This is the day the LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.
Mark
16:1-8 When
the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome
bought spices so they could go and anoint Jesus. 2Very early on the first day of
the week, at sunrise, they went to the tomb.
3They were saying to each other, “Who will roll the stone
away from the entrance to the tomb for us?”
4When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very
large, had been rolled away. 5As
they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on
the right side, and they were alarmed. 6He said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who
was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples
and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told
you.’” 8They went out and
hurried away from the tomb, trembling and perplexed. They said nothing to anyone, because they
were afraid. (EHV)
He has risen!
Dear brothers and
sisters of the Living Lord,
We’ve
spent the season of Lent considering a variety of statements under the theme: Three Words of Truth. Today, we look at the most important of those
statements. In fact, I dare say that
this is the most important announcement ever heard in the history of the
world. Now, some might argue that I
should say “allegedly most
important,” but the evidence will show that the angel’s announcement—He has risen!—is
the most important news ever heard.
The women who had
followed and supported Jesus were the first to go to the tomb that first Easter
morning. At least one of them had left
her home before sunup to be there at the crack of dawn. Grieving the shocking events of the previous
Friday, grieving that their Lord was dead, they were driven by the desire to
honor Jesus one last time. They
wondered—who would roll away the stone that closed the tomb? But then, alarms bells started going off in
their heads as they neared the tomb. The
stone had been removed! The guards were
missing! What could it mean?
Entering the tomb,
the women saw a young man sitting there, seemingly waiting for someone, but
who? And then, the young messenger had
the best news anyone could hope to hear, but such good news that it was beyond
their ability to understand in the moment.
He said to them, “Do not be
alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the
Nazarene, who was crucified. He has
risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.” The women were shocked, alarmed, amazed and
perplexed. They left the tomb wondering
what it all could mean. Their grieving
minds just couldn’t yet comprehend that Jesus was truly alive. In those first moments of Easter morning, it
seemed too good to be true. As we read
the various accounts, we hear of how shocked and grief-stricken those women
were that there was no body to anoint.
But, oh how glad they should have been, and I’m sure, how glad they soon
came to be.
In our world, too,
good news can be hard to find. I know
lots of people who wish that the newspapers and media industry would focus more
on reporting good news rather than always seeking to report on the shocking crime,
the sensational revelation, and the natural disaster. Those things dominate the news because they get
our attention, but sometimes, we get so calloused by all the bad news that when
we hear something good, though we might be momentarily startled, maybe even be
glad and smile for a bit, soon the everyday disasters push the good news right out
of our minds. Thus, how important it is to
pay attention to news that is really, eternally good.
Those three central
words, He has risen, remain the best
news ever. Even if it was about an
ordinary person, this would be marvelous news.
When Jesus raised their little girl from the dead, her stunned parents
and relatives rejoiced. When Jesus
raised the young man of Nain and gave him back into his widowed mother’s arms,
she and her whole village rejoiced in astonished jubilation. But, no one alive at that time really
expected to see Jesus alive again. After
all, we just don’t see people come back from the dead.
Even today when
medical marvels take place with semi-regularity, we still wouldn’t expect to
see someone rise from the grave on the third day after burial. Like those stunned, grieving women, many in
our world still find it too hard to believe that Jesus could have risen from
the dead. So, is it just the stunning
rarity of this event that makes me say it is the best news ever?
No, that doesn’t
cover it. Yes, Jesus is the only person
who was truly able to enter death and take up life again, but what makes this
news incomparably important is that it verifies everything Jesus and the
prophets had foretold about Him. Before
Jesus even went to Jerusalem for that fateful week that ended in His suffering
and crucifixion, He told His disciples that he would rise again, saying, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay
down my life—only to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority
to take it up again." (John 10:17-18 NIV 84) Later, Jesus told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by
the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him,
flog him and kill him. On the third day
he will rise again." (Lk. 18:31-33 NIV 84) He has risen certifies that Jesus
is the Messiah He claimed to be.
