The Widow’s Son Meets The Virgin’s Son

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:10

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

00:18

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

00:25

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

00:31

Luke, chapter 7, verses 11 through 17. Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called

00:38

Nain. His disciples and a great crowd went with Him. As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out.

00:47

The only son of his mother, she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.

00:52

And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and He said to her, Do not weep. Then He came up and touched the beer, and the bears stood still.

01:02

And He said, Young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

01:10

Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has arisen among us. God has visited

01:16

His people. And this report about Him spread through the whole country of Judea and all the surrounding country.

01:23

In the name of Jesus. Amen. Alright, this is a fun story. And when you start checking the cross references, things are starting to happen.

01:33

There's some crackling going on. I hope you have the same excitement about it as I do. Now, we're going to take a look at our two texts,

01:40

Old Testament and New Testament, together for a very specific reason. They work together.

01:46

Elijah, here, in 1st Kings 17, with the story of the raising of the son, her son, the widow of...

01:55

Not Nain, but... Elijah goes to Zarephath. That's right. Holy smokes,

02:02

I need a vacation. I'm losing my mind. Yeah, the widow of Zarephath.

02:08

In fact, in the Old Testament, there are two accounts of people being raised from the dead. One is the story of the raising of the widow of Zarephath's son.

02:16

And the widow, by the way... Being a widow in the ancient world, this is the days before there was welfare. This is the days before there were social services,

02:25

WIC, and things like that. And it's really bad for women who do not have husbands, because men are the ones who own the property.

02:34

Women don't. And as a result of it, for a woman to lose her husband is a bad thing.

02:40

But for a woman to lose her only son after that... The only thing she gets to look down the rest of her life is abject poverty.

02:50

Unless somebody really is kind enough to take care of her and meet her needs. It's a terrible situation.

02:56

But the other raising is by the prophet Elisha. And Elisha, he's the one who comes after Elijah.

03:04

Often times people get the two confused, because their names are so interchangeable in the way we speak. But Elisha, he raises the son of the

03:13

Shunammite woman. And she is not poor at all. In fact, she's quite well -to -do.

03:19

She's so well -to -do, she's able to build an apartment, if you would. A spare bedroom, you know, up on the top floor for Elisha.

03:26

Anytime he's in town, he can come and stay there. And so what I find fascinating between the two

03:31

Old Testament resurrection accounts that we see... from Elijah and Elisha, is that it kind of covers the whole financial spectrum.

03:41

From abject poverty to well -to -do. Christ has bled and died for the rich and the poor.

03:46

Important for us to keep that in mind. But in our story today, in our Old Testament story, it's the widow of Zarephath.

03:53

And if you know the context, what's going on here is that Elisha, he's literally on the run.

04:01

The Lord told him to let King Ahaz and his wife Jezebel... That's how you pronounce her name, by the way.

04:08

Jezebel, the princess of Baal. Terrible, terrible demonic false god, by the way.

04:15

God told Elijah to let everybody know, it's not going to rain in Israel until I say so.

04:21

And why is that a big deal? Because, well, the people who believed in Baal and who sacrificed their children to Baal...

04:28

Yeah, there was human sacrifice involved there. They believed that Baal was the one who brought the rains.

04:33

And because he was the one who brought the rains, he was also the one who brought the crops and got all the glory. So, God tells

04:40

Elijah, let everybody know, it's not going to rain until you say so. And so, it is.

04:46

And so, what ends up happening is, it stops raining. Without rain, well, crops dry up and things go bad and go into a famine mode.

04:52

Now, for a while, Elijah was hiding in a place called the Brook of Shareth. And ravens were literally bringing him sandwiches every day.

05:01

Don't know how clean they were, but I guess if you're hungry, you don't complain. And eventually, that brook dried up and he had to head out somewhere else.

05:09

And by this time, he's on Israel's most wanted list. Every Saturday night on television, have you seen this prophet?

05:17

And we're looking for him. If you've seen this prophet, please call Jezebel at area code 666.

05:23

Anyway. Sorry, I just had to say it that way. So, as he's on the run, he heads out of Israel, up near Tyre and Sidon, to Zarephath.

05:35

And there, he finds a widow that God had basically said, you're going to take care of Elijah, my prophet.

05:41

And so, God takes care of her. Makes it so her oil never runs out and her flour never runs out.

05:48

Kind of a multiplication miracle, which is oh so amazing if you think about it. But then, something happens.

05:54

Calamity falls. And this is where we pick up in 1 Kings 17, verse 17. After this, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill.

