The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity '26

The gospels describe three miracles of resurrection performed by Jesus. He raised the daughter of the synagogue ruler Jairus (Luke 8:41-56). He raised Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha (John 11:1-44). And he raised the son of the widow of Nain in today's gospel. These resurrections are different from Jesus’ own resurrection on Easter. The people he restored to life all died again. They were restored to mortal life for a longer period of time.

There were similar resurrection miracles in the Old Testament ministries of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Elijah raised the son of the widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17:17-24. Elisha raised the Shunamite woman’s son in 2 Kings 4:18-37. There is also a strange story in 2 Kings 13:20-21 where a dead man was thrown into Elisha’s grave and came back to life.

But Jesus’ method of raising people was unique. Elijah prayed for the Lord to raise the widow’s son. Elisha rubbed his body over the body of Shunamite’s son. But Jesus raised the dead by his word. He commanded the dead to rise, and they rose. In the story of Jairus’s daughter, St. Luke tells us, Jesus “took her by the hand and called, saying, ‘Little girl, arise.’ Then her spirit returned, and she arose immediately” (8:54-55). In the story of Lazarus, St. John tells us, ‘[Jesus] cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes" (11:43-44). Jesus said to the son of the widow of Nain, "Young man, I say to you, arise." Then, “He who was dead sat up and began to speak” (7:14-15).

These miracles highlight Jesus’ identity as God’s Word made flesh. In the beginning, God created the world by speaking. God said, “Let there be light. And there was light” (Gen 1:3). In the gospels God speaks again through his eternally begotten son. God’s new creation, like the original creation, is brought into being by God’s Word.

The resurrection miracles of Jesus illustrate the resurrection miracle that Jesus performs in us. The Bible describes the gift of eternal life through baptism and faith as a resurrection. Ephesians says, “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 . . . and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-6). This miracle of resurrection in us is more important than the gospel miracles because it gives us eternal life, not merely an extension of mortal life.

We experience this miracle on three levels. It begins in baptism and our experience of conversion of the heart. It continues with our experience of resurrection in the life of prayer. We grow in repentance. We make better confessions. We experience grace and power to love and serve in new ways. We grow in virtue and holiness. This current experience points to our future resurrection. We “look for the resurrection of the body and life of the world to come.” As Romans 8 says, “We . . . who have the firstfruits of the Spirit . . . groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (8:21-23).

The miracle of resurrection in us takes place according to the same pattern as the gospel miracles. Jesus speaks his word to us. When we receive that word with faith and do what Jesus says to do, the Holy spirit frees us from our natural captivity to sin and death and gives us the power to live in a new way. We receive eternal life and enter God’s new creation.

In the gospel resurrection miracles, the faith of the dead does not play a role. The miracles were performed by divine fiat. God spoke and it was so. But in our experience of resurrection, faith does play a role. God speaks his word to us, but we can say, “No.” This is the root of sin. In Genesis, God spoke and God’s Spirit created according to his word. “God saw everything he had made and indeed it was very good” (1:31). But the human “no” to God’s word in Genesis 3 reversed the creative process. Order and beauty descended back into disorder and chaos.

This is why we are saved by faith. To participate in God’s new creation, we must say yes to God’s word instead of the fallen and disordered human no. This yes was first expressed by Mary, who said, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, Be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). She is our pattern. When we say yes to God, new life in Christ is born and grows in us. As Hebrews says, “Without faith it is impossible to please [God], for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

We hear God’s word by reading the Bible in a prayerful and reflective way, by patiently listening for God’s word in our prayers, and by receiving counsel from mature believers. Jesus speaks to us through the members of his body. God’s word challenges our natural patterns of thinking and behaving and calls us to change. We must be willing to test what we think God is saying to us. As St. John warns us, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 Jn. 4:1). The best test is to get input and counsel from mature fellow Christians. This will save us from our own blind spots and our self-justification.

The miracle of resurrection takes place in the Body of Christ in the church on the Lord’s Day. We should come with open ears, listening for God’s word to us. “God, what are you saying to me today? What do you want me to do?” As we receive God’s word with faith, the Holy Spirit renews our experience of forgiveness and grace and gives us power to love and serve in new ways.

This experience of resurrection anticipates God’s final act of new creation. As 1 Thessalonians says, The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise” (1 Thess. 4:16 ESV). And as Philippians says, “We . . . eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:20-21).