He has risen guarantees troubled sinners that the victory
over sin, death, and Satan has been won on our behalf. To some who claimed to believe in Jesus but
denied the resurrection, St. Paul wrote, “If Christ has not been raised, your
faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:17 NIV 84) He has
risen tells the world, and especially us in the Christian Church, that we
have forgiveness; we have life; we have peace with God, and we too will be
raised from the dead to live like Jesus—with glorified bodies in the eternal home
Jesus has prepared for us in heaven, where we will never again have to face
death, or feel pain, suffering, sorrow, hunger, thirst, or temptation. St. Paul continued, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of
those who have fallen asleep. For since
death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a
man. For as in Adam all die, so in
Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22 NIV 84)
Throughout the last
thousands of years, there have been any number of self-proclaimed messiahs,
people who claimed to be sent by God, people who claimed to have special
insight, or powers. Many of them claimed
they would lead others to the promised land of heaven. Some of them didn’t even bother to tell that
great a lie. Rather, they convinced
their followers that their teachings could give them paradise on earth, but all
of those false-messiahs have come to the same end—death—and no resurrection
following. All the buddhas, Mohammeds,
Joseph Smiths, and Jim Joneses of history ended the same way—dead and dead
forever—never to rise again, dead even after they are raised to face judgment
on the last day of the world.
That’s why He has risen is the most important news
ever. Jesus didn’t stay dead! He rose from the grave at the exact time He
promised He would. Hundreds of people
were eyewitnesses to the resurrected, living Savior walking, eating, teaching,
and comforting His disciples. It was
transformative. It literally changed the
world. It has truly changed your life
and mine.
It took time, but the
news of Jesus’ resurrection changed the Roman Empire from paganism to a
Christian state. It took time, but
eventually, the Gospel has been spread all around the world giving forgiveness
and life to millions upon millions. Now,
as the end of time draws ever closer, the news of Jesus’ rising from the dead
gives comfort and hope to all who believe in Him.
Most of the news that
hits the newspapers, or the news stations, is forgotten in a matter of
days. By contrast, the news of Jesus’
resurrection has been handed down from generation to generation for almost two
thousand years, and it must be so, or that good news would be lost to the
generations still to come. But the force
that drives the spread of the gospel isn’t dead, and it isn’t human emotion, it
is the Holy Spirit Himself, sent by Christ Jesus and the Father through Word
and Sacrament, changing people from spiritually dead unbelievers into living,
saved, members of the body of Christ.
He has risen! That message made all the difference in the
world for me and you. Knowing this good
news, we no longer need to fear punishment from God, because “God
made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.”
(2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV 84) There is no
more punishment due for our sins, because “Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” (Galatians
3:13 NIV 84) You see, “God was reconciling the world to himself in
Christ, not counting men's sins against them.” (2 Corinthians 5:19 NIV 84) Plus, we no longer have to be afraid when
death draws near, because He who took on death and conquered has promised, “Because I live, you will live also.” (John
14:19 NKJ)
Jesus told His
disciples, “Do not be afraid of those who
kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can
destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28 NIV 84) Because Jesus has risen from the dead, we have
Christ’s assurance that we have nothing to fear in this world. The psalmist rejoiced, “The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies.”
(Psalm 118:6-7 NIV 84)
The morning the
angels rolled back the stone to reveal to the world that Jesus had risen from
the dead, the eleven disciples were hiding in an upper room, terrified that
what the authorities in Jerusalem did to Jesus would soon be done to them. However, after the news that He has risen reached their ears, and
after the Holy Spirit came upon them, their fear was gone, and those disciples,
with a replacement for Judas and one more later called to faith on the road to
Damascus, went out boldly telling the world about Jesus and His victory over
the devil and the grave.
Peter, who three
times cowardly denied knowing Jesus, later wrote, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth
into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and
into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for
you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the
salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5
NIV 84)
St. Paul, who had
once been an active persecutor of the Christian community, also demonstrated
the transformative power of Christ’s resurrection victory when he wrote: “Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?…No, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor
life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans
8:35-39 NIV 84)
Dear friends, today
and every day, remember the Good News one of God’s holy angels brought to the
world through a few women that first Easter morning: “Do not be alarmed. You are
looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has
risen! Amen!
The peace of God,
which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto
life everlasting. Amen.
