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Pastor Tom Steers on September 20, 2026

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THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

September 20, 2026

Pastor Tom Steers

Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto

Our Bible Readings:

Old Testament Reading: 1 Kings 17:17-24

Psalm 30

Epistle Reading: Ephesians 3:13-21

Gospel Reading: Luke 7:11-17

Our Hymn of the Day from Lutheran Service Book is LSB 818, “In Thee Is Gladness” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW-bHmiis0M&list=RDwW-bHmiis0M&start_radio=1

The Sermon –

Many of us have been to funerals of loved ones.

They may have been family or friends.

We experienced the loss as physical pain.

Imagine, though, for a second, that a stranger came up and touched the casket, and all of a sudden, your loved one is alive.

There would be shock, then joy!

Joy that death had been transformed into life.

Two great crowds approached one another on the road into Nain in Israel 2,000 years ago.

One was a crowd of disciples and curious people.

The other was a group weighed down with grief.

Ironically, both crowds followed young men.

One was a corpse accompanied by a grieving mother.

The other crowd followed a great teacher that his followers did not yet understand was God in human flesh.

The dead man’s mother was a widow.

This was a double tragedy.

The government didn’t provide a safety net in those days.

Sons took care of their aged parents.

And this dead man was the only son of a widow.

It was generally only close family that you could financially rely on; most people were poor.

Not only had this woman mourned the death of her husband … not only must she now grieve for her son, but this widow could now look forward to a precarious life without a protector.

Although she now walked in a crowd, her future was a life of solitude and extreme … possibly deadly… poverty.

This was the harsh reality of existence in those times.

The death of a widow’s only son was a hammer blow to a mother.

The custom when meeting a funeral procession in those days was not that different than ours.

The pedestrian stepped aside out of respect for the funeral.

Not only was there respect for the mourners, but there was also the consideration that under Jewish law death made a body ritually unclean.

So, the right thing to do was to step aside as the procession went by.

The funeral party expected Jesus and His crowd to respectfully allow the dead man to pass as the carriers bore him to the tomb.

In our experience, all joy retreats before death, and if we can avoid dealing with it in any way, we usually try to.

It’s what can be expected.

But Jesus doesn’t do the expected.

When the Lord saw the grieving mother, he had compassion on her, and said, “Do not weep.” (Luke 7:13)

Ordinarily this would be a heartless thing to say.

This wasn’t only the son she loved, but her last means of support.

Christ’s words, however, aren’t cruel, but words of hope, because Jesus can carry through on what He says.

Christ had compassion.

‘Compassion’ is a mild word compared to the original Greek, splagchnizomai, (σπλαγχνίζομαι).

It’s more like His very insides ached with her pain.

Her pain pierced Him, so He felt it with her.

Then Jesus went up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. (Luke 7:14)

The Law was very clear: Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean for seven days. That’s Numbers 19:11.

It’s no wonder those who carried the body stopped when Jesus reached out.

Here was a rabbi with His disciples, and this Holy man was about to make Himself unclean by touching a corpse.

But this was no ordinary rabbi.

This was the Son of God through whom the world itself had been made.

He’d come to restore a world turned upside-down by sin and reverse the curse of that sin.

He’d come to transform the meaning of death.

When Jesus touched the bier, the impurity of death didn’t contaminate Him.

Instead, His purity overcame the decay of death.

The Lord speaks the words, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”

And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. (Luke 7:14–15)

At Christ’s word, life returned to the son.

Jesus reversed this procession of death so it became a celebration of life.

The depth of tragedy became the height of triumph.

Despair turned to joy.

When the people realized what Jesus had done, they recalled the prophets of old.

They remembered the story of Elijah we read in today’s Old Testament lesson.

They remembered that Elijah’s successor, Elisha, also raised a son from the dead.

And so, the people saw Jesus as a prophet like Elijah and Elisha.

In a way, they were right.

Jesus is a great prophet, the greatest of all.

But to say Jesus is a great prophet is not enough.

He’s much more.

We can see the difference when we compare the resurrections Jesus performed with other resurrections in the Bible.

[Elijah] stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again... (1 Kings 17:21–22)

When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. (2 Kings 4:32–33)

Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” (Acts 9:40)

Note that each prophet and Apostle prayed before they raised the dead.

In each case, it’s very clear they didn’t supply the life-giving power.

Instead, the power came from the one to whom they prayed … the Lord of creation.

Now examine the resurrection in today’s Gospel.

[Jesus] came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.

“And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’ And the dead man sat up and began to speak.” (Luke 7:14–15)

Jesus had no need to pray, for He Himself is God.

The writer of Hebrews said: He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Hebrews 1:3)

The Apostle John wrote: All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:3)

As God, Jesus is the Lord of life and death and has no need to call on help from outside Himself.

When the people glorified God, saying, “God has visited his people,” (Luke 7:16), I wonder how many understood that Jesus Himself is God visiting His people.

Yet there’s more.

The Lord of Heaven and earth didn’t come to this world and take on human form just so He could visit people and raise one son from the dead.

He didn’t come just to feel the pain of this widowed mother.

He came to experience your pain.

He came to experience your grief.

The Holy Spirit inspired the writer of Hebrews to say, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

Jesus isn’t some far-off, powerful, but detached being.

He’s intimately familiar with all your pain, sorrow, and grief.

There’s nothing you experience that He doesn’t experience with you.

Isaiah wrote, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” (Isaiah 53:4)

You could say Jesus has empathy with you, but Christ has much more.

The word empathy has its roots in a Greek word meaning to suffer with someone.

Jesus doesn’t just suffer with you; He has suffered for you.

He took the sin of all mankind into His holy body and carried it to the cross.

On that cross He suffered the punishment we earned with our sin.

Therefore, you know that you won’t suffer that punishment.

He not only suffers the pain and grief of this world with you, but also frees you from the eternal pain, grief, and punishment of hell.

He’s gone way beyond empathy to sacrifice.