In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
We're going to do something slightly dangerous today. I want you to try to put yourself in Jesus' shoes. And I say this is dangerous because all too often when we “put ourselves in Jesus' shoes” we don't actually strive to think like Jesus, like the real Jesus, like God Almighty become man to redeem His creation – we rather just end up turning Jesus into a nicer, cleaner version of ourselves – where Jesus thinks just like I do and of course my Jesus is going to support all my political ideas while wearing a Cubs hat. That's not what we're going to do, we're going to consider Jesus here remembering that He is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. Jesus is operating at a level beyond what we do; He is coming at our lesson from a different angle than we normally do. Consider.
Let's see how our Gospel text sets up. Soon afterwards [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and His disciples and a great crowd went with Him. As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Jesus comes across a funeral procession. We know those. We've been to those. We know to pull over when the hearse and line of cars drives by. It's familiar to us. We know and understand the tragedy. It's just a part of life, it's just a part of nature. We hear this set up, this story of death, and we think it's sad, but it's not shocking. It's not surprising. If anything, it's inevitable. After all, even Jesus noted last week that our anxieties can't add an hour to our life. Death and taxes. That's just the way it is. That's just the way the world works.
And to a certain extent, we see clearly. More clearly than most. There are a lot of people in the world who try to fight and pretend that death will never come, that the ravages of age or lack or ill fortune could ever happen to them. How many pop songs have the phrase “forever young” or “young forever” in them? There is a lot of denial, and pretend, and we're probably no strangers to that ourselves. But in reality, we know how the story goes. We know how nature runs its course. We know death.
But that's not quite what Jesus sees. Partially it is – Jesus does see death as a horrific tragedy, yes. But you have to remember that Jesus has seen something that none of us here have seen yet. Jesus saw creation. Jesus saw Adam and Eve, saw the world before the fall. Jesus saw the world without sin, without death in it. Jesus is the very Word of God that called that creation into being. So when Jesus comes across this funeral procession, when He sees this corpse, it isn't just another check mark in Death's long list of natural record keeping. This death isn't “natural” - at least not as Jesus had created this world and its nature to be. This death isn't “inevitable” - because it needn't have been this way. No, Jesus sees the wrongness of it, Jesus sees the sin unleashed, the consequences of the fall, the “Adam, what have you done” of it all.
Jesus sees the consequence of sin unleashed. Jesus sees the Fall at work. This is not “natural” - it is fallen. And while we're so used to this fallen, decaying world, while that's all we've known and experienced – that's not where Jesus is coming from. That's not the limits of His experience, and He knows far more than we do. And so for us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven and entered this world to put an end to this unnatural, anti-natural “nature” that we've gotten used to.
So Jesus does a couple of things that if any of us today were to do them would seem utterly rude, if not insane. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion upon her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.” We know the story, we're used to Jesus, so we can miss, we can forget how shockingly impolite this is. Let's rephrase it. Let's say you're at a funeral, a funeral of a loved one... and some random stranger just walks up to you and says, “Hey, stop with the crying.” Think how mad you'd be. Gentlemen, if someone barged into a funeral where your wife was sobbing and walked up to her and said, “Stop crying” how many of you would deck him right then and there on the spot? Or how about if you're riding out to the cemetery, and some blithering idiot not only doesn't pull over or slow down, instead he drives right in front of the hearse and parks his car blocking the entire procession? Think for a moment how shocking, how enraging those actions would be. We know that death is serious business and you don't mess around with death like that. And that's because we're sinful people, trapped in slavery to sin and death - And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Sin and death constantly remind us that by nature, by our sinful fallen nature, we are born captives to sin and death - Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me – that's David's lament about the state of our lives, our existence. By “nature” sin and death are our master, and you don't taunt your master. You don't play around with death and his ceremonies.
But Jesus knows that you cannot serve two masters, and that He is your True Master, not death. Not sin. Not even fallen nature. No, Jesus is your Creator, and He has come to undo the Fall, to do away with sin, to undo death. Is Jesus telling the woman not to cry impolite? Is Jesus stopping this funeral procession rude? Well, for any fallen sinner doomed to die, it would be; but this is Christ Jesus, God Almighty. This is the Word of Life incarnate. So Jesus does what Jesus always does, what He did even from Genesis chapter 1. The Strong Word speaks, and there is life, there is creation, there is abundance. The One who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think opens up His mouth and life pours out. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Arise, wake up, get up sleepy head. I didn't create you to lie around like a lump of lifeless clay all day. And when Jesus speaks, it happens. And the dead man sat up and began to speak – of course he began to speak! O Lord open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise! This is just Jesus being the Word of God by Whom all things were made. This is who He is. And then Jesus does what He always does when He creates. Consider Adam's creation. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Here you are, My son; now tend to the rest of My creation. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Here you are, my son; now tend to the mother whom I created for you. Do you see, it's the same thing, the same pattern, Jesus being Jesus, Jesus still being and remaining the Creative Word in the face of sin and death and over and against them and defeating them – coming Himself into the world to undo the fall. Just like He told Adam and Eve He would. Just like He promised Abraham and Moses and Joshua and David and all the patriarchs and prophets of old.
Often we think of Jesus' miracles, the things He does, as being “supernatural” - as being “above and beyond the laws of nature.” I guess that's sort of accurate from our fallen perspective, because we're stuck in a sinful, fallen creation where things fall apart and death runs a-muck and entropy reigns and things fall apart and the center cannot hold. But that's not quite what Jesus is doing. His miracles aren't “supernatural” - they're just what He has always done, even before the fall. They are “pre-lapsarian” if you want the fancy word (where “lapse” is the term for the fall). And they are now contra-lapsarian, contra-death, contra-sin – because not the fall, not death, not sin will stop Jesus from being Jesus, and they will not stop Jesus from being Jesus for you, for your good. Which is why Jesus does the most shocking, impolite, crazy thing ever – He goes to His own death. He takes up our sin, He takes it away, He who knew no sin became sin for us. He dives on in to the wretched mess of this fallen world to undo the fall by going to the Cross, by going to the heart of death, the domain of sin, and stopping it all in its tracks. Jesus dies, and Jesus rises. And the power of sin, death, and the devil are destroyed.
And here we speak of His promises to you. You are baptized. That means that Jesus Himself has made a promise to you, sealed with His own name, with the name of the Triune God, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that your sin is taken away by Jesus, that you have life in Him, and that even when you die, no, no, you shall live for you are joined to Christ and you share in His resurrection. There's going to come a day in your life, in your existence, when Jesus will say to you, “Arise, awake up, get up” and you will. Whenever the second coming happens, whether you've been long since buried or if Jesus comes again while you're still alive in this walking death world, Jesus will say to you, “arise” and you will, and you will rise to life, real life, eternal life, life freed from sin, life where all this junk of the “laws of nature” will be forgotten, where it won't be the wild law of the jungle or the barren dust of the desert, but rather it will be the new creation, the garden restored with far more abundance than we can conceive of, abundance that always brings life, that always gives daily bread without lack, that delivers from evil – Jesus will say to you arise, and that's what you'll do, and that's what you'll see. He's promised you; you're baptized, so it will happen.
Do you see, do you understand what Jesus is doing? We can't wrap our heads around it fully yet, and that's okay. That's expected. As Paul puts it: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. You and I might not know yet, but Jesus knows, and He knows you – fully, and He will know you for all eternity and know you freed from sin and death. Amen. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
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