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Everybody dies. All �flesh is as grass� writes the Psalmist. Everyone in the pages of Sacred Scripture died. �The wages of sin is death� writes the Apostle. Every man, woman, child, dog, and every other created thing comes to an earthly fleshly thing because of sin; because the creation is broken. The perfect world was broken by your parents. And every day you continue to push it over a bit more and kick some more dirt upon it with your own transgressions.

That psalmist I mentioned was the greatest King who ever lived, King David. He was called the �apple of God�s eye� by the Lord Himself. That aforementioned Apostle was the greatest Missionary and evangelical letter writer of all time. The Prince of the Apostles, Saint Peter died.

The Disciple who reclined his head on our Lord�s breast at the Last Supper died. Moses, Father Abraham, the Magdalene, and the author of this morning�s Evangel, Saint Luke, all died. Are you any different than they were? Are you any better or more special? Even the Blessed Virgin herself, Mother of God, (as both Luther and the Lutheran Confessions refer to her) died. If even the most unique human who ever lived can die, what about you? What about the son of the Widow of Nain?

Today�s text is one of the favorites for many Christians; and with good reason. The events which occurred outside the city walls of Nain on that fateful day beautifully illustrate Who the Rabbi from Nazareth really was, and what His ultimate Mission was to be. It had, and has, both immediate effect and eternal consequence. It gives confidence to believers.

It�s difficult to talk about death with those who have no concept of it, either because of youth or family circumstances wherein nobody has died in the memory of the young person. Teenagers think they�re immortal. The older one gets the more clearly one sees death. Christians are human, are sinful, and therefore are still apprehensive, troubled, angered, and even frightened from time to time as they contemplate their own earthly demise. But the loss of a dear loved one is even more of an upheaval. Many of you have seen your own grandparents and parents die. If they died as unbelievers the lasting pain that that can cause is fearful. But even that tragedy can be worked by God for much good as it can many times cause the survivors to focus on the �One thing needful� Christ Jesus. Look what He did for the Widow and her boy!!!

Understand Who He is. It�s all about Jesus not about temporary gifts. It all about the lasting Grace of faith bestowed in His Word and in His Sacramental Word, not about a few extra temporal months or years. This veil of tears is oh so temporary, like a mayfly in a millisecond, but the Kingdom of Righteousness, the Table Festivities in Heaven are forever and ever.

If this text were only about instant answer to prayer, keeping a loved one with us for a longer period of time, then we should be the most pitiful of men and greatly to be pitied as Paul reminded the Corinthians. This young man given back to his Mother by the love of Jesus, went on from that moment to other moments until such time as he�died. Lazarus, brother to Mary and Martha died, even after Jesus brought him back to life. The young boys raised from the dead by Elijah and Elisha eventually became old men who died.

Concentrate on Christ and have faith focused on His Word. Only God can bring someone back from the dead. The same God Who granted His power to be worked through His Old Testament Prophets Elisha and Elijah, was there in the flesh, and fully visible, to do the job Himself. The crowd was correct when they said: �God has visited His people� for Jesus is God. God became Incarnate (in the flesh) so that He might fulfill all that you were supposed to but can�t. The flesh of man, the blood of man, the will and purpose and actions, thoughts, words are to Love God perfectly and Love Neighbor perfectly. The inherited sinful self that is now part and parcel of your old nature cannot keep God�s Commands. The inability to do what God originally made you all to do is because of sin. God forces no one to be His puppet. The man that rejects the Lord will die.

Ah, but look what God did for the Widow and her boy!!! God in the flesh came to the world to keep the commands of His Father and to pay the penalty that you deserve. Jesus came to get the job of perfect obedience done, and then to Forgive you your trespasses by dying in your place.

Only with forgiveness of sins can there be life and salvation. Only with the shedding of blood (�for in the blood there is life�) can there be life.

The meeting at Nain was the precursor, the appetizer, the foretaste of what would soon happen at Calvary and then at the Tomb on Easter morning. This was a coming attraction of Jesus� battle with death; not just a temporary skirmish and momentary win (the boy living another 40 or 50 years) but a total triumph of the Trinity over Hades, Satan, the fallen world, and your �Old Adam.� Yes the lad opened his eyes, lifted his head and got up off the funeral bier; but only because, in reality, the Lord switched places with him. It would be Jesus Who would hang His Sacred Head �now wounded,� encircled with thorns. It would be Jesus Who would shut His eyes, clogged with stinging sweat and thick blood. It would Jesus Who would be taken down from the tree, dead, to be wrapped in a burial shroud and placed in a tomb. This God in the flesh did because He loved that Woman and her boy beyond reason, measure, and understanding. This Jesus did because He loved you so much He doesn�t want you to be carried on an everlasting coffin to the lake of fire. Jesus died so that you might live forever.

You see my fellow Corinthians, Jesus did not stay in deaths strong bands. The Lord was truly the Lord of Life and Light and He arose again on the Third Day.

Because Jesus lives (He is the God of the living and not of the dead) those who are �in Him� and those who have Him �in them� are also alive�not just now, not just for another �number� of earthly decades, but forever.

His faithful sheep are indeed �In Him,� in His field, His flock, His very holy wounds by the power of His Word. It isn�t that you �confirmed� anything that you are saved. Rather it is that He has confirmed His love upon you by what He did at Calvary at what He does here this day. He has baptized you into His family and into Himself. At the holy font you were buried with Him into death, so that even as He was raised from the grave so too you are raised from eternal in Him. You confessed this morning that you look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. You do this by Grace through faith, not of yourselves, so that no one can boast. You hear Jesus speak and you have Him; you have life.

You eat and drink Jesus and you have Him; you have life.

Hallelujah! Jesus lives. Hallelujah! Jesus lives forever in you.

In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost