Trinity 16

Luke 7:11-17 - Trinity Sixteen - September 20, 2015
Death & Resurrection
on the Occasion of the Baptism of Mark Rolf Preus

+    +    +

Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.  He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also like a shadow, and continueth not.  In the midst of life we are in death.  Of whom may we seek comfort but of Thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased?  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the Law.  But thanks be to Thee, O God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

+    +    +

One of my favorite Aesop’s fables is the story of the North Wind and the Sun.  They got into an argument about who was stronger.  To settle their dispute the North Wind pointed to a man walking down the road who was wearing a cloak.  He said, “Whoever is able to get that cloak off that man’s shoulders is the stronger one between us.”  So the Sun agreed and allowed his opponent to go first.  The North Wind blew and blew.  But when he felt the cold wind, the man held on to his collar and wrapped himself all the more snuggly.  So the Wind blew even harder and colder.  But the more he blew, even as the poor man was curled over to stay warm, all the more he would not let go of his cloak for dear life.  He clenched onto it more firmly than his feet stuck to the ground. 

In exasperation, the North Wind gave up and said it was impossible.  So the Sun took his turn.  His rays scattered the cold, dark clouds that the Wind had gathered.  He shone brightly and unthreateningly, and gently warmed the man until he stood back up.  As the Sun continued to give his heat, the man eventually, of his own will, let loose of his cloak, took it off his shoulders, and draped it over his arm as he walked on his merry way. 

The Sun had won! 

The moral of the story is clear: Persuasion is better than force. 

But it’s just a story.  It’s meant to make a point – and, granted, it’s a very good point — if you can’t coerce someone, persuade him.  The thing is, in real life coercion doesn’t give up so easily.  In real life the wind could have unleashed much more strength.  No mere will to live is going to resist the strength of a tornado, for instance.  We’ve all heard stories of tornadoes throwing things miles away from where they once stood.  Maybe you’ve even heard stories of people being tossed through the air and stripped bare of their clothes by tornadoes.  There is a mysterious power and haunting precision in these winds that really nothing is able to withstand.  Everything simply cowers and submits to their force. 

And you would too.  Just imagine seeing the gray clouds darken the sky and eerie silence give warning that something terrible’s about to happen.  Imagine yourself huddled in your basement, hearing the wind tear through and destroy everything you own and treasure as you helplessly hide from its fury.  Then imagine stepping up from the cellar once the noise has settled in order to face the havoc that the storm has left you.  Imagine being so totally bereft of your life as you knew it and loved it as you cast your eyes on the useless remains of what it used to be. 

The Wind has won! 

And now imagine the clouds break up.  The sun shines.  It’s his turn now.  The birds resume their chirping as the warmth of the sky encourages the world again to rejoice and sing.  But not you.  The storm is over.  But not for you.  It’s just begun. 

The sunshine won’t change that.  It can’t undo what has just happened.  What a small comfort the sun would be.  If anything, it would sting all the more to see the makings of a beautiful day – too little too late.  The presence of the sun would only seem to mock you in your loss.  It brings to mind the words of Martha as she saw Jesus coming to Bethany, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!”  So also to see the calm blue sky after a tornado, one might want to say, “Sun, if you had not quit shining, this storm would not have taken my home!  But it did.” 

That’s how it was for this poor widow whom Jesus encountered in our Gospel lesson.  She had faced an enemy to whom she had already been forced to submit.  She was powerless before it.  It was an old, familiar storm that had taken her husband once before, and now also her son.  Gone were her livelihood and her only hope for joy in this world.  Like a storm that pulls out all the stops to blow the cloak off your back, death is a force that cannot be stopped. 

This poor widow may have seen Jesus.  But it made no difference to her.  It was too late as far as she could tell.  She didn’t even do what Martha did.  She just kept weeping.  In such devastation, what comfort could the presence of Jesus possibly bring — what more than a shining sun after a tornado has left you ruined?  The damage was done and all hope was lost.  Death had succeeded in blowing off her cloak, so to speak, and baring her grieving soul for the world to see. 

Death had won! 

That’s what it looks like.  It looks like, in the face of Death, there is nothing that can cheer us.  But the point of this whole illustration is to show that this is not the case.  The North Wind and the Sun had made a wager that whoever succeeded first would win.  But that’s just a fable to teach a good moral.  This is the Gospel that teaches salvation.  In the battle that Christ and Death are engaged in, and in which they have been engaged since Death first entered the world, the winner is not determined by who succeeds first.  It is determined by who succeeds last.  Christ has the last word. 

Death sought to claim the children of Adam because of their sin.  He has a rightful claim as he forcefully collects his due.  And he has been collecting it for millennia now as generation after generation turns to dust.  Christ sought to redeem the children of Adam by bearing their sin.  He also has a rightful claim since he rose from the grave and conquered Death.  And in the promise of the gospel he has been granting eternal life for as long as Death has been claiming it.  While Death has sought to collect his dues, Christ came to pay our dues.  

Jesus is the Sun of gladness.  But he defeats death not by watching death try and fail, like the Sun in Aesop’s fable who watched the North Wind huff and puff to no avail.  No, Jesus sees death succeed in killing his victim like a tornado, and then dance around in pomp as he revels in his victory.  He sees death boast over his prey as though he were the greater, as though he has won.  He sees the children of Adam weep and lament and mourn their loss.  He sees our helplessness in the face of death as is pictured in the compassion he had for this widow from the village of Nain.  But Christ is greater than death.  Christ is the Sun of righteousness who defeats death even after death has already done its worst.  He defeats death by letting death do its worst on him. 

