Prosperity gospel [Trinity 16; St. Luke 7:11-17]

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Jesus speaks today, saying,

“And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her,‘Do not weep.’”

If this woman of Nain had just done enough of a deep cleansing of her life and trusted God more, she would have been able to keep her son. Or, if she had given more of her life over to Jesus, her son’s death would not have hurt as much as it did. And if she had just “let go and let God”, He would have taken care of her son better.

Of course I’m being facetious, but this is what a lot of Christians make the Bible say. I label it the Prosperity Gospel. What that means is that the Gospel, or grace or peace or any gift from God, comes only if you are able; only if you can do things that seem biblical or godly to prosper.

The satanic misunderstanding comes to us that very first time we accomplish something on our own. And there is nothing wrong with setting goals and achieving them in life! It is good to want to keep a clean house, to want to keep a job, to want to do better. The satanic lie comes in when we attribute this to what God is doing in our lives.

The Prosperity Gospel is when our actions are confused with God’s actions, because God is invisible. We can’t see God work, but we know He’s there, so it must be that God’s work is done by me. That the kingdom is advanced every time I get to work and accomplish something. If I succeed, that can only mean God did it through me, right?

Now, no one will admit to teaching a prosperity Gospel, or if they do they will quote Jeremiah where they say God says that He has plans to prosper you. (Jer. 29:11)

Meanwhile, this mother at Nain had a family, she was able to feed and care for them. Making sure they had what they needed to live. She did her best to teach and to nurture her family and care for her home. All this she attributed to God’s plan to prosper her, because as we know, she succeeded in those works.

Then she became a widow. Life became a bit hard and not as prosperous. But time heals all wounds and she still had her son. Death is just a part of life after all, she said. It hurts, but God will watch over me and get me through it.

Then she became childless. Prosperity was not even an after thought. Now God was against her in every way. Her life had been emptied. She had nothing. No one. Her means of prosperity were exhausted. The only thing left to take from her was her own life and now that was not even worth all that much.

God had removed all that her hands seemed to have accomplished. It seemed like all that her hands created and watched over had been built on sand and were now washed away. But sand is meant to be washed away. Prosperity cannot stand in the face of death.

Here is the lie within this Prosperity Gospel: you don’t need Jesus to do it. You especially don’t need Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross to accomplish anything in this life. Washing dishes, raising a family, keeping a job, being a good neighbor. All of this appears to have nothing to do with God or the Bible because all of it can be done by anyone, even those who don’t believe anything. When Alexander the Great or Babylon took over most of the world, they did it as unbelievers. And what happened to them? They also died.

Repent. The end of all our endeavors, no matter how worthy or holy, is death. There is nothing that will make it out of this world alive, much less is God going to reward us or demote us for how well or how poorly we do with what we have in this world. Our widow from Nain is our example.

But God’s Word stands as absolute truth, so we must revisit Jeremiah’s words with a new hope. The same hope that marches towards this shattered woman as she marches towards the cemetery. Though a young man lies dead in the bier, another young man stands awake and alert, reaching out to prove that God is not a liar.

Here is what the rest of Jeremiah says in that same section: The Lord will punish those who do not listen to His Word. He is sending sword and famine on the people of Israel. But this is also when the Lord exiled almost everyone to Babylon. He did it. He spread them out, but He promised to gather them back in.

“This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

The Lord exiles His own people to Babylon; meaning the place where sin, death, and the devil reign. But notice that He does not simply call us back or allow us to come back on our own, He comes Himself to bring us back. Why does He need to come Himself? Can’t we just carry ourselves? Ask the young man in the bier.

Jesus comes to earth to bring the prosperity of the Lord to all people. And the prosperity of the Lord is not earthly prosperity. It is death and it is resurrection. It is the loss of the earthly and the gain of the heavenly. It is not the death of this widow’s son, but the death of the Son of God. True prosperity offered by God is death and resurrection.

And the place where the Lord gathers is not a Mediterranean coastland, but a Body. The Lord banished His people from the Divine Service, not a geographic location. They were sent to a place of fasting from the Lord because they had neither Temple nor sacrifices. They were relieved of everything they could do on their own in order to reflect on who it was that was really acting.

Because, as we now know after the Resurrection of Jesus, it doesn’t matter if there is a Temple, or sacrifices, or geographic locations. Eternal prosperity resides in the nail pierced hands of Jesus, thus that is where He places us. He hides us in His wounds of earthly failure in order for us to gain heavenly success.

It is Jesus that serves us His success in the Divine Service. It is Jesus’ works and actions that save and prosper, not in an earthly sense, but in a forgiving and redeeming sense. Its not that the widow of Nain should have happily offered her family up to death, if she had enough faith. Its that she should have been ready to entrust them to God’s care until they meet again and live the rest of her life in that hope.

So, while our works do show that God loves us and is active in this world, they only do so by faith and faith does not love any works except those that give eternal life and rescue from sin, death, and the devil. Those prosperous works of course, being only those of Jesus Christ.