“As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out…”
However, I believe
the answer is much sadder than the blessed child imagines. Though the Bible is
not clear on this, I believe they set up camp, and did not move, from just
outside that fiery gate of
“In
the very midst of life snares of death surround us”, says Dr. Luther’s hymn,
755 in our hymnals. What all of creation was for Adam and Eve and still is, was
However,
In fact, all of Luke chapter 7 is about being surrounded by death. In verses 1-10, a centurion’s vibrant and lively household is struck by the death of one of his slaves. Devastated, the centurion sends out those who are still alive to find Jesus and get a simple word from Him (7:7). A word that would restore full life to the household.
So what did the household do? They sat around the dead waiting for their loved one to come back. They didn’t move on. They didn’t move away. Same with the widow of today’s gospel. She is near her son. For some reason she thinks that if she stays near, maybe he will come back, just as Adam and Eve thought.
In the next part of chapter 7, 18-28, Jesus says you will know the Messiah by the fact that He will raise the dead. In verses 29-35, Jesus talks of the dance of death done by those who try to please God with their own merit. In gluttony and drunkeness, lively activities, they only find death.
Finally, in verses 36-50, we hear of St. Mary Magalene. And this is the climax of the chapter because it is Mary who feels death keenest. She knows that, because of her sinful lifestyle, death is but a heartbeat away from taking her to eternal judgement and she has no recourse for mercy. She feels it so much, that she washes Jesus’ feet with her tears of fear which don’t seem to stop.
Jesus rewards her begging with mercy. Just as He rewards all in this chapter of St. Luke and all who believe in Him with the words, “Your faith has saved you”, depart in peace. These then become the words of His Church, not wishing to merely mimic Christ, but to use the same words in confidence and hope of the same rewards.
That our sinful life of death would be forgiven. That our dance with death and sin would be taken away. That our dead would be brought back to us so that life would win out the day once more. For, looking around us, we also find death surrounding us. Though we look busy, we lock ourselves away in our tomb-like houses, we shield ourselves from sun, dirt, and air, and we jump at every cough and shadow. Truly there is no world as deadly as ours.
So it is that in our sin, the world is flipped upside-down. Now it is in the land of death that we dwell, not life. God’s creation seems distant, a mere pipe-dream. “In the very midst of death” we sing. Our faith has dwindled to the point of us repeating, “Maybe there will be life later, but not today.”
Jesus disagrees with you. Instead of Jesus hanging His head in defeat, He tells you “Do not weep”. He declares that the dead will rise. He shows another dance; the Easter dance of Life. He brings faith and forgiveness to a dark world of death in order to force life into it once again.
While the gates of
Eden, the very foundations, have been sealed and destroyed, the mask that
forgiveness has torn in two, from top to bottom reveals a better Eden; a
perfect Eden. Adam and Eve sat by
Dear Christians, we still live in that Eden-like world of life. It is the devil who wants to convince us that death is the only scenery. It is he who wants us afraid of everything but God and it is he saying, “Your son is never coming back”.
No, our hymn is correct. In the midst of life; in the midst of the life of Christ, the life of faith, the life of the Church, snares of death surround us, but do not touch us. Death does not have dominion, it only has guerrilla warfare. Because Christ has dominion in heaven and earth, He makes His kingdom on earth through the resurrection of the dead and the forgiveness of sins.
Christ brings forgiveness to sins that lead to death and He brings resurrection to death, that leads to life. It is in this double portion of promises and hope that we face death ourselves, carefully burying our own dead and boldly marching through life. All in the sure and certain hope that we only face these things for a short amount of time.
For these truthful accounts from Luke 7 could be and are accounts from our very lives. We have empty seats in our households. We are doing our best to dance, play, and utterly distract ourselves from the truth of sin, and we have tears that flow over how sinful and close to death we find ourselves daily.
Who will help us in this strife? Where shall we for refuge go? Jesus is the slave to God who dies in place of the centurions slave. The only son of the Father who fills casket and tomb, in place of other sons. The one who dances with death in a vicious struggle and comes out alive, raising all flesh from the grave, and handing out forgiveness, faith, and salvation.
The Lord Jesus is our only hope and we flee to His deathly wounds that could not hold Him. For in His dying, we are purchased. In His suffering, we are comforted in knowing that our suffering will end.
In the meantime, how can we find this Life God wants for us? Where is our own stay from the dark veils of death around us? The last wall we hit in life is here in the Church. For as we process in our own funeral march towards it, Jesus stands at the end, resurrected and serving Life.
Serving life in water, Word, and Bread and Wine. Planting His sacraments in graveyard soil, causing caskets to spring open and reveal living loved ones. Our dance is the liturgical dance of life, around the sacraments.
There will be life today, because the Lord of Life is not only with us, but He dines with us; communes with us. Death is laughed to scorn among us, because Jesus has broke death’s prison. It is a joke. There is no death for the Christian. Death now stands in the marketplace, in his clown outfit.
While we sit at the footstool of Jesus and are clothed in our baptismal garments, which do not fade away. We receive life from the imprinted hand of Christ and nothing else matters. The good that we have chosen, in faith, shall not be taken from us and faith will not allow anything to come between us and God’s love for us in Christ.
So He brings us, not to the gate of
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