The Sun in Aesop’s fable won his battle by sending down his rays where the wind had failed.  But the Son of God won our battle by coming down as Man where death had already reigned supreme. 

We are flesh. 

All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.  (Isaiah 40:6-8)

And this same eternal Word of our God, who is from eternity to eternity true God, became flesh of our flesh in order to gain for us eternal life as our true Brother.  This is the love of God.  He who cannot die came down to die.  He who cannot be forced to do anything willingly lays down his life to forces that demand our own.  He became the grass that fades away when the breath of the Lord blows upon it in order that he might spring back to life and grant us the power to bloom again in eternal glory and loveliness.  

The Wind in Aesop’s fable represents destructive force.  The Sun represents kind persuasion.  But as we apply this fable to the words of Scripture, we see that the Wind of Death is nothing other than the breath of the Lord.  It is the wrath of God.  The death that seeks our lives is the justice of God that the law reveals.  The law – God! – demands the death of the sinner.  And it is unstoppable.  It condemns us.  It is right to do so.  The wages of our sin is death.  And the law reveals not only the sinful intentions of our hearts, but also the utter corruption of our hearts — our inability to reform our hearts.  The law reveals the poison of sin that is in us since we were first formed in our mothers’ wombs. 

And that is why our God became one of us in the womb of the Virgin Mary.  He came to live the holy and righteous life that the eternal law of God required.  He placed himself under the law and obligated himself to obey it for us.  But as a weary traveler in our place, the wind of justice could not uncloak him.  He was perfect.  Yet he also came to fall under the mighty force of it as he bore every wind of divine justice – he came to truly suffer, and truly die as a true child of Adam. 

Yet he alone was without sin.  He is the second Adam.  He is the eternal Son who cannot fail to shine.  And yet in meekness he hid his brightness in the form of a servant and took our place.  He gave his life in order that in his resurrection he might shine the light of grace upon us in our dearest need. 

The cloak of righteousness that could not be blown from him, he gives to us.  He clothes us in it as we stand naked and shamed by the law that blows all pretense of holiness away.  The law of death blows our cloak clean off.  But the Sun of righteousness clothes us in himself.  This is how he is able to raise the dead.  This is how he wins.  He is able to give the sinner perfect righteousness.  He is able to give the one who is put to death by the law his perfect life in the gospel.  He restores all our loss by giving us a certain hope for eternal life with God who owns everything. 

And this is the persuasion of the Son of God.  He takes sin and death into himself and swallows it forever.  He doesn’t force faith.  No, he gently persuades.  He doesn’t manipulate us so that we do something to help him win a wager with death.  No, it is the devil who wants to win a wager and prove his strength.  Jesus’ strength is found in the fact that he saves us by grace alone through faith in his word. 

The Lord Jesus stopped the funeral procession in our Gospel lesson by laying his hand on the casket and telling the mother not to weep.  So also he still persuades you who mourn to stop your weeping by laying his hand on the death that grieves you.  That is, he continues to bear with you and remain with you even as your bodies fall apart and die, even as those you love pass away.  He persuades the dead to come back to life by the power of his word, as he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”  And so by the power of his word alone he undoes the victory of death for you. 

And this is what Christ persuades us of.  He doesn’t just show us death.  He brings us through it.  Through Baptism, he joins us to his own death so that he might join us to his own resurrection.  And he doesn’t just win some wager with death.  He forces death to serve us.  He takes away its sting.  In Baptism we die our eternal death so that when our physical death comes, it can do us no harm.  All our sins are paid for in the death that ended in victory for Jesus.  And we, by no fortitude of our own – no more than little Mark who received his eternal inheritance this morning – we by the mercy and strength of God in Christ have this life even now by faith.  The life he was born to on Tuesday was a life destined to end in death, because he is a poor little sinner.  But the life that he was reborn to this morning is one that has already been raised from the dead.  It lasts forever.  It is Christ’s life.  And since we have been buried with Christ through Baptism, all death can now do is serve to blow away our earthly sorrows and all temptations forever, while our true life remains secure in Christ. 

So what can loss do to us?  What can possibly grieve you?  Naked you came, and the wind of death will make sure that naked you go.  But as often as the law blows hard and uncloaks you, as often as temptation seems to blow you off your feet and mock you in your failure, as often as your flesh proves too weak to withstand the cyclones of lust and greed and hatred, as often as the wages of sin bring you to tears as you are forced to consent to the power of death, what do you do?  You cling to this robe of righteousness which was made yours in Baptism.  You flee to where your Lord continues to speak.  He persuades you to your feet.  He gently sways you to cast off the load of sin that bogs you down as you travel as a stranger and pilgrim in this world.  He sends you on your way.  He guides your feet through life’s hard road and through death’s dark valley.  He clothes you in mercy and welcomes you to your eternal home in heaven where your body will be raised in glory and no more harm can befall you. 

All this by the same word that made you his in Baptism!  The victory is won.  The wager is done.  Our Sun of gladness has seen to it.  And we are saved forever.  Amen.