When Life & Death Collide

It’s a terrible scene we’ve all witnessed. The long train of cars following a hearse on the highway. Pulling over causes us to reflect on all the times we’ve driven in those caravans. It’s the painful procession we’ve seen if you have ever been in a cemetery when the cars arrive and a family marches to another resting place. Your mind flashes to the times you too have marched in those lines.

One day outside the Galilean village of Nain, two large processions of people collided (Lk. 7:11-17). One lead by Life, and the other by death. Jesus’ disciples and large crowds of people were following Jesus in expectant joy of what he’d say and do next. They just witnessed him heal a dying man without even being there! (Lk. 7:10) But as they approach the village of Nain, they see another large procession of people. That procession is entirely different from their own. It’s about as pitiful a scene as could be. A widow is leading her only son to his grave. For this widow it meant great amounts of sorrow and years of poverty lay ahead. What would Jesus do now? What’s going to happen WHEN LIFE AND DEATH COLLIDE?

Jesus approaches the lonely, grieving widow and says, “Don’t cry.” 

“Don’t cry? How can she not! Didn’t Jesus cry at Lazarus’ tomb? Is it wrong for me to cry?” Of course not! Look at what Luke says. “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her…” He had compassion for her. This is what you feel when you see someone begging for help on a street corner and their situation is real. It’s what you feel in your heart when you see your loved one suffering in a hospital bed. It’s what you feel in your gut as you watch your loved one gasping for breath as life is slowly slipping away. That is what Jesus feels for this woman. His heart is breaking as he sees his people literally carry the consequences of sin on their shoulders. This is the one who goes to her and says, “Don’t cry.”

When Jesus says, “Don’t cry,” it’s not like our powerless words. When Jesus orders an end to tears there is actually something behind those words. There are promises beyond imagination. There is the power to stop a heart, or to make it beat again.

Then Jesus does another shocking thing. He does the forbidden and unclean. He grabs hold of the stretcher carrying the body of the lifeless young man. The pall bearers stop in their tracks. Life and death are about to collide. And O, how we long to meet Jesus in our own funeral processions and hear him say these eight words. “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 

If telling a grieving widow, “Don’t cry” seemed absurd, how much more these words! But again, remember who speaks. It is the One who with a word, created all that you see. It is the One who gives you life and breath, and also takes it away. He is Life, and when Life and death collided on the cross, Life won. Oh, yes, death held him for three short days, but WHEN LIFE & DEATH COLLIDE, Life wins!

The young man sits up and begins to talk, and Jesus gives the young man back to his mother. His words that dry eyes now also show the reason why they dry eyes. The people respond with hearts of faith: “A great prophet has appeared among us!” They recognize him as the prophet Moses said would come. They declare, “God has come to help his people!” God came and visited his people with his mercy and grace.

Dear friends, this is the same loving God who comes and visits you with his love, especially in those dark days. When grim death assails us, whether in our own bodies or that of our loved ones, Jesus our Lord is there. He calms us, saying, “Don’t cry. I came on a headlong course to collide with death. I came to conquer death. And I have won. I have shattered the gates of hell and burst open the door to heaven! Because I live, you also will live!”

Pastor Ben Enstad 

St. John—Valmy