is only a sleep, from which He gloriously wakes them; His members cannot remain in death. They are nourished by His immortal Body and Blood and they are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. How can they belong to death? No, “Christ shall in a moment gather all who have died, and call them forth from dust and ashes, air and water, with a word and, as Paul says (1Th 4:14), with Himself as the Head, lead them as His members, a countless host of believers, and bring them from death and sorrow into eternal life; as Isaiah says (25:8): wipe away tears from all faces, so that they can praise and worship their Lord and Redeemer with eternal joy, praise, and honor forever and without ceasing.
“We should learn to believe this so that we can comfort ourselves in all time of sorrow and death, so that, if it happens that we do not see or feel anything but death and corruption (like this widow of Nain), yes, even if we are in the stranglehold of death and are placed in the coffin like her son and are carried to the grave, we still firmly conclude that in Christ we have life and victory over death, for faith in Christ must be like that or we must try to learn (as Hebrews 11:1 teaches) that faith can grasp and hold firm with certainty the things that are not seen, yes, even if one sees what is exactly the opposite. So Christ wants this widow to believe and hope for life, when He says: ‘Do not weep,’ although she and all the world according to sense, feeling, and thoughts, must surely despair of life. For He wants to teach us by experience that of ourselves and in ourselves there is nothing other than corruption and death, but from Him and in Him is pure life, that swallows up both our sin and death. Yes, the more troubles we have, the more richly we should find comfort and life in Him, if only we hold on to Him by faith, so that He encourages and exhorts us both by His Word and by this example” (Luther).
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, give us the light and gifts of the Spirit to believe and trust in You, that You grant us eternal life. Save us, Lord, from cruel death; save us from eternal condemnation. Amen.
Hymn
Naught shall my soul from Jesus sever;
In faith I touch His wounded side
And hail Him as my Lord forever.
Nor life nor death shall us divide.
My God, for Jesus’ sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.
Once in the blest baptismal waters
I put on Christ and made Him mine;
Now numbered with God’s sons and daughters,
I share His peace and love divine.
My God, for Jesus’ sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.
His body and His blood I’ve taken
In His blest Supper, feast divine;
Now I shall never be forsaken,
For I am His, and He is mine.
My God, for Jesus’ sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.
Ämilie Juliane: Who knows when death may overtake me! L 527:6-8 ELH 483:7-9 tr. The Lutheran Hymnal;
tune: Wer weiss wie nahe