Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
The widow at Nain surely suffered greatly. When Jesus came near the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. She had already buried her husband. Being a widow, she had placed all her hope in her son to provide for her in her age. Now her son has died, and she goes to bury him. The pangs of death surround her. The Lord has taken away the husband whom He had given her. He has taken away the son whom the Lord had given her, and with his death, the Lord has taken her financial security from her. The widow at Nain reminds us that the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. None of us are strangers to this. The Lord gives health and takes health when He allows illness and disease to attack our bodies and minds. The Lord gives wealth and possessions yet takes them through the changes and chances of life which are beyond our control. Moses says in Deuteronomy 8:18, “It is He who gives you power to get wealth,” the ability to work. Yet He also takes that ability away through disease, an accident, or the deterioration of age. The Lord gives us the good things of this life to enjoy but takes them away, sometimes as quickly as He gave them. And of course, there is death, the bitterest way our loved ones are taken from us. Like the widow at Nain, the very midst of life we are in death.
When hardships hit, when suffering strikes, and when afflictions arise, our sinful flesh has two responses. The first is to make the hardship, suffering, and affliction go away, and if we can’t get rid of it, then the flesh does everything in its power to dull the pain. The second response is to doubt God’s goodness. Christ tells us our heavenly Father gives good things to those who ask Him (Matt 7:11), yet when God takes away those good things that He has given us, the flesh believes that God is not good. He’s evil and He hates us. St. Paul says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be’ (Rom 8:7). This is always true, but it is especially true in trials and hardships. Philip Melanchthon wrote, “The flesh distrusts God, trusts in present things, seeks human aid in calamities, even contrary to God’s will, flees from afflictions, which it ought to bear because of God’s commands, doubts concerning God’s mercy, etc.” (Ap V:49). That strikes close to home. When calamities strike, we distrust God and trust in present things instead—things of this life. We seek human aid in calamities—both people and substances—rather than God’s aid, even though God tells rely on Him in every trouble. God is the one who lays afflictions on us. The psalmist says in Psalm 66:11, “You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs.” When we try to flee from the afflictions God lays on us, we sin, because it is God’s will that bear up under them in patient endurance which trusts in His promised mercy. The sinful flesh, however, is incapable of this, since it, by nature, distrusts God and doubts concerning His mercy.
Just as our flesh cannot raise itself from the dead, it cannot raise itself to faith. Jesus alone, working through His word, does both. Jesus comes to this suffering widow. He has compassion on her in her suffering. He tells her, “Do not weep,” not as if giving a command but as offering comfort. By His compassion Jesus wants to silence the sinful flesh’s distrust of Him. He teaches her—and all who will believe—that He is very compassionate and merciful (Jam 5:11). He does not want her, or anyone, to doubt His mercy, to disbelief His compassion for sinners. His compassion so moves Him that He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother. Not only is the Lord gracious and compassionate. He is powerful, mighty, and able to resurrect this young man to new life. By presenting the young man to his mother, Jesus shows her His mercy, creating faith in her heart which trusts His promised mercy. Jesus teaches us that He is with us in our sufferings. Though we are hard pressed on every side, though we are perplexed, or persecuted, He will deliver us at the time that He knows is best for us. If He allows us to be struck down by disease, misfortune, even death, He will deliver us from every evil. In fact, sometimes it is by taking us out of this life that He delivers us from every evil. He teaches us this so that we do not despair of His mercy in our afflictions, sufferings, and death, but so that we mighty love Him, pray to Him, expect aid from Him, and obey Him even in our afflictions.
Since the sinful flesh can’t do this of its own power—and wouldn’t do this if it had the power—Christ does for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. He raises us from the dead. St. Paul writes: And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Eph 2:1-3). We were dead in trespasses and sins. We were once sons of disobedience, living according to our flesh’s lusts and the desires of our minds. We were as spiritually dead as the young man in the box at Nain. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:4-7). By the Law He shows us our sinful nature and inability to rise. By the gospel He raises us to new life, forgiving us our sins and giving us new hearts in which the Holy Spirit dwells so that He may bear His fruit.
And part of the new life we now live by faith in the gospel is that we suffer the right way, not the way flesh’s way. The flesh looks to God in suffering and distrusts Him and curses Him. The new man says with the Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). The flesh looks for human comforts in the midst of sufferings. The new man says with the Psalmist, “This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life” (Ps 119:50). Whatever affliction God sends, no matter how difficult it may be or how different from anyone else’s, God promises help, aid, and mercy to all who come to Him humbly seeking Him. The flesh throws up its hands and thinks it will die in hardship. The new man says with the Psalmist, “Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction” (Ps 119:92). The flesh cannot endure hardship with joy. The new man can because his new heart is animated by the Holy Spirit. The flesh grouses about every trial and tribulation. The new man says with St. Paul, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28). Knowing that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away—and that He gives and takes away for our eternal good, we can endure every hardship in patience and trust until He delivers us from them. Whether God gives or takes, we know how to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need as Paul says. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:12-13).
This is why Paul tells the Corinthians in today’s epistle, “do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.” Don’t lose heart when hardships hit, when suffering strikes, and when afflictions arise. But pray with St. Paul to be strengthened with might through Christ’s Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That is a pray God loves to hear, because He inspired Paul to pray it for the Corinthians and for all Christians. Christ promises that God the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask, and the Holy Spirit is given to strength you in the inner man—the new man. How is the inner man strengthened? By the gospel. By faith Christ dwells in our hearts so that we may daily grow in our comprehension of His love for us. We grow in our understanding of His love as He richly and daily forgives all our sins. We grow in our comprehension of His love as He strengthens us to endure every hardship, bear up under every trial, and suffer all things in patient trust. We grow in comprehension of the love of Christ which passes knowledge as we believe more and more that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away not out of spite, or punishment, or hatred for us, but that all He does is for our eternal good, that we may remain steadfast in faith, persevere till the end, and be saved. This is how we suffer. This is how we die. By Christ’s strength and love. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
