Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

And he said, "Young man, I say to you arise!" And the dead man sat up and began to speak . . .

Certainly one of the most electrifying aspects of Jesus public ministry was when he would pause from his teaching and telling of parables and tend to those who came for help and relief from all manner of diseases and afflictions. His reputation as a miraculous healer spread quickly throughout the regions of Galilee and Judea during the beginnings of his public ministry. Wherever He would go, He would meet those who were sick, crippled, or possessed desiring to be healed. In most instances either the one afflicted or some close friend or relative would beg for Jesus’ attention and He would often drop whatever He was doing or saying with others and tend to their needs. For this reason, the whole healing ministry aspect of Jesus’ public campaign would sometimes irritate the crowds, and on occasion, even his disciples. People would become jealous for His undivided attention.

On the occasion of our text, when Jesus approached the city of Nain in Judea, no one was uptight about Jesus’ healing ministry becoming a distraction. No one was concerned about getting interrupted or having Jesus sidetracked because they were just passing a funeral procession. The poor fellow who was being carried out of town to be buried was beyond help. We might imagine that there was a time when he first became sick that Jesus might have been able to come to his aid, perhaps from the desperate cries of his mother. But, that was some time ago and this was now. No one in the procession that was passing by, much less his mother, was looking to Jesus for any assistance now. The kid was beyond help - he was beyond the possibility for healing. He was dead. Dead people are beyond help . . . even by those sent from God.

Yet, here we see something that reveals the heart of why Jesus was sent to us from the Father. Look at what happens. Without anyone asking anything, without any exemplary commitments or expressions of faith; Jesus steps into the situation, which could best be described as a post-game situation with the young man, He does what no one asked for or expected. He brought this mother’s son back to life. He canceled the funeral. After the point had been reached when everyone recognized that this young man’s life was over, when he was now just a memory, Jesus comes and does His own thing, quite apart from any initiative or special spiritual behaving of anyone. He interrupts the situation and works life out of death.

Here we see the heart of the Gospel message that Jesus worked so people could understand, but unfortunately did not. Jesus is not some special divine ambassador from God to help us become more spiritually healthy in the religious aspects of life. He has not been sent to help us have a more fulfilling life by helping us to see and to do those things that can make us better people, get closer to God, or get an edge on life. He certainly has not come to get us in line or enlist our help so that God can get His things accomplished. Nor does God see us as sort of spiritually sick and in need of some good spiritual medicine which Jesus would dispense to make us all feel better. No, none of these things.

Jesus has come for the lost causes. He has come for the sons and daughters of Adam who, as Paul tells us in Romans 5, are beyond help, because they are spiritually dead, having inherited that death from the sin of Adam. Jesus has come to save those who cannot offer up on their own, either exemplary faith, or proper commitments to God, or even a decent prayer life. Jesus has come to rescue those who cannot be helped, the lost causes of this world. The dead, the spiritually bankrupt, the ones who are completely out of the running, those who are dead in their trespasses.

The message that Jesus proclaims with this funeral procession outside Nain, is that out of death, Jesus is the One Who brings life. Jesus is not our spiritual helper, He is our Savior. He is the One Who the Father has sent to us, not to pull us out of the spiritual fire, not to save us at the last minute, when it seems that we are going down to the defeat of sin, death, and the Devil. Jesus comes to us from the Father at an end-game context. When the spiritual game is over and we are already defeated and dead. When the sickness unto death has claimed us and we know that we are beyond help and assistance, even from God . . . Jesus as our Savior, the champion of lost causes, has come to us in his precious Gospel - in our Baptism - and told us to arise. He has brought His life-giving forgiveness of sins to us that have produced a washing of regeneration; a bringing to life again where there has been nothing but spiritual lifelessness. We were lost causes. We could not be helped. We were dead in our trespasses. We could expect nothing but our own spiritual funerals, but Jesus on His own initiative, without even asking us or asking anything from us, has given us what? Young man, I say to you arise! He has given us life! And when you were dead and now have life, you have everything. When you have life with God, you have everything with God.

This text is your opportunity to see what your Christian faith and life are really all about. Here you can see what your baptism, your confirmation, your coming Sunday after Sunday to Divine Service . . . what all of these things are really all about. Let to your resources here on earth, you are just like this young man in our text. You are at the end-game. It’s over. There is no life, there is no happy future, there is just your funeral to look forward to. You are dead to sin and without help or remedy, yes even from God. But, Jesus has come and He has given you new life. He has forgiven your sins and continues to do so in His Gospel of Word and Sacrament, and these continually take you from death to life, from sin to grace, from a nowhere forever, to a happy forever. Your life in Christ is a matter of death and life. In the words of Jesus, you live. Apart from his saving Word, you are dead already. The Good News is that you have heard even this morning, his words to you . . . young man, young woman, not so young man, not so young woman; I say to arise. I have given you life. I have given you everything.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men.