The Lord of Life Draws Near

Every one of our funerals begin with the same words: “In Holy Baptism [Name] was clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness that covered all his sin. St. Paul says, ‘Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.’”

Those words set the tone: we do not face death alone. We face it as those joined to Christ’s own death and resurrection by holy Baptism. Our Gospel reading today gives us a picture of that truth. In Luke chapter seven, death is on parade. A widow walks behind the bier carrying her only son. She has had no husband for a certain amount of time. Now she doesn’t have a son. In his place she is left with only grief. But into this funeral procession enters Jesus, the Lord of Life. When He draws near, death retreats. Indeed, it can do nothing else.

Find out more in this funeral from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!