Mark 16:1-8; 1 Cor 15
Jesus Lives
Easter Sunday
April 16, 2017
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia! What wonderful words we speak and sing today. It is a song of victory. Easter is the feast of victory by our God. What we celebrate today is the central event throughout all of history, throughout all creation. It is what everything was heading toward and what everything flows out from. Our life is to be daily celebration of the Resurrection of Christ.
The resurrection of Jesus is His Victory
For upon the cross, Jesus accomplished what He was sent by the Father to do. From eternity, the Lamb who was slain, was the plan. God’s will was that His Son would suffer, and suffer for our sake. And then on the third day be raised again for our justification, brining life and immortality to light.
Jesus resurrection proclaims His victory over sin and death. So where O death is your victory? Death has none, not anymore, not for Jesus. The earth swallowed up Jesus in the grave, yet the Son of God by the victory of His resurrection swallowed up death forever.
In spite of clear predictions on at three occasions (Mark 8:31-32, 9:31; 10:33-34), Jesus disciples did not believe that this could be true. They did not comprehend who this Jesus really was and why He come. The 11 disciples are nowhere to be found while the women make their way to the grave. They go, not in the hope that Jesus is alive, but to finish the burial customs. They fully expected the stone in front of the entrance, and wonder how they will get in to anoint His body. And what a shock when they arrive! The tomb opened, and a messenger telling them that Christ has risen, He is not there.
And they don’t know what to do with this! The women are left with an empty tomb. What do they do with an empty tomb? What do we do with an empty tomb? To some, that means that Christianity itself is empty, that is lacking. No Jesus, no Christian faith. But it means just the opposite. As the cross is the symbol of the sacrifice and death of Jesus, the empty tomb signifies the Resurrection. No Jesus is the tomb, for Christ is risen! He is victorious. And what’s more, it’s all for you. We are truly blest in that we are not left at the tomb. The message that the women shared with the Disciples, they also shared with us. A mixture of anxiety and fear and wonderment and news that seems too good to be true.
The resurrection of Jesus is your victory
So what do we with this message, with this empty tomb? We sang right before the Gospel reading, “Alleluia, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Alleluia, alleluia.” We go to the risen Jesus, for when push to comes to shove, we are all headed to our own tombs. Unless Christ returns first, we are going to die. In fact, we are already in the process of dying. You are aging. You get sick. You have aches and pains. And all this bears witness to the fact that you are sinner. The impact of sin on your life is not merely about the evil thoughts and bad things you do, and failing to do things you should. Instead, it is also the fact that your very existence is warped and twisted by sin. Because of sin, you have an expiration date. You just don’t know what it is yet. You have that expiration date because you are a sinner who sins. As St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.”
But O death, where is your victory now? O death, where is your sting? For Jesus, there is none because He is risen. And for you who believe in Him, sin and death has no more victory over you. The resurrection of Jesus is your victory delivered in the waters of baptism, proclaimed in the absolution, fed through the body and blood of Christ. It is the Life of the world delivered to you. Your mortality dressed in immortality. Only three days did He lay in the tomb and then raise to life eternal. And so, after your tribulation here, the day of deliverance is appointed also for you. Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, the good and the bad, those serious about their faith and those who have been lazy, for everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, whether rich or poor, those who had an easy life of those who suffered, to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, eternal life will be given, for free, for the sake of Jesus. They will come out of the grave in their bodies. The Lord will give them that which they did not earn and do not deserve, but has been won by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, and by His victorious resurrection.
But make no mistake. Where there is no faith in the Lord of life, there is no life. Yes, there will be a resurrection of the living and dead. But for those who do not hear this message, who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is a resurrection to eternal condemnation, to an unending punishment. Without Christ, sin and the devil have their victory over you.
So believe in this message of the angels and the women and of the Church as it speaks the Word of God. Through faith, and faith alone, you share in that victory now, through faith. It is a victory that runs deeper than just over your death, but also over your life. For the victory of Jesus’ resurrection is not just over death, but over the cause of death: your sin. Now, your sins cannot condemn you. By the blood and wounds of the crucified One and by His resurrection, you have obtained forgiveness no matter how many or how great they might be. Here is the perfect ransom, the perfect redemption. Death no longer has any power over you. Satan is a defeated foe. He may roar, but he cannot devour. He may accuse your conscious, but Jesus intercedes for His people and bestows His righteousness upon them. Hell cannot terrify, for Christ has rescued you from hell. Jesus lives and so I will live. Since the head has risen, His members cannot remain in death.
Since Jesus lives, you have a faithful and constant friend. He will provide for you while you live, sustain you while you suffer, protect you from your enemies, gladden you in affliction, refresh you in your dying hour, keep you while in the grave, and finally receive you to glory and grant you the crown of eternal life (adapted from Stark’s Prayer Book, pg 90).
What wonderful news we have. Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!