06:03

His illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, what have you against me,

06:10

O man of God? You've come to bring my sins to remembrance and to cause the death of my son.

06:23

Quick note. How many of you, when things go poorly in your life, the first thing you think is that God is punishing you for your sins?

06:35

We're tempted to think this way, are we not? Now, keep this in mind.

06:40

I'm speaking now to Christians. If you are truly in Christ, your sins have been washed away.

06:46

You've been raised with Christ. And you are a penitent believer in Christ. Then you must know this.

06:52

That any calamity that befalls you is not God punishing you for your sins.

06:58

And there's a very simple reason for that. Because all of your sins have been punished in Christ. You are not being punished for your sins.

07:07

God does not punish his children. And there is no double jeopardy in the kingdom of God.

07:14

Punished sins are forgiven sins. And Christ has bled and died for them all. You may be being disciplined by God.

07:22

But the reality of the situation is you read the book of Job. Read the book of Job and you realize you might never really figure out why you're going through what you're going through in a tough circumstance.

07:35

Because what was the reason why Job suffered? Was it because he was so sinful that God had to thump him on the head and get him back into line?

07:45

No. The reason Job suffered so much is because he was a righteous man. It was because he loved

07:51

God. So keep this in mind. As Christians, when we experience suffering and calamity, we may not be able to figure out why.

08:05

We may never be given a reason why. But the one thing that we can absolutely rule out is that God is punishing you for your sins.

08:17

So keep that in mind. So Elijah said to her,

08:25

Give me your son. He took him from her arms, carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed.

08:32

And then he cried to the Lord, O Lord Yahweh my God, you have brought calamity even upon the widow with whom

08:38

I sojourned by killing her son. Then he stretched himself out on the child three times.

08:44

And he cried to the Lord, O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again.

08:50

Three times. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Three days in the grave.

08:56

Yeah, there's something going on here that even points us to Jesus, right? And the

09:01

Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. That's right. God listened to Elijah's voice.

09:07

Isn't that amazing, right? The life of the child came into him again, and he revived.

09:13

Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said,

09:18

See, your son lives. And the woman said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the

09:26

Lord, the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth. Miracles always support a message.

09:34

Miracles are never the message. They always support one. False signs and false wonders will support false theology.

09:43

Keep that in mind. But here we see that this miracle shows this woman that the words of this prophet regarding Yahweh are true.

09:54

And we have a greater miracle than this. The resurrection of the Son of God himself on the third day after he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.

10:02

That's the miracle we point to for the truth of the words in the mouth of Jesus. And so with that, you kind of have the framework.

10:12

Old Testament is now type and shadow. And resurrecting dead widows' sons.

10:20

Type and shadow. Pointing to Jesus now. Let's take a look now at how this text points us to Jesus as we return to our

10:29

Gospel text this morning in the Gospel of Luke. Chapter 7. Here's what it says. As Jesus drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

10:45

We already know what this means. Not only is it personal loss on a level that is hard to imagine and the grief that she has to be going through, but now her life is literally looking at poverty straight in the face.

11:00

A considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her.

11:10

I think a good rendering of the Greek, because the Greek is really strong here. Compassion...

11:17

This is one of the weaknesses of English, not of the original language. A good way to say it would probably be like his guts were wrenched.

11:27

He was really on the inside just... I've got to do something.

11:36

Now, before we continue, I have to give you a little bit more context. This is taking place in Nain.

11:43

Nain is a Jewish town. It's near Galilee, southwest of Galilee.

11:48

You can find it on your Bible map, probably. So Jesus is in a Jewish context in a

11:53

Jewish town with, well, basically a bunch of Jews. And you need to understand something about, well,

12:01

Jews and their relationships to dead bodies. So with that, we have to look now at the book of Numbers chapter 19, starting at verse 11.

12:10

And I would like you to follow along if you can. Something really important going on here. Here's what it says.

12:20

Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean for seven days.

12:27

Now, unclean is a pretty importantly bad status for a

12:32

Jew. Unclean means you, well, can't participate in the community. Unclean puts you outside of the camp.

12:40

Unclean, well, if you're declared to be unclean and you're a woman, well, you literally cannot even come to church.

12:48

Unclean is big. And people who are unclean need to be made clean.

12:53

And how you're made clean is vitally important in our story here today.

12:59

We'll talk about this. So the person who touches the dead body shall be unclean for seven days. He shall cleanse himself with the, watch this, water on the third day.

