LESSON: ROMANS 8:28-30

For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath, for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. Isaiah 54:7-8

The poor widow in this week’s Gospel (Luke 7:11-17) is so closely beset by very great sorrow and fear that she thinks that God, heaven, earth, and everything is opposed to her. Because she looks at all this from the viewpoint of the flesh and as it appears outwardly before her eyes, she must come to the conclusion that it is impossible for her to be released from such anxiety and fear.

But when her son was awakened from death, it seemed just as if heaven and earth, wood and stone were laughing with her and that everything was rejoicing with her. She forgot all her pain and sorrow. It disappeared just like a little spark of fire is extinguished when it falls into the middle of the sea. Isaiah speaks of a “brief moment.” Sometimes I do not see it that way, and the “brief moment” seems an eternity. But in reality, it is only “a brief moment,” and it is followed by much joy as the psalmist also reminds us, saying, “Thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5). But that can still be hidden for us, and like the widow here in the Gospel, we do not see it. This deceased son is in the midst of life, for God has him in His bosom, and it was God’s intention to awaken him from death. There is a little spark of death there which proved itself his undoing for “a brief moment.” Of course, none of the people present saw it that way. But when he was restored to life again, that which was previously hidden before all the world became manifest.
SL 11:1653 (14)

PRAYER: Your ultimate purposes, O God, are sometimes hidden from us, but we are assured that You are always concerned for our good. So direct and govern us by Your Holy Spirit that, whatever befalls us, we are nevertheless convinced that all things must work for our good, in and through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 5:127-139.

LESSON: 2 TIMOTHY 1:8-10

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57

In our eyes, all miracles and works of God are impossible, and it is also impossible for nature to grasp them. The reason for this is that God wants us to recognize Him as an almighty Creator who brings forth a possibility from an impossibility and makes something out of nothing.

It is impossible for me to become alive again after I have died. Even if I prayed to all the angels and saints for help in this respect, nothing would come of it. What could I hope for from my own free will here? Yet even in death I am bound to say, “I will live.” This does not take place because of anything in myself or due to myself. I know that I have a God who does not make something out of a piece of wood that might be lying before my eyes, but a God who can make a possibility out of an impossibility and something out of nothing. Otherwise, He would not be in reality the true God.

Hence, if death came to me and I could live no longer, I would still be able to say, “I am still going to live and I want to live. The death which is hovering over me is like a tiny spark of fire, and the life that I hope to live looms as large as the ocean.”

Reason cannot grasp how this comes to pass. But he who has faith knows this for certain. To the man with faith, death is as a tiny spark of fire in the middle of a great ocean of life, and the little spark is extinguished in a moment. God is almighty; and he who has faith is in God.

SL 11:1652 (12-13)

PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, You are the conqueror of sin and death. In Your victory we are also conquerors of these bitter enemies. Be with us all the time of our earthly pilgrimage, especially in the hour of our death, for Your truth and name’s sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 5:127-139.

LESSON: PSALM 119:121-128

“I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you.” John 14:18

The common lesson taught in all the Gospels is that we should learn from them what kind of God we have. In this week’s Gospel (Luke 7:11-17), the point that is made quite clear is that God forsakes no one. And so, He lets this widow see once again what kind of God she has. When she is forlorn and without a husband or son, Christ demonstrates to her that He is still at her side and says to her in effect, “Learn to believe and trust in God. Recognize Him to whom death and life are both alike. Be brave-hearted and courageous. Do not weep; there is no need for that.”

Then Jesus steps up, awakens the dead man, and gives him to his mother.

These and similar miracles are recorded in God’s Word that we may learn in our hearts what attitude to adopt over against God and what we should expect from Him. This woman had certainly made up her mind that she had lost her son and that it was impossible for her to receive him back again. Even if someone had assured her that within an hour her son would be alive again, she would have regarded it as impossible and declared, “It is more likely that the heavens will collapse than that my son should live again.” Before she has time to look about her, God intervenes and does what she had never even dared to regard as a possibility and restores her son to life.

Why does God follow such a course? He allows a person to fall into such danger and fear that there is no longer any hope at all of counsel or help. But it is not His intention to lead us to despair. He wants us to put our faith and trust in Him alone who can bring forth a possibility from an impossibility, something out of nothing.

SL 11:1651 (10-11)

PRAYER: As far as we are concerned, O God, You are never far off but ever ready to help us, ever at our side and along all our paths and ways. Continue to support us with Your boundless grace, in and through Christ our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 5:127-139.