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Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, \u201cYoung man, I say to you, get up!\u201d The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.\xa0 They were all filled with awe and praised God. \u201cA great prophet has appeared among us,\u201d they said. \u201cGod has come to help his people.\u201d This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country. (Luke 7:14-17)

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Jesus has done some pretty incredible things already.\xa0 He has healed the sick.\xa0 Forgiven sins.\xa0 Driven out demons through his word.\xa0 Through all these things, Jesus has continued to show that he is Lord and God.\xa0

But in this story, Jesus crosses another plane entirely.\xa0 Only two things are certain in life, we say: death and taxes.\xa0 The people in Jesus\u2019 day knew that truth just as well.\xa0 They were subject to both, just like we are.\xa0

But then something new happens.\xa0 Jesus stops the funeral procession with his presence and his touch.\xa0 And with a simple word, he commands this young man back from the inevitability of death into life.\xa0 Jesus word reaches through the un-crossable barrier of death, penetrates into the hearing of the dead so that even the dead respond.\xa0 Jesus word holds final authority in every realm: the demonic, the physiological, even the realms of life and death.\xa0 No frontier is beyond the earshot or sovereignty of Jesus\u2019 authoritative word.\xa0

And as this man is suddenly and immediately snapped back from death to life, so his mother\u2019s life is reclaimed from the dead.\xa0 Women had no other means to life than through connection with a man for their security, property rights, and provision.\xa0 So death immediately flees: not just from this young man\u2019s body, but also from the reality of his mother and home: even the town and its community of people are brought from death to life as a funeral procession turns into a festive parade.\xa0 \xa0\xa0

With a word Jesus transforms even the most hardened and stark realities of our life and world instantly.\xa0 Though it can be hard to see and appreciate at times: pictures like these of the power of Jesus to bring life are there to remind us of the crux of our Gospel hope in him.\xa0 That, in the words of Fredrich Beauchner: \u201call the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup.\u201d\xa0

That is, no matter the darkness, the fear, the doubt, the hard realities or decisions, the busyness, the stress, the strain, the hurt, the pain that you face: our hope in Jesus is that one day, he will speak the word that transforms all of it, in an instant, to life.\xa0

May God come to help his people, and soon.\xa0 Amen.\xa0 Come Lord Jesus.

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