13:09

With water? It's not any old water, it's the water. We'll talk about the ingredients of the water here in a minute.

13:16

So he shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day. Third day, day of the resurrection.

13:22

Seven days, seven days of creation. New creation stuff going on here. There's biblical numerology in play.

13:29

So after that, he will be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean.

13:37

Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of Yahweh and that person shall be cut off from Israel because the water for impurity was not thrown on him.

13:50

Notice again, it's the water and now it's described as the water for impurity.

13:56

It was not thrown on him. He shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.

14:02

You're thinking, okay, we kind of get it. No, actually there's a little bit more. Let's keep reading. This is the law.

14:07

When someone dies in a tent, everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days.

14:15

Every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. Whoever is in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who have died naturally or touches a human bone or even touches a grave.

14:28

Notice there. It's not necessary for you to even just touch the body if you even touch the person's grave.

14:38

So if you're ever out here visiting somebody at Kongsvinger who's now gone to be with Christ, just going and touching their grave makes you unclean.

14:48

Big deal, right? They shall be unclean for seven days.

14:54

For the unclean they shall take... Now here are the ingredients for the water.

15:00

The water for impurity. Watch the ingredients. For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering and fresh water shall be added in a vessel.

15:11

Then a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone or the slain or the dead or the grave.

15:30

All right? Let's think about this. Water mixed with ashes from the sin offering.

15:39

What does that sound like? You're sitting there going, that sounds a lot like no.

15:49

Yeah. No. Yeah. Baptism.

15:56

Because think about this. When you were baptized, was that just mere water you were baptized with? I know it came from Minnesota.

16:04

But was that mere water? You were baptized with water mixed with the very blood of Christ, which is the atonement for your sins.

16:16

So notice here now, clean, unclean. Unclean has to be cleansed by water mixed with ashes from the sin offering and sprinkled with hyssop.

16:27

Hyssop, that's the branch used to sprinkle the blood of the lambs of the Passover when the people were in Egypt, right?

16:36

Dip it in the blood, put the blood on the lentils, right? Hyssop. All of this is talking about you are made clean by the sin sacrifice mixed with the water.

16:47

Quite ingredients, isn't it? But see, the thing is, we're all made clean this same exact way.

16:54

So clean and unclean are your two categories. How you're made clean is through the water for impurity.

17:01

Think that, okay? And now you've got your context. Let's go back to our story.

17:07

You are all now good catechized Jews. So when the

17:13

Lord saw her, he had compassion. His guts were wrenched. And he said, do not weep.

17:20

Then he came up and he touched the beer and the bearers stood still.

17:28

If this were a movie, this would be the part of the movie where they would over crank the film in order to play it back in slow motion.

17:36

There's Jesus reaching out to touch the beer. If you touch a grave, you're unclean. He's reaching out his hand in slow motion.

17:43

It now cuts to the crowd and they're all going... And he gets closer and then you can see him going, no, you're going to be unclean.

17:55

Right? That's what's going on here. So he touches the beer and everybody stands still.

18:06

Awkward silence. But see, here's the interesting part. This is where the widow's son now meets the virgin's son.

18:16

This is where the dead meets the one who is the resurrection and the life.

18:22

And when death meets life, death gives way. Jesus said, young man,

18:28

I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak.

18:40

And Jesus gave him to his mother. You can only imagine what happened at that moment.

18:48

I had a hard time kind of figuring out something that we can kind of compare this to. Have any of you, like me, seen some of those videos they post on social media of the men in our military who've been on a long deployment and they come home and they surprise their kids?

19:05

You know, it's usually the setup is that the kids are at school and they go to school and maybe it's their birthday or there's some occasion and there in the middle of the classroom is a very large box with, you know, decorative paper in it, right?

19:20

And they say to everyone, gather around, and they tell the child, this one's for you, open it up. And they open into the paper and open the lid and out comes

19:29

Dad. Kills me every time. First thing out of their mouths is,

19:37

Daddy! The weeping.

19:43

Overcome with sheer joy. I mean, just a mix of emotions, right?

19:51

Imagine this poor widow. We don't know the circumstances under which this man died.

19:57

We don't know. Did he die a long, languishing death with a debilitating disease? Was it an accident out on the farm?

20:06

Or did he just fall and accidentally break his neck? It doesn't say. But the one thing we do know is that on that day, before Jesus showed up, she had heard the news, your boy is dead.

