Purpose in Pain
This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for the Fourth Sunday in Easter, May 12, 2025.
Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today we are learning about another great miracle in the Bible, in the book of Acts. The book of Acts is the story of the early church. You can also think of it as the Gospel of Luke part 2 because both Luke and Acts were written by St. Luke. If the book of Luke recounts what happened from Jesus' birth all the way up to the crucifixion and the resurrection, then the book of Acts teaches us about what happened in the life of the disciples after the resurrection and after the ascension. Jesus ascends into heaven, and now what? The church has work to do.
Early in that book, in chapter 9, we have the raising of Tabitha. It's a wonderful miracle because it shows us so many important things about the character of God and how He feels about us.
Tabitha: A Woman of Grace and Service
First, a word about Tabitha. She's a devoted woman, dedicated to God and loving her community. She is constantly working to help the poor, devoted to good works and acts of charity. She takes care of the people around her and is committed to others among us today.
She has a lovely name, although it doesn't sound lovely to us as English speakers. Tabitha sounds very pretty, but then we learn that her name translated means Dorcas. Now, I don't know about you, but I was called a Dorcas a couple of times as a kid, and I didn't appreciate it. I thought it meant dork. However, in Greek, the word Dorcas, and in Hebrew, the name Tabitha, both mean gazelle. Here is this woman who is graceful and lithe, who cares about people, looking after the needs not just of herself but of her community. She lives a life of love and service for those around her.
The church really needed her and cared about her deeply. It was a tragedy for that local community of people because they had depended so intensely on the love and care of this woman.
Christianity's Respect for Women
It's worth observing something interesting here. Sometimes in modern discourse about the roles of men and women, we have this idea that somehow Christianity is hard on women. It couldn't be further from the truth. Jesus and His early disciples were immensely good at giving love, care, and respect to women in ways that the culture around them didn't. This woman was a widow, and yet, despite being of very little account in contemporary Greek culture, she was a valuable part of the early Christian community. The people gather and wail because she's gone. This woman who has done so much good for others has now died.
Pain and Suffering in the Christian Life
How often we imagine that Christian life is supposed to be easier than life in the world. We think that if you just do the right things, choose good over evil, help others instead of yourself, everything will go well for you, and you'll have a life full of joy, peace, and prosperity. You'll have everything you need.
But the life of Tabitha, or Dorcas, shows us that that's just not the case because sin and death in this world still claim us. We are still subject to pain and suffering in this life. Yes, this woman led a very virtuous life, becoming a follower of Jesus, dedicating herself to serving the poor through works and acts of charity, and yet she still meets her end and dies.
Jesus Christ did not promise us a life free of pain and suffering. He didn't tell us that if we follow Him, everything would be easy or that we would live our best lives now. Instead, He promised that in the midst of pain and suffering in this world, that pain would be given meaning and purpose in the cross. The pain and suffering we undergo would not be an empty set of meaningless suffering leading to our eventual doom, but our pain has purpose.
I think the moms among us understand that pain has purpose. Even the pain of childbirth is met with the joy of bringing new life into the world. The suffering that moms endure as they raise their kids, and the worrying they do even after they're out of the house, has purpose because it motivates their prayers.
The Miracle of Tabitha's Resurrection
Here, though, Tabitha's life and death are about to be given very good purpose because Saint Peter is going to use the situation to demonstrate the power of Jesus Christ. She was a witness to the grace of God in her life, and now, even in her death, as people wail and mourn around her, she will continue to be a witness to Jesus.
Saint Peter enters the room and asks everybody else to leave. The woman is lying there dead on her bed. He gets down on his knees, and the word he speaks is not only his own but the word of God calling to Tabitha. He says to her, "Tabitha, get up." As an aside, he uses the same word in Greek that we use when we say Christ is risen, and you reply, "He is risen indeed. Alleluia." He says, "Tabitha, be raised up."
Though she is utterly dead, with no breath in her body and gone cold, this woman who can do nothing for herself hears the word of God and obeys it. She hears the voice of her Savior through the work of the Apostle Saint Peter saying to her, "Be raised up," and she obeys. Her eyes open. She looks at Saint Peter. Peter offers his hand. She sits on the edge of the bed and stands up. She's alive again.
God has been faithful to His people. God has restored this woman of such value and contribution to the church. It's not just a miracle for them; it's a miracle for us because the people of that church continued to tell that story for years afterward. That beautiful resurrection moment is given to Saint Luke, who writes it down in the book of Acts and shares that story with us today as intended for us as a sign of what God has done in Jesus Christ, is doing in the lives of those of us who still live between heaven and earth, and will do in the general resurrection of us all.
