Rev. Deacon Allen J. Batchelder
†
Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
June 9, 2013 – Pentecost III

1 Kings 17:17-24, Psalm 30, Galatians 1:11-24, Luke 7:11-17

From the Old Testament:
And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives!”

From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians:
But when he was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

And from the Gospel of St. Luke:
As he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a large crowd from the city was with her. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up, and began to speak.

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

The 7th chapter of Luke is about Jesus’ compassion towards the people. Last week we heard about how Jesus marveled at the centurion’s faith and healed the Roman soldier’s servant from a distance. This time, there was no request for healing. Jesus simply had compassion on a grieving widow whose son had just died and it was an opportunity to bring glory to God.

Jesus journeyed to Nain, a small village about twenty-five miles from Capernaum, a good day’s journey away, yet Jesus went there even though He was not requested to come. Since the Jews buried their dead the same day, it is likely that Jesus and His disciples arrived at the city gate late in the afternoon of the day the boy died.

We can only marvel at the providence of God when we see Jesus meet that funeral procession just as it was heading for the burial ground. He lived on a divine timetable as He obeyed the will of His Father (John 11:9). The sympathetic Saviour always gives help when we need it most.
What a contrast between the crowd that was following Jesus and the crowd following the widow and her dead son. Jesus and His disciples were rejoicing in the blessing of the Lord, but the widow and her friends were lamenting the death of her only son. Jesus was heading for the city while the mourners were heading to the cemetery.

Spiritually speaking, each of us is in one of these two crowds. If you trusted Christ, you are going to the city (Heb. 11:10, 13-16); If you are “dead in sin,” you are already in the cemetery and under the condemnation of God (John 3:36). You need to trust Jesus Christ and be raised from the dead (John 5:24); a new life in Christ.

We have a contrast of two sons. One was alive but destined to die, the other dead but destined to live. The term only begotten as applied to Jesus means “unique, the only one of its kind.” Jesus is not a “son” in the same sense that I am, having been brought into existence by conception and birth. Since Jesus is eternal God, He has always existed. The title Son of God declares Christ’s divine nature and His relationship to the Father, to whom the Son has willingly subjected Himself from all eternity. All the Persons of the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are equal, but the “economy” of the Trinity, each has a specific place to fill and task to fulfill.

We also have the contrast of two sufferings. Jesus, “the Man of Sorrows,” could easily identify with the widow’s heartache. Not only was the widow in sorrow, but she was now left alone in a society that did not have resources to care for widows. What would happen to her? Jesus felt the pain that sin and death have brought into this world, and He did something about it.

Jesus faced death, “the last enemy” (1 Cor. 15:26). When you consider the pain and grief that it causes in this world, death is indeed an enemy, and only Jesus Christ can give us victory. Jesus was tortured, scorned and hung on a cross and died. He conquered death by His resurrection and ascension. Through Him we can claim that same victory and have everlasting life. Through His power, Jesus had only to speak the word and the boy was raised to life and health.

The boy gave two evidences of life: he sat up and he spoke. He was lying on an open stretcher, not in a closed coffin; so it was easy for him to sit up. We are not told what he said, but it must have been interesting! He might have said, “What’s happening?” or “How did I get here?” or “Boy, do I have a story to tell you!” What an act of tenderness it was for Jesus to take the boy and give him to his rejoicing mother. The whole scene reminds us of what will happen when the Lord returns, and we are reunited with our loved ones who have gone to glory (1Thes. 4:13-18).

The response of the people was to glorify God and identify Jesus with the Prophet the Jews had been waiting for (John 1:21; Acts 3:22-23). It did not take long for the report of this miracle to spread. People were even more enthusiastic to see Jesus, and great crowds followed Him (Luke 8:4, 19, 42).

I wonder how many of us realize that this was not the first time in Scripture that someone was brought back from the dead. God, through the Prophet Elijah did just that. Elijah means “The Lord (Jehovah) is my God,” an apt name for a man who called the people back to the worship of Jehovah. Elijah wasn’t a polished preacher like Isaiah and Jeremiah, but was more of a rough-hewn reformer who challenged the people to abandon their idols and return to the Lord.

The scene takes place at Zarephath of Sidon, a coastal town located between Tyre and Sidon in the territory ruled by Jezebel’s father Ethbaal. Elijah is commanded to go and reside in the heart of the very land from which the Baal worship now being promoted in Israel had come. God commanded a widow in town to supply him with food and lodging. Elijah, as the bearer of God’s Word, was now to be sustained by human hands, but they were the hands of a poor widow facing starvation. She was, moreover, from outside the circle of God’s own people, a Gentile, in fact, she was from the pagan nation that at that time represented the forces arrayed against God’s kingdom.

