Easter, The Resurrection of Our Lord

Isaiah 25:6-9

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Mark 16:1-8

 

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?" And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back---it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you." And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

 

Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Romans 1:7)

The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! This is the traditional greeting of all the historic churches. Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, during the time of Easter. It is joyful news, a greeting filled with happiness and triumph. The Lord, by his death, has conquered the power of death and rendered death powerless. Nothing therefore can hold him in the grave. The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! I say this is joyful news because for us who have put our faith in Christ, we hope that one day, at Christ’s return, that we too shall be raised from the dead as he was raised. And yet, for the women in our Gospel lesson for today, the news that the Lord had risen did not give them joy. Rather, it made them afraid. “And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” Well, can we blame them? The last verse is not exactly a happy verse. And, as if it weren’t enough, the footnote in our bibles say that the oldest manuscripts. the Codex Sinaiticus and the  Codex Vaticanus, do not contain verses 9-16. And so, if we read Mark 16 only up to verse 8, the message seems indeed to be sad. And that, sadly, is how the women felt on that day. They were afraid. They were sad.

MALADY

And that is my point. So often, when we read Mark 16 up to verse 8, we at once conclude that the passage is a sad passage, because the passage ends in fear and sadness. And this is because of sin. Our human nature insists on seeing only the bad thing to the exclusion of the good thing. William Shakespeare put it aptly: “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” Because of our sinful nature, we remember the evil things, the evil ways, the evil nature of a person. The good he has done gets buried with him into oblivion. Look at the two friends on their way to Emmaus. They were also wrapped in sadness. They were disappointed at Jesus, because they had hoped that Jesus would be the one to save them, but he died. The women were afraid. The two friends on their way to Emmaus were disappointed. Elsewhere in scripture, we read that the disciples also were afraid. Because they were sinful. Because they refused to believe.

What about us? How do we feel during Easter? So many people are happy today. But they are not happy because the Lord has risen from the grave; they are happy because they are on vacation. But that kind of happiness lasts only as long as vacation lasts. When vacation is over, it is back to the daily grind of life. Then they become sad again; then tempers begin to flare again. So many times we look at worship as a chore, as something we have to do on Sunday. That is why, whenever we are kept up late Saturday night and we don’t get to worship on Sunday, we almost always say, “we’ll worship next Sunday.” Why? Because we look at worship as a chore, as something we have to do every Sunday, and not as a response to what God has done for us. Our worship revolves around our life, and not the other way around. Our life should revolve around our worship. That’s what happened to the women in our Gisple lesson, that’s what happened to the two friends on their way to Emmaus. That’s what happened to the disciples. Their worship revolved around their life.Wrong. Their life should have revolved around their worship. That is why they were all sad, and that is why we feel little happiness on Sunday: our worship revolves around our life. Our worship is just another part of our life; worship is just something we have to do, aside from cleaning the house, cooking, working, studying, looking after the children, etc. No! It should be the other way around! Our life should be just another part of our worship! OUR WORSHIP SHOULD BE THE CENTER OF OUR LIVES; WHAT WE DO EVERYDAY: OUR STUDIES, OUR WORK, OUR CHORES OUR JOYS, OUR SADNESSES, SHOULD BE THE RESULT OF OUR WORSHIP. Why were the women sad? Because what they were going to do  on that morning was just another thing that they had to do, it was just another part of their life. But how would they have felt if it was the other way around? What if, for those women, life was just another part of their worship? Would they have felt differently? Would you feel differently if the activities of your lives were just part of your worship? Would your views on worship, on life, change? When something happens in our lives, we tend usually to say, “That’s life.” Have you ever heard anyone say, “That’s worship”? No one says that. Ever. And that is why we are not eager to worship; that is why we are not happy in our worship; that is why we feel bored with our worship. Because we look at worship as just something else we have to do in life. We never look at life as something else we have to do in worship. Because we are sinful.

GOSPEL

And yet, look at the passage again. Read verse six, the verse that is always overlooked because the women were wrapped up in fear and sadness, because we are wrapped up in fear and sadness: “And he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.’” The Good News, which we so often overlook because we treat worship as just another part of our life, is that the grave is empty! “HE HAS RISEN; HE IS NOT HERE!”

The Good News for us is that Jesus not only died for us, HE ALSO ROSE FROM THE DEAD FOR US! The real message of Easter is not that life, as we understand it, goes on. That is not the message of Easter. The real message of Easter is that Jesus goes on in spite of the bitter realities of life. The real message of Easter is that Jesus lives, when he should be dead. The real message of Easter is that Jesus is not in the grave. Satan could not hold him prisoner in the grave; death could not hold him prisoner in the grave; sin could not hold him prisoner in the grave. The real message of Easter is that JESUS IS RISEN; HE IS NOT IN THE GRAVE. JESUS IS ALIVE! He is here with us, even as we gather around his Word and His Sacraments. He is here to bless us as we listen to his Word, as we partake of his true body and blood. He is here to give us the blessings of Easter: grace, forgiveness, life – through his Word and Sacraments.

Because Jesus is risen, everything is changed. All the things that we hold in the center of our lives have changed because Christ is risen from the dead. Before, the center of our lives were our selves. Before, our lives were the center. Now, all that has changed. Now, Jesus is the center of our beings, and not our selves; now, Jesus is the center of our lives, and not the other way around. And consequently, worship now becomes our center, worship now defines who we are and what we do. Now, because Jesus has risen from the dead, our life revolves around our worship. Our lives now do not determine our worship; now, it is our worship that determines our life.

People of God: He is not in the grave. People of God: THE LORD IS RISEN! This is most certainly true. This is most certainly for you.

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. (Philippians 4:7)