New Life for the Spiritually Dead
The spiritually dead, those who can do nothing for themselves—people like you and me—are being raised up by the command and promise of God. Here are some ways this new life manifests:
- The spiritually dead are given new life in the waters of baptism.
- Their heart of stone is replaced with a heart of flesh.
- They are raised up to newness of life.
Last night, we celebrated a baptism and welcomed two new adult members of our congregation. We baptized Baker Cron, the son of Bailey and Greg Cron. Greg joined the congregation, and we also welcomed Deb Mathias. It was really fun to have a story like Tabitha's resurrection as we celebrated the baptism of that little boy because, in that moment of baptism, he joins with all of us in the great multitude singing around the throne of God.
That beautiful picture in our reading from Revelation today shows all the people of God gathered around the throne, given new life as we sing, "Glory and power be to our God forever and ever." Our Lord Jesus gives us new life. We wash our robes white and pure in the red blood of the Lamb of God.
The Shepherd Who Is Also the Lamb
Baker and all of us are given a shepherd—and this shepherd is the Lamb. How remarkable an idea that is! Instead of the shepherd being something great and beyond us, the shepherd is a sheep. The Son of God is made incarnate in flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, who is the great shepherd of His sheep, becomes as one of us and dies upon the cross for you and me.
This fulfills the promise given to all of us so long ago in Psalm 23. How interesting that we're celebrating new life on one hand but also using a psalm so commonly used at funerals. In fact, it's hard for me to think of the last time we had a funeral in this church where Psalm 23 wasn't read.
Part of my heart language is Psalm 23. You heard it read today, and a few of you might have been scratching your heads a little bit because it doesn't go quite exactly how you remember it. I'll be honest with you; I even modified the translation a little because it bugs me when it's not in that original King James Version language: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death."
As another random aside, I think our translation of the Bible has the least satisfying ending to Psalm 23 ever. Admittedly, it's a more accurate translation than the King James, but instead of "you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever," which we used today, they translate it as "dwell in the house of the Lord for a length of days." It just doesn't do anything for me. I had to change that one over to the older translation.
But this walking through the darkest valley, this walking through the valley of the shadow of death, is a reminder to us that we fear no evil. Why? Because King David promises there will be a Redeemer, a shepherd who serves His sheep. That is fulfilled for you and me in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
The Shepherd's Rod and Staff
God walks with you and before you with both rod and staff. Sometimes we imagine shepherds were gentle, but they couldn't be further from the truth. They were rough and tumble kind of people—not genteel. They were hard workers and weathered people who worked out with their hands among their animals day and night, heat and cold.
They were there to take care of these flocks because without the presence of the shepherd, these sheep would be lost. They carry both a staff and a rod for two purposes:
- To guide the sheep into the right way.
- To defend those sheep when people come and threaten them.
But there's something remarkable about a shepherd who goes the extra step. If a wolf or a bear were to attack a shepherd, a hired hand would be just as likely to drop his rod and staff and run away, saying it's not worth his life to protect somebody else's sheep.
Our great Lord Jesus Christ, our great shepherd of the sheep, is not a hired hand. The sheep do not belong to someone else; they belong to Him. He is willing to do what no shepherd would really do, even for His own sheep. He not only puts His life in danger to protect them but willingly goes to the cross and dies for them.
People of God, God walks with you with rod and staff ready. He gives you in His holy Scriptures the guidance and protection you need to live this life in this pain- and suffering-torn world. He guides you away from those things which will destroy you, though they look to be appealing green grass on the hill. He rebukes and destroys those who threaten your faith in Christ and would separate you from Him—the rod to rebuke those who would steal you and the staff to give you good pasture, to prepare a table before you, to give you abundance.
King David puts it this way: so that your cup runs over—an image of abundance. He gives you an image of eternal life that runs over with life so that it can never be full. God continues to pour into you over and over again, giving you His love, His mercy, His forgiveness, His guidance, and His protection. No one can ever take you out of His hand.
This promise is real and true for us in our baptism. It is renewed every week as we come to this place, as we hear the words of forgiveness pronounced, as we hear the word of God proclaimed, as we receive the body and blood of the Lamb of God who is a shepherd. We are filled with His grace and His peace.
So, people of God, hear the voice of the Lord. Be raised up. Turn to Him and live. For He calls you to good pasture, to grace and peace. In Jesus' name, Amen.