The evidence seems clear that the widow’s son actually died and didn’t just faint or go into a temporary sleep. He stopped breathing and his spirit left the body. According to James (James 2:26), when the spirit leaves the body, the person is dead.

The mother’s response to her son’s resurrection was to feel guilty because of her past sins. She believed that her son’s death was God’s way of punishing her for her misdeeds. It isn’t unusual for people to feel guilty in connection with bereavement, but why would she point the finger at her guest? She recognized Elijah as a man of God, and perhaps she thought his presence in the home would protect her and her son from trouble. Or maybe she felt that God had informed her guest about her past life, something she should have confessed to him.

Elijah’s response and compassion was to carry the lad to his upstairs room, perhaps on the roof, and to cry out to the Lord for the life of the child. He couldn’t believe that the Lord would miraculously provide food for the three of them and then allow the son to die. It just didn’t make sense. Elijah placed the boy down and then stretched himself out on the boy. He didn’t do this in the hope that he could transfer his life to the lad, for he knew that only God can impart life to the dead. Certainly his posture indicated total identification with the boy and his need, and this is an important factor when we intercede for others. It was after Elijah stretched himself on the child for the third time that the Lord raised him from the dead, a reminder that our own Savior arose from the dead on the third day. Because He lives, we can share His life by putting our faith and trust in Him.

The result of this miracle was the woman’s public confession of her faith in the God of Israel. She now knew for sure that Elijah was a true servant of God and not just another religious teacher looking for some support. She also knew that the Word he had taught her was indeed the Word of the true and living God. During the time he lived with the widow and her son, Elijah had shown them that God sustains life (because the food didn’t run out) and that God imparts life (by raising the boy from the dead).

Jesus used this same story in the sermon He preached in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30). During the first part of the sermon, the listeners approved of what Jesus said and complimented Him on His “gracious words.” But then He reminded them of the sovereign grace of God that reached other nations besides the covenant people of Israel. The great Jewish prophet Elijah actually ministered to a Gentile widow and her son and had even lived with them, and yet he could have ministered to any of the many widows in the nation of Israel. This is because God’s saving grace is available to everyone: Jews and Gentiles.

Our Lord’s emphasis was on the grace of God. He wanted the proud Jewish congregation in the synagogue to realize that the God of Israel was also the God of the Gentiles and that both Jews and Gentiles were saved by putting their faith in Him. Elijah’s ministry to the widow and her son was proof that God is no respecter of persons and that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Whether a person is a religious Jew or a pagan Gentile, the only way of salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ.

St. Paul was called by God to bring the Word of God to the Jews and the Gentiles. In a way, Paul had a “resurrection” experience. Saul was a Jewish rabbi who was persecuting the Christians. He “consented” to the murder by stoning of Stephen, and then proceeded to “make havoc of the church” by breaking up families and putting believers in prison.

Paul actually thought that Jesus was an imposter and His message of salvation a lie. Everybody knew that this brilliant student was well on his way to becoming an influential leader of the Jewish faith. His personal religious life, his scholarship, and his zeal in opposing alien religious faiths, all combined to make him the most respected young rabbi of his day. Then something happened: Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the church “died,” and Paul the Apostle, the preacher of the Gospel was “raised.”

This change was not gradual; it happened suddenly and without warning (Acts 9:1-9). Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians; a few days later he was in Damascus preaching to the Jews that the Christians are right. What caused this change? It had to come from God!

No matter how you look at it, the conversion of Paul was a spiritual miracle. It was humanly impossible for Rabbi Saul to become the Apostle Paul apart from the miracle of God’s grace. And the same God who saved Paul also called him to be an apostle, and gave him the message of the Gospel.

Paul’s experience reminds us of young Jeremiah (Jer. 1:4-10) and also John the Baptist (Luke 1:5-17). Salvation is by God’s grace, not man’s efforts or character. Grace and called go together, for whomever God chooses in His grace He calls through His Word (1Thes. 1:4-5). The mysteries of God’s sovereign will and man’s responsibility to obey are not fully revealed to us. We do know that God is “not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9), and that those who do trust Christ discover they have been “chosen…in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).
When a sinner trusts Christ and is born again (John 3:1-8), he is “born free.” He has been redeemed – purchased by Christ and set free. He is no longer in bondage to sin or Satan, nor should he be in bondage to human religious systems (Gal. 4:1-11). “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). May we all be resurrected in Christ and claim His power and victory over death and the sure promise of everlasting life.

Let us pray:
O God, from whom all good, proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
AMEN †