In
the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The day after preaching on the plain
and healing a centurion’s beloved servant, Jesus went to a town called Nain. He
was followed by his disciples and a large crowd, for word of his teaching and
miracles was beginning to spread. As he approached the gate of the town, our
Lord is met by a funeral procession. The only-begotten son of a widow has
tragically died. The boy was barely old enough to be called a man. The widow
wept loudly and a large crowd followed in her sorrow. The mourners close at
hand, the pallbearers marched slowly out of the town to bury the boy.
Upon seeing the woman, Christ has
compassion upon her and tells her to stop weeping. Upon touching the funeral
bier, the open coffin, everyone stops. The pallbearers freeze, almost as
though they are dead where they stand. Christ then utters his second command,
“Young man, I say to you, arise.” Immediately the boy sits up and begins to
speak, presumably speaking glory of God and blessing the name of the Messiah. In
one of the most tender gestures in all of Scripture, Jesus takes the boy by the
hand, helps him down, and presents the now living boy to his mother.
Then everyone in the crowd was seized
by fear and began to glorify God saying, “A great prophet has risen up among
us,” and “God has visited His people.” The report of this resurrection then
spread throughout all Judea and the surrounding lands.[1]
Three times our Lord is recorded to
have raised someone visibly from the dead. It is possible he raised many more
that were not recorded. It is also entirely possible that this boy, Jairus’s
daughter, and Lazarus were the only three souls to be reunited with their
bodies during the ministry of the Christ. The important question is not how
many, but why these three? St. John tells us “And truly Jesus did many
other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this
book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His
name.”[2]
These three were raised to teach you
something about Jesus – that he is the Christ, the Son of God – and that by
believing you may have life in his Name. How then does this resurrection teach
us about the Christ?
First, this miracle is a prophecy of
Christ’s own death and resurrection. The boy is carried outside the city in
death, just as Christ himself will be given over to death and crucified outside
of the city of Jerusalem.
The boy is the only-begotten son of a
widowed mother. Jesus is the Christ, the only-begotten Son of God the Father and
the son of a widowed mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Upon seeing the widow of Nain, Jesus
has compassion on her. At his own death, Jesus looks with compassion upon his
own widowed mother, commending her into the care of St. John.
The boy is carried upon an open casket,
a funeral bier, for all to see his lifeless body. Christ our Lord would hang
upon a cross in full view, for all to see his body as he breathed his last.
When the miracle is performed, the pall
bearers, the guardians of the body in a funeral procession, are made to stand
perfectly still, almost as corpses themselves. On Easter morning, as the women
arrive at the tomb, the guards stationed by the Pharisees shake for fear and
fall down as dead men.[3]
Then there is an important difference.
The boy’s funeral procession is stopped, and Christ touches the bier. Speaking
to the boy, he is raised from the dead and Christ presents the now living boy
to his mother. In Christ’s own death, he is taken down from the cross and
presented to his mother a lifeless corpse. This is the most important
comparison between these resurrections.
In touching the funeral bier, Jesus
made himself unclean. He touched the death of the boy and took it upon himself.
The clean white robe of Christ wiped the filth of death from the boy’s forehead
– cleaning the boy and soiling Christ. We can see very clearly that Christ gave
his life to the boy and took the boy’s death upon himself. Jesus took the place
of the boy in the grave so that the boy could take his place in the arms of his
mother.
