“TRINITY 16”
Saint Luke 7: 11-17
16th Sunday after Trinity: 24 September Anno Domini 2023
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
One can hear the sad, soft, tear drenched cry of the widow as she follows the funeral bier of her dead son. That plaintive Introit echoed from her lips to our ears: “be merciful unto me, O Lord…bow down Thine ear, O Lord, hear me; for I am poor and needy.”
Only the young (unless they are growing up in war-torn nations or third-world misery) and the imbecilic never think about death. That is normal, and probably acceptable. Their time too is coming to ponder the loss of loved ones and the grave.
Yes, yes, famous theologians are correct when they preach: “we raise the dead whenever the forgiveness of sins is pronounced.” Yes, that is true. When I spoke the corporate absolution over you all a few minutes ago, not only were your sins forgiven but you were granted life and salvation. You were again plunged under the waters of your Holy + Baptisms—buried again with Christ into the tomb and thus also resurrected with Jesus from the prison house of death. This is The Word of The Lord. True.
But there will not be too much “spiritualizing” this text from Saint Luke this morning. St. Luke the physician had many, most, of his patients die on him—I mean, sooner or later.
The Christ did not come and touch the casket or the dead bodies of my dear parents when they died—He did not resurrect them. You have lost beloved mothers, fathers, brothers, children, and precious friends over the years. You have suffered and cried your own Introits as your loved ones who have not YET died have suffered debilitating, horribly excruciating, and humiliating diseases, and chronic illnesses. Now you can join with me in saying Satan is evil—not evil incarnate—for that despicable entity has never been, nor never will be able to be incarnate; he is a loathsome bastard spirit and I pray the end will come soon so he and his devils will burn forever.
But, we do all believe, teach, and confess The Gospel of Christ Crucified…for the forgiveness of sins. We all do boldly testify that with that forgiveness there is life and eternal salvation. We all hold fast to the hope of the resurrection of the dead—bodily—and the life of the world to come.
Death is not natural. Death is not your friend. And though death is to be sure the last battle upon whose conclusion you are with The Lord, for a Christian death remains unnatural, evil, and the tool of Satan to terrify and pry you away from He Who IS Life (incarnate). Death for all mankind is the result of sin. Adam’s sin brought death to himself and all mankind. All sin. All die. This is not the way we like to think or talk. We put it all out of our heads and “whistle past the graveyard.” It is why many people, the older they get, do not relish the thought of attending a funeral of…anyone.
But is means is: “…in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” [Gen. 3.19].
The Lord’s dearest Saints and beloved children—Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Elias, Elisha, and Daniel; all died. In The heart of The Son of God, not yet incarnate at Bethlehem, The Lord wept. It was not meant to be this way. Jesus wept at the death of his step-father, Saint Joseph, Guardian of our Lord, as he wept at the death of the greatest of men—Saint John The Baptist. When Jesus is weeping over Jerusalem: “…how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not,” [Mt. 23.37] it was because He knew that all who died unrepentant and unbelieving, would really die—death followed by damnation and hell.
But as The Christ spoke to the serpent the promise that he, the devil, would receive, so too God delivered in time the promise. And for all of you, it too is a promise—now, but not yet. The beginning but not the full fulfillment. Even at death the Saint is not yet in the eternal mansions of the new heavens and new earth—only waiting in sweet repose.
Satan’s head was crushed at Calvary. Satan’s sulfur breath was choked out of his slimy snake skin even as Jesus was slowly suffocating. The devil’s skull, filled with hatred and inanity, was slowly being squeezed to death with every painful breath of The Lamb of God.
Now this is true. Praise The Lord. It may not bring you or your loved ones the succor and peace you would desire as they lay in hospice or hooked up to a ventilator. But truth is truth! Jesus lives the victory’s won. He is risen. He is risen indeed, hallelujah.
While there are a couple of interesting and not overly clear resurrections in Holy Scripture [2 Ki. 13.21, touching the bones of Elisha; Mt. 27.52] The Word is clear on the resurrections of the son of the Widow of Zarephath (our O.T), the son of the Shunammite by Elisha, Christs raising of Jairus’ daughter, the young man from Nain, Lazarus, and then Peter raising Tabitha and Pual resurrecting Eutychus. All this life though, worked by Prophets and Apostles, is from He Who is Life.
Every resurrection is death being defeated, being beaten, and crushed like a gutter snake. Every time The Lord pulled someone from the grave, He signaled that the devil is done, that total victory over death is immanent, and that His own suffering and death would be placed inside of each of you in your + Washings, Absolutions, and Feastings. Life is what you eat and drink and wear. Eternity is your pledge.
Do not become comfortable with death. Become more comfortable and enmeshed and saturated in The Word of The Lord.
“[You] know that [your] Redeemer lives; what comfort this sweet sentence gives! He lives, He lives Who once was dead, He lives, [your] everlasting head” [TLH 220.1]
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ [1 Cor. 15. 51-57].
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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