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Sometimes, not very often, but sometimes, the Law need not be verbally preached. Sometimes the weight of sin in the flesh gets all the attention that's needed.

No one had to tell the weeping widow woman about the wages of sin..." it was right there in front of her in the box. Her only son was dead. She could remember the times she held him close when he was an infant. She could remember singing to him and teaching him to walk. The times she bandaged his knee, made him his favorite dinner or gently stroked the hair on his head while he slept. Her little boy, though a man, was still her little boy...but now he was dead. Rigor mortis stiff, chalk white, heavily perfumed so as to mask any beginning smell of decay, there was the "apple of her eye" laid out in wooden box ready to be buried away.

Yes she was crying. You would be too. Many of you already have. All of you will sooner or later be in her hopeless predicament. We have had to bury beloved parents, or brothers and sisters. Some have to bury children. The pain of losing a child is inexpressible, words fail, only tears and sobs speak the heart's grief.

One large crowd was filled with mourners draped in black; a shuffling dirge of death getting ready to exit the city at the gate which lead to the cemetery, the bone yard. There was a meeting. For coming from another direction was another crowd, maybe not so large, but nonetheless many: "He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him." The Christ was approaching the gate to enter the city with his cheerful followers, an expectant buoyant group, a light stepping parade of life. These two groups ran into each other. This was no happenstance. Jesus was on His mission of being Redeemer. Here He had the first opportunity to show what redemption really means. He had healed. He had forgiven sin. He had spoken the realities of the Kingdom; now He performed the first of His three "raisings from the dead." Having your trespasses absolved, having your cancer cured wouldn't mean a thing if you eventually died anyway and rotted away for all eternity, or even worse, burned in the lake of fire forever. For there to be a point to it all, there has to be an "after-life" a "better than this life" where paradise is restored, and you can feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the table of our Living Lord. Living Lord is the key. Where there is forgiveness of sin there is also life and salvation. Jesus redeems, that is. He "buys back" from sin, the power of the devil, and DEATH. Those in Christ will never die but rather will live forever. Do you want proof that this is more than just empty promises? Here's your proof.

The motivation was not power and might. The inner driving of the Christ was not "sovereignty." Jesus is a shepherd who loves His lambs; He is a brother who cares for His siblings. That young only-son of the widow was why God the Second Person took on flesh and blood. There was to be a trade. Jesus' eternal-beating heart for the dead mans' hunk of dead chest muscle; Jesus' flowing red warm blood for the dead man's coagulated crusty sand-filled veins; Jesus' fresh, glowing skin, body, tabernacle of life for the corpse's grey and ashen clay. Why does Jesus give His perfect and sinless life for the dirty and sinful life of the sheep? God is Love. And even better, Jesus is love; love in the flesh. For God so loved the world...the crowds. "When the Lord saw her. He had compassion on her and said to her, 'Do not weep.'" Crying is fitting for repentance and contrition. Weep over your sins, shed tears in your hearts when the Law of God does its work upon you. But in the presence of lmmanuel, God with us, standing face to face with the way the truth and the LIFE, "do not weep," or as Christ also says, "fear not," and "peace be with you."

For those of you, of us, who deeply miss our Mothers and Fathers; for those of you who have wounds caused by the losses of brothers, sisters, friends, loved ones...the Christ's actions and words are just for you: "He came and touched the open coffin...and He said, 'young man, I say to you arise.'"

It's all connected....Jesus' love for you. His law keeping for your disobedience. His sacrifice in your stead. His touching the casket of your "old Adams" with His Word which brings you His Body and Blood, His embrace and love. In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost.

Jesus presented the living young man back to his mother, to a safe keeping in a family of love until such time as Christ comes again to empty out all the cemeteries for the final time. So too, Jesus has presented you, born again and made alive in His Body and Blood, to your mother, the Holy Church Catholic.

Mourn not as those pagans who have no hope. Grieve not over the daily decay of your own flesh and blood. Today there is another "transfusion" of Body and Blood for your strength, health, and provision upon your journey to the heavenly realms. That parade of death didn't have a chance when it ran smack dab into the middle of Jesus' Train of Life. Death has no chance, no sting any longer as Paul reminds us.

A Great Prophet is among you: Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He is among you in His Word of Release, Life and Peace; in His Supper of Forgiveness, Strength and Immortality. God is visiting His people. The joyful Parade of Life has arrived.