The second teaching of this miracle
concerns a false understanding of death and resurrection. When Jesus traveled
to Bethany to mourn the death of Lazarus, he is met outside the city by Martha,
one of Lazarus’s sisters. Martha confesses that had Jesus been there, Lazarus
would not have died, and yet she retains faith that the Father will do whatever
Jesus asks. Jesus responds, “Your brother will rise again,” to which Marth
confesses, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last
day.” Jesus gently corrects her, “I AM the resurrection and the life. He who believes
in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me
shall never die.”[4]
When someone we love falls asleep in
death, we are tempted to think like Martha. We know our beloved, our friend,
our father will rise on the last day and that is our only comfort. But that is
not true of the Baptized. Those who believe in Christ shall never die. Our
death was in the waters of Holy Baptism. We were drowned in that saving flood. We
come to the waters of Holy Baptism as sinful creatures, less than human, turned
away from God. In judgment, the Lord drowns us, just as he drowned the
unbelieving multitudes in Noah’s day and swallowed hard-hearted Pharaoh and all
his mighty host in the Red Sea. Sinful man has no hope of escaping the waters
of Holy Baptism. He is drowned to the depths and cannot recover. His funeral
procession will stop for nothing.
Thanks be to God our funeral processions are stopped by the Light of Christ. The Only-Begotten Son of God reaches out and pulls us forth from the water. Our filth of death is left behind and we are raised to a new life in Christ. Death no longer has a claim to us. Those who fall asleep in Christ have already died – on the day of their Holy Baptism.[5] Baptism now saves you.[6] It makes you a child of the Heavenly Father and heir of heaven with Christ. You are fully human, restored to a right relationship with Christ and presented to your mother, the Church.
When we bring a child to the font, the
procession is interrupted by the waters of Holy Baptism, just as a funeral
procession is interrupted by the Paschal Candle. Both stand in the place of
Christ, who freezes the funeral procession of Nain, stopping death in its
tracks.
Why then must the Christian suffer
temporal death? Sin is still at work in our members. The wages of sin must
still be paid by our flesh and yet, as Jesus says, “even though he dies, he
shall live. Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” Those who die in
Christ are still living, for our God is the God of the living, not the dead.
All who believe and are baptized died in the waters of baptism. Temporal death
is now the victory over sin. Even as sin must finish its course of decay in the
flesh, the Christian is alive and free from the chains of sin. He now enjoys eternal,
sinless life.
Do not weep inconsolably over the death
of a Christian. Weep with tears of joy and sadness for the separation you must
endure. But know that Christ has compassion on you. When Jesus came to Nain, he
did not resurrect the boy out of compassion for him. Jesus had compassion on
the mother, the bereaved. The miracle of the resurrection was for the sake of
the comfort of the widowed mother.
Tears at the temporal death of a
Christian are a confession of sorrow over sin and a longing for eternal life.
Christ himself cried at the death of Lazarus. Yet weeping and wailing are a
confession of death, the end of life, something unknown to the Christian. We
know that the body of the departed will rest in peaceful sleep, even as it
awaits the resurrection, to be reunited with the already living soul for all
eternity.
Finally, know that this resurrection of
the boy at Nain is consolation for the living, as well as the bereaved. If
Christ took on the death of the boy, he has certainly taken on your death.
Jesus took the sins of the world upon his shoulders, standing in the place of mankind
from Adam to the last baby born. His death swallowed the death of all,
including you.
You were conceived in sin and born in
iniquity. Since Adam, all mankind has been carried out of the heavenly
Jerusalem to be buried outside the gates. The pallbearers of sin, temptation, Satan,
and our flesh have processed to the grave every hour of our lives. But the Son
of God would not have it. He halts the procession and reaches out to touch our
sinful filth. He drowns our sin and washes us clean. Even then, he does not
leave us alone. He presents us to our mother, the Church, who will continue to
care for us even as we grow in the faith. As we age in knowledge and wisdom of
Christ, we too come to care for the Church.
There came a day when the widow’s son once again fell asleep in Christ. He presently enjoys the nearer company of Christ, awaiting the day when he will be reunited with his body. So too, we who enjoy life in the Church await the return of Christ look forward not to our rest in the grave, but the coming of our Lord. We, who are held in the arms of Mother Church, look for the triumphal return of Christ, who will lead us into the heavenly Jerusalem through the gate of pearl.
In + Jesus’ name. Amen.
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