In the name of the Father and of the a Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Beloved, Jesus has power to lay down His life and power to take it up again, and in the same way He raised the widow's son at Nain so too shall He raise you.Consider it, brethren. Your husband has died. You cannot work. You cannot provide for your own needs. But God is gracious. He has given you a son, a strong young man who will care for you, his beloved mother. You may depend on him for your life, just as he once depended on you. God is surely rich in mercy.But tragedy has struck again. Your son is dead. You cry. You wail. Not only is he your son, bone of your bone, flesh of your flesh, but now you are truly destitute. And you have worries. Good, reasonable concerns. You worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink. You worry about your body, what you will put on.You walk in the funeral procession, and as your loved ones walk with you, you know that pangs of hunger will come soon, and deprived of your only means of support, you will waste away and die. God is good? Sure He is.Hospitals run out of power. Dialysis machines sit idle for lack of suitable water. Thousands of homes lie in ruin. Mud and sludge flood into houses of prayer. The homes of pastors have been struck and their sheep are scattered. God is good? Tell the people of Alabama, or Mississippi, or New Orleans.Your son is dead.Jesus comes to you. He touches the coffin. And even as his eyes well up with tears, he says, “Stop crying.” Stop crying? Sure. You're well fed. You have all those disciples to make sure you've got three squares. You didn't just lose your son. But then it hits you, just like it hit the other widow, the one at Zarephath. You did something. You have committed some sin, and God is punishing you.You don't know what it might have been, exactly, but it must have been you. And if you tried to list all your sins, you know you couldn't even come close. How horrible and evil you must be that your sins are so beyond counting that you have no idea which one God might be punishing. You remember the psalm. “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sin, O Lord, who could stand?”But Jesus hasn't come to you with a word of judgment. But it is a strange word, isn't it. “Stop weeping.” He says it quietly, gently. It is as if you have no reason to weep. And then, not even a moment later he turns to your son.“Young man, I say to you, be raised!” And your son lives. His words praise the One who has raised him. And then Jesus picks up your son, takes him out of the coffin, and places him into your arms.And it is not only the son who has received life. You have received life. All that you need to support this body and life has been given you by your Savior. You receive it from the Son. You know now, that it it is not some specific sin that killed your son. No, sin has overcome the world, but fear not, Jesus has overcome sin.Rejoice, for it is in the moment of your greatest despair that Christ comes to you with his most sure and life-giving gifts.From the cross, Jesus looked into the eyes of his own mother and said to her, “Mother, behold thy son. Son, behold thy mother.” He gave His mother to us, and he gave us to His mother. For this reason, Mary has always been identified with the Church.Jesus Christ is true God, begotten of His Father from eternity, and also true Man, born of the virgin Mary. He was born holy and pure from the waters of His mother's womb. We are born holy and pure from the waters of Baptism, out of the womb of our mother, the Church. You and Jesus are begotten of the same heavenly Father.And remember... there is no mention of Joseph at the cross. Mary has no husband to care for her. So Jesus gives her to the Apostle John. He provides for the widow of Nazareth just as he provided for the widow at Nain. She need not fear!You were stillborn. You came from your mother's womb dead, separated from God, a servant of Satan and under his unholy dominion. But Christ came to you. He touched your coffin. He put His name on you as you were begotten of your Heavenly Father in the waters of Holy Baptism.He gave you to your Mother the Church. He did not give you to her that you might care for her. She does not need you to care for her. The Church is no widow. Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom died to destroy death. From the cross He spoke to the Church His wedding vows, “Father, forgive them...” And the Bridegroom lives forever.Jesus died on the cross for you. He forgave your sins by destroying sin. He won you life by destroying death. His resurrection ensures that your marriage to Him will never end. You are His holy bride. He places His body on your lips. He pours His life down your throat.It is hard to be a widow. It is hard to be an orphan. That is why Satan cheers at the death of husbands and parents. And Satan knew what Jesus was up to at Nain. He knew Jesus was comforting the widow. He knew He was giving life to the son. Jesus looked at his bride and wept tears because He loved her. He took her pain into Himself and destroyed it, just as He would do once for all on the cross.It is on that very cross that Satan wanted to make you a widow. It is on that very cross that he wanted to murder the eternal Son. And for awhile, for three short days, it looked like he'd won. It looked like we, the Church, were a widow without a husband to care for us. It looked like we would be left in our sins to suffer in them, to die in them, and to be condemned by them for all eternity.But Satan was wrong! Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Jesus is enough Jesus for all of us. He comes to us as the Gospel is preached. He feeds us with His very life. I am told that one of the saints of Saint Paul used to say that this Sunday, the sixteenth after Trinity, was the “little Easter in the fall.” What a wonderful proclamation of what Jesus was really doing for the widow at Nain.The son that was raised at Nain died again. His body still waits to share in that final victory over death. But he has tasted it. He that was dead livedagain...for awhile.
But Jesus lives and reigns to all eternity. He will come again to raise you and all the dead. You will live in everlasting innocence and blessedness.When Jesus died, Mary was a widow. It looked like the Church would die, no husband to care for her. There are no widows in the New Jerusalem, because the Son, her Bridegroom lives forever. And so we sing with the Widow at Nain, the Widow at Nazareth, and all the saints in heaven the hymn that was first sung by the seraphim, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth...heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.”But they are no longer widows. The Lamb sits upon the throne, and those who were once widows sit at His feet, in the wedding garments that will shine like the sun for all eternity. And you, beloved, will too!Amen.
