The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. Luke 7:11-17 “I Say to You, Arise”
September 20, 2026 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Lord God, heavenly Father, You sent Your Son to be made flesh, that by His death He might atone for our sins and deliver us from eternal death: We pray, confirm in our hearts the hope that our Lord Jesus Christ, who with but a word raised the widow’s son, in like manner will raise us on the last day and grant us eternal life; through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, by Veit Dietrich, p. 162)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The sermon text for today is taken from the 7th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke. We read selected verses in Jesus’ name:
Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and His disciples and a great crowd went with Him. As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”
Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)
In Christ Jesus, who will raise you to be glorified because death has no power over the God of the living, dear fellow redeemed:
What is your dream travel destination? Maybe it is somewhere that you plan on going to visit for vacation. It could be an exotic location; it could be where your family has its lineage documented. Taylor and I have thought about traveling to Norway and Germany where our family lines trace. What if you have already traveled to your dream destination, or you don’t have a destination in particular you would like to see? Maybe your travel is local, seeing friends on a certain day or spending time with family. While we find reasons to travel, there is a place that we will travel and in one sense, the journey is physically difficult. That is the one group in our text. They are heading on a difficult journey to the cemetery to bury a loved one. A one and only son of a widow. But as the physical journey reveals all of the pain it carries to make that walk, our text reveals where all of these walks will lead towards. They lead toward the One and only Son of God. For those who know and believe in the power of this Son, it is with certainty the physical journey is done in joy because the words that will be uttered are, “I say to you, arise.”
Some point out what they believe is cruel, that these words aren’t uttered all of the time by God because of this physical journey. For those who do this walk, most will have feelings like this or even experience the same situation. Not only is their tragedy with the death of this woman’s son, but she has no husband. Since she is all on her own, there is now no one to provide an income. Her life is going to be challenging. Like anyone witnessing this sight, a journey of a family headed toward the tombs, this touches Jesus’ heart, and He has compassion. Here is humanity with Jesus experiencing the same gut reaction as we have in sad situations. With hope feeling lost for the situation, this little town of Nain does not feel like its name which means, “Vale of Beauty.” The funeral procession, like any funeral procession, makes it appear as though death wins. With humanity is the beauty of the divinity and the Lord boldly steps in the way of death.
Because of our Lord, there are words uttered at our funerals, and we get them from here. Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Even today, hearing anything like these words, it is provocative. Even more so for Jesus because according to the law, this should make Him ceremonially unclean. “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead (Numbers 5:2) Well, this is not just anyone, as the crowds will confess that Jesus is the long-expected prophet, who is greater than Elijah who they believe is coming again. They will search for Elijah, but Jesus reveals where Elijah is when on the Mount of Transfiguration, And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplished at Jerusalem (Luke 9:30-31).
The Prophet who talks to the Prophet Elijah knows He is going to face burials. He knows the plan He is carrying out was foretold long ago. For, on this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isaiah 25:6-9).
The wait has indeed been long and as we have waited for this journey. The journey reveals just how much we must rely on the Prophet walking it for us and standing in its path. For the journey of burial as we see from Isaiah, it isn’t easy for man to do it. It’s not even supposed to happen as we need someone to wipe away the tears from our eyes. There are so many destinations to go and see, walking to our grave is certainly not one of them. Yet, this is the physical journey we will all take and it should be the spiritual journey we all witness because of the wages of our sins. All we know is like this widow, the burial of family and friends. What makes this procession different from what inevitably will be our own at some point?
On the surface and like this widow who is going to bury her son, this is nothing new. The wages of sin is death at any point, but the Prophet who is standing in front of the procession with His great compassion has this same compassion for His people. A compassion that would see His people live. Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. This isn’t like a zombie TV show. The son who was dead is alive for all to witness as they hear his own voice. And as this man bursts alive to be witnessed by the great crowds, Jesus is no longer touching a casket of someone who is dead.
And as fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited His people!” This understandably terrified and awestruck them at first. Before this, they had only heard the accounts of the prophets doing something like this and even in the act, it did not happen as Jesus has made it happen. For Jesus did it simply by speaking. The response from the crowd is just like our response, because they offered praise and worship. This can only happen if Jesus is not just any old prophet. He must be the Prophet because the coming Messiah was sometimes referred to as “the coming Prophet.” Peter confesses this when he proclaims, Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people’ (Acts 3:22-23). The Prophet will judge, but more importantly, the Prophet does bring life.
He is not the author of death and burial and He does not find joy in this journey. He witnesses what man has done to deserve it and instead of walking the other direction or saying it is hopeless, He stands in front of the procession as its only solution. Jesus is indeed the resurrection and the life and He is at every Christian funeral. He corrects them as He corrected this one as the only Son of God and gave His mother to the care of someone close to Him. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciples took her to his own home (John 19:26-27). He gave up His mother so the widow of Nain would not just have her son physically alive again, but now she will have him spiritually alive forever. And there continues to be a faithful remnant who believes this. For those to see the raising of the dead, it demonstrates Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophetic hope and that with him the messianic age has dawned.
With the dawn of this age is the dawn of the new creation. The Creator has come in the flesh to re-create his fallen creatures. Re-created with the powerful Word of God as it was done in the beginning. For in the beginning, we see the One and only Son create as God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (Genesis 1:3). For all things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:3-5). And that light was raised up high on the cross for all to see. All see the One who died was the only begotten Son of a widow, and was the only begotten Son of God. And as the Son of God, His death on the cross doesn’t keep Him down for eternity, but instead it leaves the sting of death at its final destination in the grave. The Messianic reign is a reign of grace, proclaimed by the Prophet who followed the will of God to the cross. Instead of being defiled, Jesus cleanses and heals. And like Isaiah foretold, Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for Joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead (Isaiah 26:19).
“I say to you, arise.” These comforting words will be said to every loved one who attends a funeral here. For as Jesus raised the son from Nain, so He will raise every Christian who has died knowing His plan. For the Christian death is to die in the death of Christ. And with His death on the cross paying for our sins, just as He rose from the dead so all who die in Christ will live in Christ forever. You see tragedy knows no bounds as it strikes people of every nation, age, and station in life. The physical journey is the same. Thank God for His great compassion, that Jesus is the Savior for all people. The Gospel reveals He has conquered every foe for you, even death and the grave. He is the great Prophet and as that prophet, His power is not like the prophets of old. For He gave them the power He has. The power to raise the dead to life again. And there will be many who will not accept Jesus’ proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom. But for the remnant, for those who have gathered here, you gather because of the confession of the crowd. You gather because of the meeting on the Mount of Transfiguration. You gather because of your faith in the One and only begotten Son of God who went to Jerusalem to the cross. And with His death, He gave you life everlasting. Life heard in the Word, “I say to you, arise.” Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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