When we suffer the loss of a loved one either through sickness or tragedy, we question why God has taken them from our life. We pray for miracles because we cannot imagine life without them. When God faced the widow from Nain, who was burying her only son, His first words to her were, “Do not cry.” God’s power and mercy give us peace and comfort in our pain. A real miracle is when those who do not believe see the power of God and believe.
My brothers and sisters, in this morning’s gospel, we hear yet another miracle story of Christ. And this one, my brothers hits home for many of us because the scene today is the burial of a young man whose mother was also a widow. She had no one left and she was going to bury her son. And the words that came out of Christ’s mouth in that moment are not just for her, but they are for us today, so many years later. The Lord says to her, “Do not cry. Do not weep.” Because you see my brothers and sisters, God is all-powerful and God can take away our pain and God can take away our grief. And you might ask yourself then why does God take away our loved ones?
I can’t tell you how many times I have heard and seen, whether it’s social media or emails or telephone calls. Father, we’re praying for a miracle. One person might be on their way out having a serious illness or a tragic accident. And I read and I hear, father, we are praying for a miracle. And I don’t blame the people to pray for miracles, but this morning’s gospel teaches us an important lesson. The first words that God said to the widow was, do not weep. Don’t cry. Her son was already dead. She had no idea that he was going to bring her son back to life. In that moment of pure faith and love, she had to put her trust totally in God. You see, my brothers and sisters, when we pray for miracles, we are praying because we do not want to suffer the loss of our loved ones. That’s why I don’t blame people for praying for miracles. We don’t want our loved ones to die. We want them around next to us for our entire life, but life doesn’t always work that way.
Sometimes tragedy, illness, circumstances beyond our control. Take someone away from our life and we have to ask ourselves why? Why was this widow having to bury her son? The gospel doesn’t say, it just says that she was a widow burying her only son. So my brothers and sisters, we have to read deeply into this morning’s gospel to see that God’s love is meant to soothe our pain. He says, do not weep, don’t cry, don’t suffer because God is powerful and will reunite us with each other again in heaven. We know this ultimately to be true because even when our loved ones survive after illness or a tragedy, still we all die.
Still, the undertaker comes to take our body away. Still, we come into this church and we bless the bodies for burial. So the question is, why do we ask for miracles? I’m going to suggest my brothers and sisters. It is because we need God’s strength today more than ever before. We ask for God’s miracles because we are weak, not because the person cannot endure death. Death means seeing God face to face. And so I encourage you, the next time you’re faced with a question of tragedy or death or illness, and you want to ask God for a miracle, instead ask him to help you understand his love.
Ask him to give you peace to understand that there are things that are beyond our control. If he chooses to perform a miracle, that is his prerogative, not ours. But what the gospel also teaches us is that every single miracle was not for the family, but for the crowd. You see, in this morning’s gospel it said, “All this report and fear came upon them and they glorified God saying, a great prophet has risen among us and God has visited his people.” You see, my brothers and sisters, miracles are for the unbelievers. Miracles are for those who question God’s power and truth. They are not for us faithful who believe in God, who know that God will take care of everything in the end.
So if you want to pray for a miracle, pray for the conversion of our country. Pray that the thousands and thousands of people that we encounter every day on the street, pray that they will understand God’s love and power and have come to a position of faith and love in him. That’s the true miracle unbelievers coming to Christ. And we, brothers and sisters, have seen our small fair share in the past 10 years. But there are hundreds and thousands of people just waiting to come into this church to discover Christ. You want a miracle? Pray for that miracle.
Pray that God uses our faith and our love and our commitment to him so that others will see the glory of God and say, God has visited his people and God is right here inside St. Nicholas. Let’s come and see him and let’s come and encounter him. It doesn’t take away our loss. We will still grieve the loss of our loved ones. Mothers will still bury their children, but that doesn’t take away God’s love and his prayer for us. Don’t weep. Know that God is there to give us love and peace and His grace. Glory to God for all things.
