Trinity 16, 2024

Rev. Thomas Van Hemert

St. Luke 7:11-16

Trinity 16

September 15, 2024

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.

We as Christians walk together through life. That’s literally what “Synod” means – to walk together or side by side. Our lives that we share together and with one another, from our birth to our death, are marked by significant events. These significant events, including our birth and death, are, if we think about it, often accompanied by processions—by events in which we walk together and support one another. For example, when a baby is about to be born, the parents drive down, literally process, to the hospital. Sometimes, the procession must happen rather quickly because mom is in painful labor and she needs to be driven to the hospital. Following the birth, there then might be a gathering of family members in the hospital room who have all processed to the hospital to see and hold the new family member.

Once that child has been confirmed in the faith and the vows that were made on his behalf at Holy Baptism become his own, he processes forward to receive the rite of confirmation. The same goes for high school graduation. All of the graduates are seated in the gym or on the football field and one by one, they each process forward, walk across the stage, while having their name called out and receive their diploma.

Alongside Confirmation, think of all the events that take place in the church and how each event generally begins with a procession. Parents with a newborn child come forward, literally, they process forward, and bring their child to the font for Holy Baptism. Confirmation was just mentioned in a similar manner. But also, think of marriage. The wedding ceremony generally begins with a procession: the groom walks down the aisle and takes his place at the foot of the chancel. Following him in the procession are the bridesmaids and groomsmen. The procession ends with the bride and her father walking down the aisle together one last time before she joins her husband and the two, the bride and groom, become one flesh.

Throughout our lives together in the Church, we begin each Divine Service with a procession. The cross is carried by an acolyte from the back of the nave to the foot of the chancel. Though He is actually and truly present in His Word and in preaching, bodily present in the Lord’s Supper, the procession with the processional crucifix symbolizes Christ coming into His house and being present with us in the Divine Service. So also at the Easter Vigil. We gather outside the sanctuary and are led into the Church to wait and keep vigil, literally to keep watch for our Lord’s glorious Resurrection

The final procession that most individuals participate in is the funeral procession. The sinner has died. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. So it is that in the funeral procession, after we have commended our dearly departed to God, we process in our cars to the cemetery, where the body of that Christian, loved and redeemed by Jesus, will wait until he is called out of His grave to live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

Processions are an integral part of our living together, literally, our walking together in Christ. We walk from here to there as one body, as the Body of Christ. We walk together to the font, from the font, back and forth to the altar to receive the Holy Communion, and then finally, to the grave.

Not only for us, but processions were also and integral part of the life of the Old Testament and New Testament Christians. Jesus, in the Gospel reading, is going into a city called Nain. Nain was a small-town south-west of Mount Tabor and just north of Mount Moriah. Many of His disciples went with Him, and also a large crowd. They are literally processing together as they approach the town of Nain. And when He came near to the gate of the city, Luke says, “Behold.” “Behold, look at this. Pay attention. Something important is about to happen.” Behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother. A large crowd from the city was with her. We see in this account two large processions approaching one another. One procession, Jesus’ procession, the procession of life that will eventually end in His death on the cross outside Jerusalem, and the other procession: a procession of death which will result in the burial of a dead man.

But again, Luke says, “Behold.” This is important for us to notice. Behold, pay attention, something great is about to happen. Luke is quick to point out that the mother of a dead man was also a widow. This was not her first funeral procession. This was not her first procession of death. She was a widow. She had already buried her husband, and who knows who else she may have buried. And now she must go on in life without her son. Now, she is alone. Jesus sees her weeping. He has compassion on her and says to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He says, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” So the dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. He was dead! He was truly dead! He was dead for along time. But Jesus says, “Young man, I say to you, ‘arise.’ Awake, O sleeper, awake.” And he does.

Jesus is the Lord over death and the grave. He has the power to raise the dead. He has compassion, He comes to the coffin, touches it, and tells the young man to rise. What Jesus says must happen. When He tells the raging sea to be quiet, it calms. When He tell the paralytic to get up and walk, he does. When He says, “This is My Body; this is My blood,” behold, it is. And when He says, “Young man I say to you, arise,” he rises. The young man is raised from the dead and is given back to his mother. No longer is there a procession of death, a procession to the grave to bury this young man because Jesus has taken that boy’s death into Himself.

This is why Jesus touches the coffin. To touch the coffin of a dead man, according to the Levitical Law, would render that person ceremonially unclean. But Jesus touches it anyway. He takes our uncleanness, He takes our sins, He takes death into Himself so that He might carry it to the cross to cover and take away our sins. The young man is raised out of the open coffin, so that Jesus can get in. He would take the young man’s place in death so that the young man might join Jesus in eternal life and never die again.

There are no longer two processions: one from the crowd, which was accompanying Jesus and another from that great funeral march. Jesus has taken the young man’s sins and therefore, his death into Himself. Now there is only one procession: the procession to the cross. Once He gives up His spirit on the cross, He will then be laid in the tomb. But after three days, the grave will spit Him up and He will walk out of the tomb. That, of course, has already happened. He will come again to lead us out of our graves in a great procession to heaven. Then, we too will sing, “The strife is over, the battle won! Alleluia!”

In +Jesus’ name.