[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]

This Week's Sermon The Holy Trinity 10 June 2007 "Previews of Coming Events" Luke 7:11-17 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

God always seems to rehearse things, that is, he does things over and over again in preparation for the main event. The Old Testament is full of rehearsals, if you will. For example, the whole Exodus of Israel from Egypt is a rehearsal of what Jesus would do in his own "exodus," that is, his death and resurrection. That's what Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah were discussing with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. And while Jesus' Exodus is the fulfillment of Israel's Exodus from Egypt, it is also the preview/fulfillment of our own. Specifically, it becomes the preview of your resurrection from the dead on the last day.

Our readings today are full of resurrections! Elijah raises the widow's son in our Old Testament reading and Jesus raises the widow's son in our Gospel reading. When Jesus raises this widow's son he is giving us a preview of his own resurrection and our own! But why are there so many previews of miraculous events such as this one? In the very next section of Luke's Gospel we find out. The disciples of John the Baptizer heard of all the miracles Jesus was performing, especially this one because the reports spread like wildfire around "the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country" [Luke 7.17]. John's disciples reported it to John and John sent word to ask Jesus if he were the Christ. Jesus responds by pointing to the signs that the Christ would do when he came:

"Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me." (Luke 7:22-23, ESV)

God announced through his previews that his Christ would be intimately involved in human life, especially in its suffering because all suffering traces its roots to the sin of our first parents. Sin has disrupted all of human life. Most telling, sin causes our death, both spiritual and physical. If God is going to deal with sinful human beings, he must deal with sin. He cannot ignore it. He must deal with it head on.

That's exactly what Jesus does here with this widow's son. A sadder scene could not be imagined because there was no social security in those days. This man was "the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." A very hard life was her immediate prospect. No one would look after her to care for her. No home health care, no Meals on Wheels," no monthly social security checks. She would eke out a hard living. She would be dependent upon the on-again-off-again charity of others who may or may not be able to help her.

Into this sad situation Jesus steps. "The Virgin's Son meets the Widow's Son" is how one of the ancient church fathers puts it [Ephrem the Syrian in Ancient Christian Commentary. NT III.117]. Jesus became like a sponge for this woman's tears and for the death of her son. His heart went out to her. He had compassion. Jesus understood the deep grief, sorrow, and burden that had been laid on this woman. And that same compassion that Jesus had for this woman he has for you, whatever your situation. Jesus knows and feels your anxieties and hurts.

You know what Jesus did-he raised this man, but there is something more remarkable that modern listeners will miss. An observant Jew would catch it, but modern day man misses it altogether. You most likely would have skipped over it. Jesus "touched the bier." He touched it! Here is something no observant Jew would do because touching a dead body or the platform on which it lay rendered a person unclean. Go back into the Law given through Moses and this is what you find:

"Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean." (Numbers 19:11-12, ESV)

Here is a God who gets his hands "dirty," so to speak. Jesus touches the bier, but something amazing happens. Jesus does not himself become unclean because he speaks the cleansing word, "Young man, I say to you, arise." And this dead man is no longer dead, but alive! He is no longer unclean, but clean. Jesus has absorbed all of that uncleanness of death into his own body and cleansed it.

Whenever Christ touches anything he makes it clean, whether it is a leper who was excluded from the community because of his uncleanness or whether it is some other malady like the woman with the constant hemorrhage. When Jesus touches them, or in the case of the woman where she touched Jesus' robe, cleansing takes place. The leper was immediately made clean, fit for life among the people of God again.

All of this becomes a "Preview of Coming Events!" The power of holiness and life is in Jesus Christ, for it is the holy body of Jesus, the Word made flesh, that brings salvation to this dead man and to all of us. When Jesus confronts uncleanness he purifies it by his sinlessness. When Jesus took on your sins, indeed, the sins of the whole world, he made the world clean.

"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2, ESV)

Where does your cleansing take place? Where does Jesus touch your deadness? There in the waters of Holy Baptism as the pastor applies water "In the Name of the Father and of the ( Son and of the Holy Spirit." There you were baptized-cleansed!-by the flesh of Jesus Christ. There all your sins were washed away and you were given the life of Christ. Paul says that you were baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. The sad situation of your impending eternal death was reversed. You were given life! It is not substantially different than what Jesus said to this young man at Nain: "Young man, young woman, I say to you, arise." And you began to live, truly. You began living a life that will never end.

That life is nourished and sustained in Holy Communion where Christ continues to touch you with his true body and blood. In fact, he puts his life-giving body and blood into your mouth and speaks into your ears the sweetest words any sinner can hear, "given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins" [DS Service of the Sacrament]. The Church sings about this Sacrament as "a foretaste of the feast to come," that is, the feast of salvation in heaven where all the saints and angels are gathered around the nearer presence of Christ. In fact, it is another "Preview of Coming Events!" Sunday after Sunday our Lord gives us this preview so that we will not forget that he will bring it all to fulfillment, just as he has promised, just as he has done so many times. Here Jesus touches you over and over and cleanses you over and over again.

Those who witnessed the resurrection of this young man were seized by fear and wonder. They rightly concluded that "God has visited his people!" How true it was-and is for you, too! Here again Jesus visits you today! Christ himself is here to touch you, cleanse you, and give you yet another "Preview of Coming Events."

The appointed Psalm for today focuses our response:

"Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name." (Psalm 30:4, ESV)
"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!" (Psalm 30:11-12, ESV)