LWLC Wiki

Search this site

Summary: AI-assisted (Claude) from transcripts

Summary

Resurrections in Holy Scripture

Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly works in the categories of death and life. Four episodes—Jonah in the great fish, Lazarus at Bethany, the widow's son at Nain, and Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones—each foreshadow the resurrection of Christ and proclaim what God still does for sinners today: He raises the dead.

Jonah: The Sign Given to a Sinful World

Sent to preach against the wickedness of Nineveh, Jonah fled toward Tarshish, foolishly imagining he could escape the presence of the Lord—though Psalm 139:7-10 makes clear that no such flight is possible. Luther observed that Jonah looked not to the Word of the One sending him but to the difficulty of the work itself, and so became terrified. Cast into the sea and swallowed by the great fish, Jonah was as good as dead—and his predicament was the direct result of his own sin.

From the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed in what is sometimes called the prophetic past tense: he spoke of his deliverance as already accomplished, so certain was he that God would rescue him. The same grammatical confidence appears in Isaiah 53:4-6, where the prophet speaks of the Messiah's saving work as though it had already taken place. Christians are freed to live this way too—confident that God remains sovereign over every circumstance, never taken by surprise.

Jonah's confession, "Deliverance belongs to the Lord," concisely states all orthodox Christian theology: we are responsible for the predicament we are in, and salvation comes wholly from God. Jesus Himself identifies Jonah's three days in the fish as the sign of His own three days in the heart of the earth Matthew 12:39-40. As Luther put it, life and righteousness come because God in mercy sent His Son to suffer, die, be buried, and rise again, so that all the sinful, dead Jonahs of this world would have new life. See Resurrections: Lesson 1- Jonah.

Lazarus: "I Am the Resurrection and the Life"

The raising of Lazarus in John 11 is the seventh and pinnacle sign in John's Gospel. Jesus deliberately delayed His arrival so that Lazarus would die—and remain in the tomb four days, beyond the rabbinic three-day window in which any resuscitation might have been imagined. When Lazarus finally came forth, no explanation but divine power remained.

Scripture distinguishes three kinds of death. Physical death is the separation of soul from body. Spiritual death is our natural condition—dead through trespasses and sins Ephesians 2:1-5, wanting nothing to do with God. Eternal death is final, conscious separation from God's blessing—not annihilation, for every person is an immortal being whose destiny is either heaven or hell (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 21:8).

Both Martha and Mary greeted Jesus with the same lament: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." It is a confession of confidence mixed with the temptation we all share—to believe in God's power in the past or future but doubt it in the present. Jesus answers not with explanations but with Himself: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die" John 11:25-26. For the Christian, today is one more day in all of eternity.

At the tomb Jesus is described as "greatly disturbed" and "deeply moved"—language of outrage at the ravages of sin and the wrenching that death causes. He weeps. The Lord of life is not a distant deity but One who feels deeply for His people. In the ancient one-year lectionary, this account is appointed for Easter Eve, a foretaste of Christ's own resurrection and of the raising of all flesh on the Last Day. See Resurrections: Lesson 2.

The Widow's Son at Nain: Compassion in Action

Outside the tiny village of Nain, two processions met: Jesus at the head of His disciples, and a funeral cortege carrying out the only son of a widow Luke 7:11-17. In that culture the widow had no inheritance, no social safety net—she had lost not only her child but every economic protection. The text says the Lord "had compassion" on her, a word rooted in the inward parts—what we might call being struck in the gut. The Creator who made us also feels what we feel, and His compassion is never mere sentiment; it issues in action.

Jesus touched the bier, defying the ritual uncleanness that contact with the dead would normally impose, for the holy God incarnate cannot be defiled. Then He spoke: "Young man, I say to you, arise." When Jesus speaks, He speaks in realities; His word accomplishes what it says. The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

Johann Gerhard captured the wonder of such a raising in prayer: "I was dead in sin, you made me alive. I was able to contribute as much to my conversion as a dead person is able to contribute to his resurrection." This is the fundamental critique of every theology that imagines salvation begins with our decision. A corpse cannot decide. Jesus must say "Lazarus, come out" or Lazarus stays in the tomb. The story of the widow's son is therefore the story of every baptized Christian, whom Jesus has touched with His grace and raised to new life. See Resurrections: Lesson 3.

Ezekiel's Dry Bones: Breath into the Slain

Exiled to Babylon, the priest-prophet Ezekiel was set down in a valley full of bones—very many, and very dry Ezekiel 37:1-14. The image captures Israel's hopelessness in exile, but also the natural condition of every human heart. God's question to Ezekiel is pointed: "Mortal, can these bones live?" Notice the question is not whether Ezekiel can make them live. The prophet's reply is the right one: "O Lord God, you know."

Commanded to prophesy, Ezekiel speaks God's word—and the bones rattle and join, sinews and flesh appear, but there is still no breath. Then the Spirit comes from the four winds, and the slain stand on their feet, a vast multitude. The Hebrew word ruach—both "breath" and "Spirit"—reaches back to Genesis 2:7, where God breathed life into the dust and Adam became a living being. Long before Pentecost, the Spirit is breathing life into the dead.

The new chosen people is the Church 1 Peter 2:9, gathered from those who were once dead in trespasses and made alive together with Christ Ephesians 2:1-5. The same Spirit who animated Adam, who restored Israel in Ezekiel's vision, comes to us in the waters of Baptism, joined to the Word—for there is no such thing as a wordless Holy Spirit. Through that water and Word God grants forgiveness, faith, the Holy Spirit, and membership in His family. The water Christ gives becomes "a spring of water welling up to eternal life" John 4:13-14.

When Christ breathed His last on the cross, the earth shook, rocks split, tombs opened, and many of the saints were raised Matthew 27:45-54. The Word made flesh spoke from the cross, and the cosmos responded. Ezekiel's vision is finally our own story: dry bones, born in rebellion, brought to life by the Spirit through the Word. See Resurrections: Lesson 4.

One Story, One Savior

These four resurrections are not isolated wonders. Each prefigures the empty tomb of Easter morning, and each describes what God still does whenever a sinner is raised at the font from death to life. Jonah, Lazarus, the widow's son, and the valley of bones all proclaim the same gospel: deliverance belongs to the Lord, and He gives it freely to the dead.

Video citations