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᛭ INI ᛭

((5. Oops!: Death interrupts life.))

Why’d he die? It’s a thought that’s on everyone’s mind. Carrying that young man out, his mother in tow, how she often had him in tow! That was over and done‚ never to be again! She wasn’t even carrying him—pall bearers for that. He’s dead now. Now, everyone’s left with that thought: “Why?” Her especially!

Why’d he die? We’ve wondered this, too. There’s no one here untouched by death. Why? We all know why. In our pain we know why. The widow from Zarephath is close: “You came to cause the remembrance of my iniquity and to cause the death of my son!” (1 Ki 17) Or, as our verse of the week last week: “The wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6)

We know the “why.” We don’t like it, but we know. We’re always surprised by it though. Death interrupts life. (Doesn’t quite seem like a powerful enough way to put it, but it’s true.) Life is going along and suddenly there’s death. It’s a an interruption—a very rude awakening. Death is always sudden. It’s not always unexpected… And yet the thought lingers: “why?”

((4. Ugh!: Death interrupts (daily) life.))

At Nain they were doing what always happens when someone dies. “They were carrying out the young man who’d died.” They were carrying him out, carrying him away. But no matter how far or how long someone’s been carried away like that, they’re never really gone. That person, the memory of that person, is still there.

This isn’t some “woo” kind of thing. It’s not “They’re with me, watching over me. I feel their presence” sort of thing. That’s godless paganism. Truth is: they are dead, they are gone. For those who believe in Jesus, they’ve “departed to be with Christ.” (Phil 3) But our hearts, our minds, cause them to hang around in our memories and emotions.

When death comes and interrupts everything, it’s not just a one time thing! There’s constant reminders, interruptions “oh, yeah, they’re dead.” I experience that interruption for many people I’ve buried as their pastor, so I’m sure you do, too, as their family and friends. Maybe it hasn’t been that long. Maybe it’s been decades! But death and grief, which is just the ghost of death haunting us, interrupts our daily life, and the “why’d they die” comes back again. Maybe it’s strong, maybe not so much, but it’s there. Maybe not a daily companion, but definitely a familiar friend.

Maybe there’s guilt and anger and sadness about it. Maybe there’s guilt because the interruption doesn’t come all that often, like it “should.” (Whatever we think that means.) Maybe it comes up more than we think it “should.” (Whatever we think that means.) It’s all just weird standards that we place on ourselves and others. All wrestling with the fact that “the wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6) And it’s not abstract. There’s names and faces that received those wages. Soon, it’ll be your name on that wage-check—etched in a tombstone.

((3. Aha!: The Lord interrupts the whole scene.))

Whatever’s going on at Nain, whatever’s going on with the large army of people from Nain, or with the widow herself—Jesus interrupts the whole thing! He stops the funeral dead in its tracks. The Prince of Life shows up and seems to want nothing to do with letting things go on like they are. He tells the mom, “Don’t weep.” He touches the casket!

The whole scene grinds to a halt. They always had professional mourners back then who’d cry and wail, and you can imagine them stopping—everything stopping! Complete and utter silence. A silence broken only by Jesus: “Young man, I tell you, arise.” And the dead man both sat up and began to speak.”

((2. Whee!: THE LORD INTERRUPTS DEATH WITH LIFE.))

In that moment death was stopped dead. The Lord Jesus didn’t just interrupt a funeral. He interrupted death, and He interrupted death with what He always interrupts death with: life!

THE LORD INTERRUPTS DEATH WITH LIFE.

He has the power to do this with all death, for “we know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” (Rom 6)

When confronted by a text like this, we’re like: Why didn’t Jesus do that? In my life? Why’s He never stopped any funeral I’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of presiding over, or you’ve ever had the sad opportunity of attending?

First, what Jesus can do and what Jesus has promised to do are two radically different things. But second, and more importantly, death is the thing that proves we aren’t God, that proves we aren’t the lord of life, of death, no matter what medical advances we’ve made, and we aren’t Lord of resurrection from the dead either. That’s hard because when someone dies and Jesus doesn’t pull a Nain, we often wonder—doubt!—well, maybe Jesus really can’t do what He says.

Oh, but He can! And first off, He died! He died for our doubts, our unfaith in Him in the face of death and our loved one’s grave. He shed His blood to rescue us from the penalty. He gave His life—He took the payment of the wages you were do. He is the Prince of Life who got paid the wages of your sins.

Not only that! THE LORD INTERRUPTS DEATH WITH LIFE—His death with His coming back to life! He is “the firstborn from the dead” (Col 1:18), the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Cor 15). By His almighty power He brought Easter backward in time to Nain, just as He did through Elijah in Zarephath, as a picture of Easter! (Lying three times on the child for His lying three days in the tomb.)

Jesus interrupts your sin with His forgiveness. He will never stop absolving you for your doubts about Him. He answers the prayer of the downcast, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mk 9) To you He would say in Holy Absolution, “I forgive you.” And He’s got big enough shoulders to bear your discontent with how He was Prince of Life.

He brings His Easter life forward in time to you in the waters of Holy Baptism. In His baptism there is this promise: that you “shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” (Rom 6) For “Baptism saves you,” and gives you “an appeal to God for a good conscience, through Jesus’ resurrection.” (1 Pet 3) In Holy Baptism, THE LORD INTERRUPTS DEATH WITH LIFE. Enough life in Baptism to enliven your faith and Christian life, along with a coming back to life from your grave.

But THE LORD isn’t done INTERRUPTing DEATH WITH LIFE. He gives you His body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. That Supper is truly “the medicine that gives eternal life.” It is the antidote to not die but to live in Jesus Christ forever,” (Ignatius, Ephesians 2:20)

No one here wants to die, at least not die and stay dead. The Sacrament literally is the promise: this body and blood of Jesus will strengthen and keep your body unto life everlasting. “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will resurrect him on the Last Day.” (Jn 6) Who can get enough of that?

((1. Yeah!: The Lord will interrupt death with life.))

THE LORD INTERRUPTS DEATH WITH LIFE. It’s true! He always can. So, why didn’t He? I don’t know why. I know why not. It’s not because Jesus doesn’t care or that He’s absent from suffering, sorrow, and death. His cross, His own suffering and death and grave prove that.

Jesus may not interrupt your sickness with healing. He may not interrupt your death with life. He may not interrupt your funeral like He did at Nain. But He will interrupt your grave with resurrection. He will touch all our caskets by means of the Holy Spirit, and He will, as it were, say to each of us, “Young man, young woman,”—everyone’s young to an eternal God—“I say to you, arise.” And you will! They will!

This is why we “look for the resurrection of the dead.” We’re waiting for the final trumpet, the final interruption. When the Lord will interrupt death with life for the last time. And we “look for the resurrection of the dead” gathered around the altar, receiving the antidote of death, Jesus’ crucified and raised body and blood, and we gather with them, those we love who’ve died in the faith and are now with Christ, for they are part of “the whole company of heaven.”

THE LORD INTERRUPTS DEATH WITH LIFE. On the Last Day, but also now, right now! Eat and drink and live forever.

᛭ INI ᛭