Of course it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was never God’s day off. It was simply the day for men to rest: to rest and be refreshed by His Word and gifts. Our Sabbath never ends, for in Christ all days are the same, every sunrise is a reminder that death is dead and Jesus lives. The work is done. The healing complete. Jesus Christ is your health, your rest, your security, and your future. Soon the heaven’s will part and all creation will hear God say to you: “Friend, move up higher.”

Two great processions meet at the gate of Nain: one of death and one of life. Which of them will prevail: The boy by sin’s wages slain or the Prince of Life Himself? We know the answer. But knowledge does not always comfort when thoughts and feelings come to bear as we ponder those loved AND lost.

The questions we ask also reveal something about us. That is, they reveal what our assumptions are.

So while the rich man is rich, and Lazarus is poor, while the rich man feasts sumptuously everyday and Lazarus longs for the scraps from the rich man’s table, while the rich man is covered in purple and fine linen, and Lazarus is covered in sores … while all this is the case, Lazarus is not without some earthly comfort. For Jesus adds this, “Moreover the dogs came to lick his sores.” The dogs, who know their master, come as God’s ministers to give what comfort they can, on top of the comfort that Lazarus already has in the Word and promises found in Moses and the prophets.