Luke 7,11-17. 16. Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Luke 7,11-17        5119

16. Sn. n. Trinitatis 061 

Fides, Virgin of Agen, France and her companions, Martyrs 287  

William Tyndale, English Reformer and Bible Translator. Martyr 1536 

6. Oktober 2019 

1. O Christ Jesus, the Great Prophet sent by God the Father; help us to see Your compassion upon us, so that we see and ask Your visitation among Your people.  Amen. (Luke 7,13.16)  

2. »Soon afterward Jesus went on His way to a town called Nain, and His disciples and a large crowd were traveling with Him. As He was approaching the town gate, there was a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother. She was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her: „Do not weep.“ He went up to the open coffin, touched it and the pallbearers stopped. He said: „Young man, I say to you, arise!“ The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear gripped all of them, and they glorified God, saying: „A great prophet has arisen among us“ and „ God has visited His people!“ This was reported about Him in all of Judea and in all the surrounding countryside.«

3. The Jews proclaimed: „God has visited His people!“ When God dwells in our midst, powerful things happen. In today’s pericope, Jesus resurrects a dead man back to life. Jesus also does this daily in a spiritual way. 

4. This spiritual resurrection began in our Baptism. Human beings are born with the curse of Adam: we are sinners who have a hearty stone foundation that is rebellious toward God. Such rocky ground has little soil and allows little to no growth in the things of God. Nothing planted will prosper. If you’ve ever planted or gardened, what must you do before you plant in stony soil? A: you must first dig up the stones so that only dirt remains; only then can the soil yield a harvest. God does this in our lives at our Baptism, where He calls us unto Him and we become a son or daughter in His family. Holy Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the Devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this. 

5. As we live in this baptized life of Christ, the Holy Spirit awakens us through His law. Perhaps you’ve experienced this at times in your life: where you have walked away from God, felt distant from Him or were caught in the entanglement of sin. We forget the blessings of our Baptism, and the law draws our attention on our sin and what is keeping us apart from God. His law is a hammer that breaks up the stones of sin in our lives so that they can be removed and the soil of our heart made ready. 

6. Once God’s law has awakened us to our sinful condition, then arrives His enlightenment through the gospel. The message of the gospel is: Jesus is in our midst and He forgives our sins. Jesus takes us with our heart of stone and He puts us on the rock of salvation, which is the cross at Calvary. Upon this solid rock of foundation Christ removes our sins and then begins to clear our heart of all things that would impede the gospel. For the widow in Luke 7, the gospel is Jesus raising her son from the dead. Sorrow turns to joy and weeping turns to thanksgiving. The dead man has been physically reborn. 

7. Just as we cannot raise ourselves from the dead, „we cannot be justified before God by our own strength, merits or works, but we are fully justified for Christ sake, through faith, when we believe that we are received into favor [Gnaden: grace], and that our sins are forgiven for Christ sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. God imputes this faith for righteousness in His sight“ (Augsburg Confession 4). This is the chief doctrine of the Christian faith. 

8. Sanctification results from this justification and rebirth, for faith brings forth the new obedience of good fruits and good works. This sanctification brings us back full circle to our Baptism, for our Baptism indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and died with all sins and evil desires, and that a new Adam should daily emerge and rise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever (Small Catechism The Sacrament of Holy Baptism 4) . 

  9. „The raising of the widow’s son at Nain comes at a climactic juncture in Luke’s Galilean narrative. A resurrection … is the ultimate statement that Jesus is the final, eschatological prophet and is therefore the Messiah“ (Just 308). The Jewish crowd does acknowledge that by this miracle, a great prophet has been raised up in their midst. Both Elijah and Elisha were prophets who had raised mothers’ sons (1. Kings 17,22-24; 2. Kings 4,32-37). But the crowd does not comprehend what it means to be their prophet. Jesus will soon remind the Jews the fate of many of their prophets. »It cannot be that a prophet would be killed outside Jerusalem! O Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her!« (Luke 13,33-34). 

10. Into this we have been baptized. St. Paul tells us: »We endure the loss of all things so that we may gain Christ. We do this so that we may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death« (Philippians 3,8.10). Belonging to Christ means participating in His disgrace, daring to fail and allowing people to jeer at us or scoff (Giertz 615). „Eternal life is the result of Christ. It comes from Christ. We receive it if we’re united with Christ. Everything is dependent on us belonging to Christ, in life and death“ (Giertz 615). Christ entered this temporal life of ours, lived among us, died and rose. Our Baptism connects us to Him, to His death and to His resurrection. 

11. Truly, a great prophet is in our midst, Jesus our Lord. He is more than a prophet; He is also the Christ and the Messiah, the one chosen by God the Father to be our Redeemer and Savior. Jesus brings us both temporal and spiritual blessings for He brings with Him the reign of God with His salvation, forgiveness and mercy. Go forth with joy, for Christ has risen our spirits and on the last day He will raise up our bodies to dwell with Him in eternal life.  Amen. 

12. Let us pray. O Jesus Christ, the Redemption of Your people; strengthen our trust inYou and Your New Testament, so that we rely upon Your Word and Sacraments for the forgiveness of our sins.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Giertz, Bo. To Live with Christ. Copyright © 2008 Concordia Publishing House. 

Just, Arthur A., Jr. Luke 1:1–9:50. Copyright © 1996 Concordia Publishing House. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.