• Home
• Services
• About Augsburg
• About Pastor
• Sermons
• Links

• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004

The Widow of Nain wasn't the first and she won't be the last. She was weeping because she had lost her only son. We hope she was also crying because it was her sin that put him in the box, along with his own sin. Mother Eve also wept when Adam laid her precious boy Abel in the coffin, his red blood staining the ground that was now so polluted by sin; by Eve's sin, by Adam's sin, as well as Cain's...and Abel's. It's a good thing that we pull our shiny, powerful, expensive, deluxe-equipped automobiles over to the side of the road and wait every time a funeral procession (a modem day parade from Nain) passes by. We should commend those who make the sign of the cross at such hearse-led parades; for it is their sin, as well as the dead person's, that has the dead body in the last ride. By crossing oneself, a proper prayer, confession of sin, and confession of faith can be made. Lord have mercy on me a sinner...a sinner who also will die one day...maybe today, for the "wages of sin is death," and "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God"... and, mercy is mine because I am + baptized.

No matter how young, healthy, and distracted we might be; no matter how busy, wealthy and happy we might try to stay, death can't be avoided. The parade of the coffin awaits. Oh who will save us from this body of death?

And now dear friends hear the only Good News that there is. You yourselves have already confessed it this morning: "I look for the resurrection of the dead!" This isn't just an empty pious dream. The Lord's actions at Nain make it clear that He is the victor over death; that even the dead must sit up, alive, and give Him homage as creator and redeemer: "He had compassion on her and said to her, 'Do not weep.' Then He came and touched the open coffin...and He said, 'Young man I say to you arise.' So he who was dead sat up and began to speak."

How can this be? Well, intellectually we all know the answer. Christ is God. God can do anything including raise the dead. Christ performs a miracle two-thousand years ago. But this is more than a miracle. This is the Christian faith; this is the only hope that brings comfort and peace to all of you. "If in this life only we have hope in Christ (that is, if we only believe in the here and now, in the present good times one may have by "being good") we are of all men the most pitiable." [1 Cor. 15.19] "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." [v. 20] Have you walked behind a casket from the narthex of a church to the front of the nave, and then again have you followed it in parade out of the church to the hearse and then to the cemetery? Do you know what the widow of Nain felt? Have you said goodbye to Father, Mother Son, Daughter, Brother, Sister, Wife, Husband, friend? He has compassion on you and says to you "Do not weep." By raising the young man to life, Jesus was preparing the funeral coffin for Himself. He told the young man to get out of the coffin so that He might have it ready for His own precious body. He told death to let go its iron grip on all of His precious lambs. He told death, sin, hell, and Satan, to come and take Him, to come and swallow Him up instead. And it did.

Instead, in the place of the smashing and shredding of poor Abel's body, the Lord let His own flesh take all the blows of sin; all the blows that your daily trespasses inflict; they were all rained down on His immaculate Body. Instead, in the place of the first shepherd Abel's blood crying up from the ground, instead of the millions of gallons of sheep and oxen blood testifying from the red ground beneath the Tabernacle and Temple, the Blood of the Passover Lamb Himself would speak intercession, forgiveness, and life eternal for all those He shed it for; for all those who would be baptized in that Crimson Fountain. Because our Lord would offer Himself up to death as your replacement, as the young man from Nain's replacement, He could say to the widow: "Do not weep." Because He plans, wills, vows, guarantees to resurrect from the dead, to make perfect, the bodies of your Dads and Moms, your loved ones who rest temporarily in the sweet repose of His tender and loving arms, He can say to you even as He said to Martha of Bethany: "Your brother will rise again...I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever believes in Me shall never die." [St. Jn. 11.22b; 25]

The crowd sang His praises that day for His feat of mercy and restoration: "A great prophet has risen among us, God has visited His people." Yes. Jesus is that prophet, that speaker for God. Jesus is that God Himself, incarnated so as to truly visit you His people. He not only has flesh and blood just like you, but He has taken your sinful blood and fallen flesh with Him to the place of death, the place of the skull. This prophet was literally risen up among you; lifted high on the tree to be your replacement, your sacrifice.

This is the Gospel. This is the message that you hear and believe. Christ crucified and dead for you and your sins. Christ risen alive and eternal for your acquittal, restoration, and guarantee of immortality; but not just yours; also for all those dear departed soul mates and loved ones that you miss so much, that you yearn to see again! "Do not weep." Listen to the voice of the God/Man: "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death." [Rev. 1.17b-18]

In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost