JESUS DESTROYS DEATH’S POWER OVER US
Prayer: Lord, teach us that because of You, we now can have no fear of death and that our sadness over death is not like those who have no hope. But let it not only be that You teach us, but through Your Word and Sacraments powerfully give and preserve this faith in us, so that You defeat the fear of death and give us certain hope in the midst of sorrows. Amen.
Sermon Text, St. Luke 7:11-17 (v. 13-14). When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your Words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.
Dear people loved by God in Christ, who will dry our tears everlastingly: Grace and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, who is the Lord.
We’re talking today about a specifically Christian view of death, as opposed to a secular view of death. The world in which we live wants to look away from death, wants to avoid death, and pretend it’s not there. Even wants to avoid saying death, instead saying things like “passed away.”
Now there is also a secular mindset that doesn’t look away from death – I’m speaking of Stoic philosophy – and it’s getting popular, especially as a way to help people build resilience and deal with life’s difficulties. It highlights a Latin phrase, “Memento mori” – “Remember that you will die.” This way of thinking says it’s important to think about the fact of death – so that you live your life meaningfully, get the most out of each day, don’t wait to say important things to your loved ones, don’t lose valuable time, etc. But it’s totally focused on this life: how to live life meaningfully now.
Stoic philosophy and other secular ways of looking at life, are only about this life. There’s no belief in anything after this life, no God. It also means there’s no hope. Ephesians 2:12 says being “without God in the world” means “having no hope.” That’s how the world looks at death.
But the Christian view of death isn’t that way. St. Paul says not to grieve like these “others who have no hope” (1Thes 4:13), so he’s saying the Christian view of death includes hope! This is very different from the way the world – or even our natural, sinful self – looks at death. So it’s good to talk about this, to learn about death from Jesus, who is the Lord over death.
So we hear this reading from Luke 7, which is the first time Jesus does the miracle of raising a dead person to life. First, we learn:
Death does have power over us – but it’s temporal power.
As Christians, we don’t deny the reality of death. Death does have power to take someone’s life – by which we are speaking of temporal death, the end of a person’s life on earth. Death is the separation of soul from body. This Bible story shows the power death does have in this life.
We hear that “a dead man was being carried out,” in an “open coffin.” Everyone could see it. True, real power. But this story teaches in a special way about how hard death can be. We’re also given these details:
· He was a “young man,” in Jesus’ words. It doesn’t matter if a person is young, strong, and healthy. Death has power to take his/her life.
· He was “the only son of his mother.” It doesn’t matter if a person is really needed by someone. Death still has power to take his/her life.
· And: “she was a widow.” She had already buried her husband. Probably, she still had terrible grief and daily felt great sadness and loss. It doesn’t matter if sadness and death have been a big part of someone’s life. Death has power to take another one from them.
Jesus places Himself in a story that’s so full of deep sadness and misery, full of death, partly to show us He knows how much power death can have over you – and other things, short of death, that cause you great sadness and pain – how it makes you feel, how it makes the world look. Was it a total shock? Does it feel unfair? What if someone was taken from you, who you needed more than anyone? You had plans, hopes, that now fall flat. Does it feel like everyone else has it better than you? All of that is here.
But the power to take a person’s life isn’t the only power death has. It also has power to make a person sad, even inconsolable. And just as great is death’s power to keep us in “bondage” due to “the fear of death” (Heb 2:15). The fear or dread of death has great power over us. The fear of the future without someone. The fear that it’s too much for you to handle. We see this in the young man’s mother, through Jesus’ eyes: “When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ ”
When Jesus says, “Do not weep,” He isn’t telling her it’s wrong to cry. He’s letting her know that He’s about to change it for her. His words to her are showing the great feeling He has for her pain. He acknowledges how much power this death is having over her. He sees all of this mixture of intense pain and anguish, fear for the future, deep sadness and misery, even bitterness. He sees all of it, how this has such power over her.
He’s letting you know that He sees it the same for you: He sees how much power death has over you – all the pain and anguish, the fear of death, the fear for the future without someone, all the sadness you feel. He sees all of it. He has great compassion for you too. But although death does have this power over us, what this miracle reveals is that:
Jesus destroys death’s power over us.
