Jesus speaks today, saying,
“And the dead man sat up and began to speak…”
The lure of Islam, and its central teaching, is not what
you’d think. You would think it would be its own creed, or Shahada, which is:
There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet. While they certainly do
use this to weed out unbelievers and fakers, there is a concept greater than
this tawhid, that of its allegedly, divinely inspired name: Islam.
Islam, meaning submission, is something that can be practiced
by anyone of any time and any place and is therefore universal and makes their
religion the universal religion. Of course, they mean submission to their god,
but there is the rub. Just because you pick a universal value as the name of
your religion, does not imbue your religion with the same significance as the
word itself.
Judaism is the same way. It has evolved to latch itself onto
the idea of “awe”. Of course they mean awe towards their god, but really anyone
can have and practice “awe”, especially when it simply means being in awe of
human value and practicing social justice. This universal value of humanism
then becomes what it means to be Jewish nowadays.
American religion is in the same boat. “God” and “Jesus”
have become less names of actual, living people and more mere concepts. Those
words now stand in place of words such as “love” and “dedication”, being more
concerned with the strength of your private convictions rather than naming
somebody. We’ll all be good muslims before you know it!
No doubt you submit yourself to God’s almighty plans and
when things go really crazy, you re-commit yourself to your dedication to
re-orient yourself. You stand in awe of God’s majesty everyday and give thanks
that you get to show this awesomeness to others. You may even tack on the Name
of Jesus at the end of prayers and actions, just to be sure.
Do not doubt, then, that this young man at Nain was anything
less than we have described so far. You can be sure that this young man was on
fire for the Lord and had a heart for working tirelessly for his fellow man.
His memorization of Scripture was second to none. People would come from all
over just to hear him pray for them.
An apparent celebrity whose numerous deeds all amounted to
causing his mother grief.
So pleased was God with this young man’s entire portfolio
that He was all too happy to reward this man with death. Mohammed, the man the
Koran says is the best of the best, the excellent model for all men to imitate
(Sura 33:22) and the one who possesses sublime moral excellences (Sura 68:5),
died by poison. Abraham died, the prophets died, and all the nicest and best
people in the world, ever, died despite their best efforts.
When we behold God in His holiness and in our sin, we only
see Him as the Master to submit to, or else. His high and lifted-up-ness is not
something to love, but fear. In this way, we simply see and hear
impossible-to-meet demands, even though they be demands of love and kindness
and when we attempt them, only suffering and death are given by Him, as the man
at Nain shows.
This horrifies everyone, because not only does it mean that
sin is real, it also means the punishment God reveals for it, is real too. Dear
Christians, it is entirely true that God demands such things. It is also entirely
true that Christ fulfills such things. Even better, because Christ has passed
the gates of death and come out alive, God’s demands are completed and become
promises to you which Jesus prepares for you, Himself.
The dearest and best efforts of Christ amount to suffering
and dying as well, but they do not end there, where ours do. In fact, in the
Resurrection Christ’s work of salvation never ends. This is why the one true
religion on earth is called Christianity, because it is Christ alone Who
defeats death and not any value, moral or otherwise.
Now in the resurrection to eternal life, it is Jesus’
submission to God, made on our behalf, which gives meaning to life on earth in
the midst of death. Our example to imitate for sure, but more than that, Jesus’
perfect submission alone pleases the Father and opens the gates of heaven to
sinners. No other man’s submission could hope for such a reward, because real
submission demands not just your life, but your death and resurrection as well.
Therefore, true awe of God’s majesty is not just loving your
neighbor or your environment. It means being in awe of the way God creates
salvation for you Himself: through the suffering and death and resurrection of
Jesus. Awe is not the realization that you small and insignificant in the
universe, but realizing that God offered Himself up in the place of sinners and
yet still comes to you in peace in His Word and Sacrament.
This allows us to shift our focus on God, for now the
meaning of this passage has been made clear. Not that we despair of the
strength of our own works, but that we rejoice in just how weak death truly is.
Jesus is teaching us how powerless and how insignificant death is.
Look at all it took to raise this dead, young man: a word.
There was no pep-talk, no boost in self-esteem, and no shot in the arm. Without
anything we would consider helpful in such a situation, Jesus simply says,
“Arise” and at once the dead man is alive.
Once we confess the sin of all our work, good and bad, they
are cast aside so that we can see Jesus. Once faith in the promise of Jesus
takes over, then we are freed to do actual work confidently and need not
trouble ourselves about death, anymore. For, just as Jesus raises this young
man and empties his coffin, Jesus also climbs in the coffin as a replacement.
He climbs into our sick-beds, death-beds, and graves in our place so that death
must take Him instead of us. Nothing then is left for us to do except live.
And baptism places this event in time for us. We can never
submit enough to God, but He can baptize us once and it is finished. We can
never gawk and gape enough at God’s power, but He can hand out His forgiveness
in bread and wine and it is enough.
So we sit down and shut-up and let God be God. How is God,
God? God is washing and speaking and serving. Do we dare let our works
overpower that? Faith will not let us. In hearing St. Luke’s Gospel today, it
reminds us that if we are hearing Jesus’ words, “Young man I say to you arise”
and we are believing them, it means that we came to Service this morning dead
in our sin and have just been raised out of death and out of sin, ourselves.
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