Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2026
So, there are these two great crowds approaching one another. At the head of one is Jesus, the Lord of Life. And at the head of the other? Who leads that procession of death? It was not the grieving widow, or those who bore her dead son, or the crowd itself, though they were all its captives. It was not even the coffin, laden with the dead young man. No, at the head of that procession was the devil.
The devil: who mocks our grief and laughs at us and has done so ever since he fooled the woman into thinking, with her husband, that they would not die. He and death, with its cruel grip, have clutched our hearts and throats ever since. That is why we die: it goes back to what happened in Genesis. And the devil laughs all the while: as we get sick; as we grow old; as our loved ones grow weak and frail with age, disease, or infirmity; as mortality surrounds us, hems us in, threatens, and ultimately has its way with us. And there is nothing we can do about it.
Behold, though: the Lord of life draws near the gate of the city, before this woebegone procession of death; He has compassion, and says, “Do not weep.” He steps forward and touches the open coffin, and the bearers stand still. And in that touch, He who is completely clean makes Himself unclean, taking the young man’s death upon Himself, even as He will take your uncleanness upon the Cross, that death might pass from you to Him, and so bestows His life to you. Oh, what a marvelous expression of what happens when life meets death. Beloved, this is why He came: to stop death in its tracks, to make it cease, to put forth His hand, and to say, “Arise.”
Readings:
Old Testament: 1 Kings 17:17-24
Epistle: Ephesians 3:13-21
Holy Gospel: Luke 7:11-17
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