This is why Jesus performed this miracle. This is why Jesus made sure that His path crossed the path of the funeral procession in Nain. Here He is showing us what He does when a Christian dies and as you grieve.
This is the part we don’t get to see with our natural eyes. When a person dies, all we see is the part of this Bible story that comes before Jesus shows up. Like this widow, we see death carrying away a dear one. See what happens in this story, and you see what happens at every Christian’s coffin, every single time a Christian dies. Jesus is giving us eyes of faith to see what He does when death comes to a Christian. If we’re inconsolable, this is how He consoles us. He also takes away the fear of death. We see:
· Instead of death carrying the young man away, Jesus touched the coffin and “those who carried him stood still.”
· Instead of the man being dead, Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, Arise!” – and “he who was dead sat up and began to speak.”
· Instead of the woman continuing to cry and be afraid, after Jesus raised her son to life, she stopped weeping and no longer was afraid.
· Instead of having to go home without her son, Jesus “gave him back to his mother.”
Everything death did to the young man was real. But everything Jesus did was real, and undid what death had done. What Jesus did conquered what death did. Jesus’ power over death destroyed death’s power over the young man and over his mother.
This is what Jesus does for you too. Death uses its power over us – or, rather, the devil uses death’s power over us – to make sure you only see that death takes away a dear one, and that you can only be sad and afraid.
But Jesus reveals in this miracle that there is something else happening when a Christian dies: He stops death from taking the person away. He says “Arise!” and the person rises, not dead, and goes with Him.
Also in so doing: He’s taking away the reason to be sad and afraid. He’s giving that person back to us, to live together in heaven forever.
All of this is truly happening when a Christian dies. Why can we be sure that a Christian is not dead but lives? It’s because Jesus Himself – carrying all our sins – died and was buried, but death could not hold Him. God the Father considered Jesus’ death enough to forgive our sins. So Jesus rose from the dead, and death lost its power over us – because Jesus’ death truly paid for all sins and because His resurrection really defeated death. So, if a person repents of his/her sins and believes in Jesus, he/she can not die.
Even though you do believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, perhaps you just want the Lord to raise the body of your loved one to live on earth longer, like He did here, or keep them here longer.
If that would truly comfort you, God would do it. But this young man had to die again. It isn’t delay of the grave but victory over it that truly comforts. God doesn’t only win the victory over our grave at the end of your life on earth. All during life, God is winning that victory.
At the time of death, the devil is shouting at you: “There is death!” – pointing at the coffin. But also all during life, the devil is shouting at you: “There is death!” – pointing to your sins, the coffin we build for ourselves every day by our sins – because “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). We don’t deny that by our sins we deserve temporal and eternal death. But through the Holy Spirit’s working on us in His Word, we are heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them. Then the Holy Spirit, in His Word, through His called servant, says something else: that Christ comes to you, in His Word and in the Lord’s Supper, “for the forgiveness of your sins.”
And this is the important part for us today: “Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation.”
“There is life!” This is the opposite of what the devil says to us all the time – “There is death!” – reminding us of sin, that the wages of sin is death. But we hear that, as the second half of that verse says, “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” By grace we believe it. We answer with believing hearts, “There is life!” pointing to the cross, trusting that God forgives all our sins for Jesus’ sake, through His Word and Sacraments.
That is the victory over the grave. The question, “Is there death there?” may still come to you as are afraid of death and the sadness it brings, or cry bitter tears and are held by persistent grief. But if you – and they – receive God’s forgiveness with faith in His Word, then the answer to the question, “Is death there?”, for you is a confident: “No, there is only life there, for where there is forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation.”
Christ protects you from condemnation and spiritual, eternal death during life through the forgiveness of sins. Then at the end of life on earth, He stops death from taking you or your believing loved one away. He raises you to life everlasting so there’s never a moment of true death. He comforts those who remain with the promises of everlasting life. He makes death only a temporary separation, and gives us back to each other – purified from all sin – to live together, with Him, as saints in glory, for all time, through all eternity. This is how He dries our tears everlastingly.
Where is death’s sting?
Where, grave, they victory?
I triumph still if Christ abides with me. Amen!