20:21

And all of the crushing weight of that emotion, the crushing weight of that loss, having already lost her husband, now she loses her son.

20:31

Now, not only does she no longer have all of those closest and near to her, and dear to her, now she has no means to even support herself.

20:42

And in that moment, Jesus, whose guts were wrenched for her, gives her back her son.

20:53

What a moment. Fear sees them all, the text says.

21:02

And would it not seize you as well if you saw something like that? What is happening here? So they glorified

21:11

God, saying, a great prophet has arisen among us.

21:17

They make the connection. We haven't seen something like this since Elijah or Elisha.

21:23

Right. But see, Jesus is more than a prophet. He is the prophet of prophets. And He's the King of kings.

21:29

And He's the Lord of lords. Right? He's prophet, priest, and king. But the next words are very important.

21:36

God has visited His people. Indeed, He has. Now, oftentimes, we're tempted to read a story like this and say, man, why is it that the people in the

21:49

Bible times get to have all the miracles, right? Why is it that God visits them, but He never seems to visit us?

21:58

I mean, here we are in the middle of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church plopped down in the middle of Oslo, Minnesota, which isn't nearly as glorious as the original

22:05

Oslo from what I understand. Right? How come God never visits us?

22:13

We're tempted to think this way, are we not? But see, you're not thinking about it correctly.

22:21

God does visit us. And He has visited you. And not only that,

22:26

Jesus Himself, just like this young man who was dead and was touched by Jesus, Jesus has also touched you.

22:36

Want me to prove it? I'd love to. Ephesians 2, verse 1.

22:44

You were dead in your trespasses and your sins, in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the

22:56

Spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

23:10

Brothers and sisters, this was all of us. We were all born dead in trespasses and sins.

23:18

And it wasn't mostly dead. It was graveyard dead. Literally, think of us like zombies if you would now.

23:27

The walking dead. But then, look at the next sentence. But God.

23:34

Being rich in mercy. You can almost see the parallel. Jesus' guts are wrenched.

23:41

God's guts are wrenched for you. He's rich in mercy. He's rich in kindness.

23:48

And because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses,

23:54

God has made us alive together with Christ. Let me give you a picture of it.

24:03

Every time a woman or a family from Kongsvinger brings their infant child to the baptismal font to be baptized, it is just like the funeral procession.

24:18

They are literally bringing a dead child to the baptismal font, and Jesus touches that child in the waters of purity there, where the waters are mixed with the sacrifice for our sins, and that child is made alive and made pure.

24:39

God Himself, Christ Himself, reaches through the waters and touches that child and says,

24:47

I tell you to arise. That's what's happening.

24:53

God is visiting us. And He has visited us.

25:01

For by grace you have been saved. God has raised us up with Him and seated us up with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages

25:13

He might show the measurable riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

25:23

God is merciful and He's kind and He visits His people. And when death and life collide, death gives way and God raises from the dead.

25:35

Colossians 2 says the same thing. Colossians 2, 11 -14, In Him you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by the putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised

25:53

Him from the dead. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

26:00

God has made you alive together with Him having forgiven us all of our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands.

26:09

This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. Today, Christ will visit us not just through the preaching of the

26:27

Word, but Christ will visit us in the Lord's Supper. Christ will be there, body and blood, for the forgiveness of our sins.

26:36

God has visited His people and He continues to visit His people. And if you see it the way the

26:43

Bible describes it, you cannot help but see the miraculous and the amazing and the awe -inspiring and the type of thing that would make you sit and pay attention in fear and awe and in love.

26:59

The text ends with this report about Him spread throughout the whole Judean countryside and all the surrounding country.

27:07

Let everybody know. Tell Oslo. Let Alvarado know. Let the people in Warren know and those in Grand Forks.

27:16

Sunday after Sunday after Sunday here at Kongsvinger, Jesus is showing up.

27:23

God is visiting His people. He's forgiving sins. He's raising people from the dead.

27:29

Miracles are happening here like you wouldn't believe. And it's all true when you learn to see it the way

27:38

Scripture teaches it. For we know, because Christ is risen from the grave, that the

27:47

Word of God in His mouth is true. And it's true for you.

27:54

You, whom Christ has touched and raised from the grave and today feeds with His body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

28:02

In the name of Jesus, Amen. Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950, 470th

28:24

Avenue, NW, Oslo, MN, 56744 And again that address is

28:32

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950, 470th

28:37

Avenue, NW, Oslo, MN, 56744 We thank you for your support.

28:45

All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.