Today marks the 5th Sunday in a row where the effects of sin are placed in the front and center to observe. 4 weeks ago, there was a death and mute man, the next week was the man attacked on his way from Jerusalem in the “Good Samaritan parable”, next it was the 10 leprous men suffering shame, isolation and a deadly disease, last Sunday was Jesus preaching from the sermon on the mount, saying do not be anxious in the midst of all these things. Do not even be worried about what to eat, drink, or what clothing to put on, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. These sufferings and worries are all the effects of sin experienced and lived out in the flesh. Sin is the cause of sorts of suffering: physical limitations, anxiety, grief, pain, anguish, helplessness, vulnerability to those who would take advantage showing the evil intent of those around us, and yes, a whole host of other things. This all leads to today’s text which features the ultimate weapon in Satan’s arsenal against humanity: death.
Against death, humanity is helpless. When we experience any of the issues, illness, physical limitations, persecution, physical violence, disease, hunger, any of these, the problems are multiplied because we ask: “what will this lead to?” “Will I recover, how weak will this make me, will I die from this?” The reality is that no regular human can ever escape from death. Death can happen whether we are old or young. It could arrive from illness, cancer, a car crash, or anything, really. No one can know how or when death will come. Some may try to ignore this reality. For some, the fear of death controls almost every decision they make. Most people are somewhere in between. Regardless of where you or I land on this spectrum, it is human nature to fear it, when it is thought about.
Satan uses this unsureness, this fear, or it’s opposite: over-confidence in one’s health or youth. He will use either to his advantage. All these things, he uses to cause people to embrace and live to worship themselves and while doubting God and His promises. He uses these fears or seemingly random tragic events or the awful results of careless personal choices to cause people to accuse God of not caring, or being evil, unloving, or cruel.
In today’s Gospel and Old Testament lessons, we have the OT and Gospel accounts of young men who died, sons of their living mothers, both who were widows. Death is always tragic because of sin, but when it takes a young person, it always seems even worse. We are not told the how or why they died. The OT lesson gives us a bit more detail in saying that the son became ill. We have no detail for the Gospel. Both mothers were widows. You know that this meant that both women had suffered the loneliness and heart ache of their husband dying. Stung by the pain of death before, now their only sons being taken from them, they, grief stricken by the sting of death once more, cried out to the Lord, “Why?” The window of Zaraphath said to Elijah: “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” The widow of Nain is not recorded as saying such a thing, but surely the thought to ask the Lord, “Why?” had crossed her mind and perhaps her lips.
Perhaps you have said similarly to God when things have gone the wrong way, when all hellish temptation, worry, trouble, disappointments, suffering, pain, and the threat of death fall around us and upon us. “God what do you have against me? Do you hate me? Why did you allow this or these things to happen? Why, Lord?” Is it sinful to ask such questions to the Lord? I don’t think so. Because you are asking the Lord. You are going to Him and praying and pouring out your complaint before Him as a believer. This is why Job is not seen by the Lord as saying anything unworthy of forgiveness despite his laments and challenges of God in the book of the same name. He did not write God off in unbelief, but cried out to Him and complained in faith.
However, the Devil, as I said can use this impulse of complaint from grief and fear to lead us to answer our questions with an earth based, untrue, answer: yes, God does hate you. That is what the world would say. “If there is a god, he must hate you. What did you do to make him so angry with you? Don’t you look like a fool and feel like a fool for trusting in such garbage? You should trust only in yourself, or some other earth bound authority to provide and protect” That is what the world will do. That is how the world would advise us.
But they are wrong. And when we make our own conclusions and blame God and feed our anger and fear, we are sinning. We are failing the test and opportunity to grow. We could blame God for sin and death, but in reality, He and His angels keep back most everything that our sinful, ungrateful, untrusting bodies and souls deserve. The reality is that we don’t deserve any grace or mercy. We and all the world deserve a present and eternal punishment, an eternal torment in the fires of hell.
The Gospel and Old Testament lessons for today and the last weeks, all point to the reality of who God is, and what is doing and does for us and why. The reality is that God does love us. Within His Word, His Grace, and within His only begotten Son. There is the solution for all that troubles us, all that grieves and oppresses us. That last enemy which threatens us all, death? It is defeated by the giver of life.
On His way into the city, Jesus and His followers meet the funeral procession for the son of the widow. Behold the situation which has so much irony. The widow is hopeless in that moment for comfort, but they meet the hope for the world and the Great comforter. A young man and only son of his mother, meets the young man and only son of God His father. The one who lives, calls forth the one who has died, but the living one who calls forth the dead son must Himself die and lay down His life. Jesus came to meet death head on, to conquer it with His innocent suffering and death on the cross. He sacrificed His perfect flesh and life so that this momentary and temporary resurrection of the young man of Nain from the dead could become permanent. So that death could be overcome by His perfect sacrificial death. So that as the Father restores His beloved Son Jesus in His resurrection from the dead, your resurrection of the body and soul would be eternal. After Jesus called the young man to rise from the dead, he restored him to His mother. What do suppose that also points to? Because Jesus Christ has died upon the cross for you. Because He has risen from the dead for you. He restores you to your heavenly Father. Through Holy Baptism and His Word His Spirit has brought you into His death, resurrection and brought you already from death to life. By the faith given to you in opposition to the spiritual blindness of this world, you can open your eyes and behold and respond to your loving God.
From one who was dead in sin, you are now alive in Christ. You are now marked for eternal life. You have already been raised to breathe the fresh air of life and hope for now and forever. Your bodily suffering and anguish, your griefs all will have an end. Place your hope in Him and you will not be dismayed, nor lost.
Cry out to Him in faith. Stop trying to bear things alone. Know that He hurts when you hurt. He hears and comes to you. Come to where He is for you and be restored again and again, being strengthened with each reception.
Come and receive the eternal food which strengthens and nurtures your faith. It is this food that gives comfort and joy in the deep valleys of this dying world. Here is the crucified and raised body and blood of your Father’s beloved Divine son, so that you can eat and drink and be restored as His created son or daughter. This feast shows you and gives you and prepares you for the eternal restoration of life of body and soul and the last.
Christ suffered so that here your earthly sufferings may be blunted and lessened. He suffered and died so that your death would not be permanent. No longer suffer anguish, anxiety, fear. When any enemy to wrest you from the Lord, invoke His name, and wrap yourself in His grace and promises and trust in Him, He will deliver you for His name’s sake.
Let Him already now turn your sorrows into hope, your disappointments into opportunities for learning and growing, and rejoice in His deliverance. As the young man began speaking and the people began praising the Lord, let us do the same. Let us praise Him with all our life and breath here on earth knowing that He who has raised us from our sin and unbelief will raise us once and for all, in Jesus’ name. Amen
Pr. Aaron Kangas