Easter Day – Sunday 31 March A✠D 2024
✠ Psalmody: St. Luke 24:5b-6b; Psalm 118:24, 1;1 Corinthians 5:7, 8
✠ Lection: Job 19:23-27;1 Corinthians 5:7-8;St. Mark 16:1-8
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Hopefully you’ve come to God’s Divine Service on Easter Day to hear of victory in a world where you’re constantly being bombarded with and conditioned to believe in a life of loss. If you’ve come looking for how there is victory in a world of so much apparent defeat, then the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is it, singularly, as in, there is no other hope. There is no life among the dead of this world and all of its dainties designed first to lure you in with pleasure, then to enslave you with addiction, emptiness, and despair. Why seek ye the Living among the dead? Why look to this world, why look to this life as if it’s all there is. Pitiable is the soul that believes that the grave is final, that there is nothing that awaits beyond it. Pitiable is the soul, too, that believes that this life is the main event regardless of what comes after death, good or ill. Jesus Christ has come to rescue us from every evil of body and soul, including that which tries to rob us of real truth, comfort, and joy, in real time, of the never-ending that still awaits beyond this veil.
Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us? Words said among the women as they came to the tomb of Jesus very early in the morning on the first day of the week after He had been crucified. They had bought spices to bring so that they may continue on in what they thought to be permanent. Death is permanent. Our own modern tombs confess this, for we install into the ground stone-hard vaults expecting that they shall remain there unopened. We secure them with six feet of earth upon which we memorialize the place with cold, heavy stone markers, inscribing on them details of death of the one who there lies. We rightfully expect them not to be opened from the inside. Heavier upon us all is what has rolled down from Mount Sinai, the stone tablets of God’s holy commandments, sealing us under God’s righteous judgment, given so that we see how dire our situation; true and good on one side, His side, these stones are; true and bad for us on the other for under the weight of the Law’s perfection our sins are made known and they crush us to death, for we are unable to uphold their requirement. The stone covering the graves of all the dead cannot be removed by the dead who lie therein. The death sentence is permanent, which the natural conclusion of this life should remind us by every funeral we attend, by every hearse-led procession we pass on the road, and by every notification heard of another person meeting our shared, unavoidable end. Those who die shall never return to us here. That death is permanent. Day after day, this rings true. Day after day, the time that we have left before we are the ones mourned for, cried over, and carried to our tombs, shortens. Shall that grave be but a marker of the eternal permanency that lies beyond it when we return to the dust? For the pitiable multitude that care not until it’s too late to do so beyond death, indeed it shall be but the first step over the cliff from which there is no return. Even for them, the most painful ends to this life contain shreds of mercy from on High, yet that is where it shall stop forever as the Creator Whom they love and believe not calls them to stand before Him and give an account.
The tomb isn’t only for the rich or the poor, the famous or the common, the healthy or the ill. It overtakes us all. Death, the separation of the soul from the body, is the gold standard of inclusion in a world hell-bent on demanding it. To enter into the inevitable end unprepared is most alarming, at least for those who bear the grief of watching it happen forever to a neighbor, to a friend, to a loved one. Those who are alarmed at the deathly permanence of an earthly grave that serves as the buried one’s entrance into eternal torment are those who have eyes to see, who know and believe the truth about the grave, that it is indeed a portal to condemnation for all who die in unbelief, but a dark door opening to everlasting light of life for those who die in belief in the one Hope Who is Christ our Lord. What do you see today?
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away – for it was very large. The women had wondered how they might continue on in the habit of death, for that was all that they thought they had to believe in. Jesus was crucified, wrapped in burial cloths as all do who die, and laid in a virgin tomb. Expecting defeat still to reign in His death, they came to assist in the decay of death. But when they lifted up their eyes, they saw from whence their help would come. They saw that the stone had been rolled away for them. They saw not only the Good News about Jesus, but news that is good for the whole world. Death is defeated. The tomb is empty. He is not there. He is here, for you, for eternity. The stone was rolled away not so that Jesus could come out, but so that you may enter in and see the empty place where they laid Him. The victory that stands in contrast to this perishing world is, Alleluia, Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed, Alleluia!) In a world of no apparent victory, but only steady decline into the abyss of immorality, lies, and death shines forth His bright new Day, for the tomb of Christ is not one that still holds Him. It is a tomb of victory, thus giving to all who enter in true opportunity to marvel at, believe in, and celebrate something that actually matters in world full of empty spiritual calories that satisfy the wrong hunger within. Only Christ crucified and risen from the dead satisfies the hungry soul.
The grave stands as a most welcoming enemy to all who enter it blindly, but for those who peer into Christ’s empty tomb with belief that His resurrection confirms that His death was full and sufficient payment for the sins of the whole world, just as He said, then earthly graves lose their sting, and death its victory. Christ is the singular Hope for us all in the face of death. By looking ahead to your own grave, hear the words of this messenger of God sent to you this Easter Day proclaiming, “Do not be alarmed.” The tomb is empty. If you are in Christ, yours, too, shall be on the Last Day when it shall be your Savior Who rolls away the stone for you, commanding that you come forth to life everlasting in the promise that, after your skin is destroyed six feet under, this you know, that in your flesh you shall see God, Whom you shall see for yourself in a bodily resurrection like His. This hope is yours in your Holy Baptism into Christ, for there in those blessed waters, you died in Him, with Him, the death for which you must have alarm; death on account of your sins. Your worst death is behind you. Trust Him and His faithful word that you have already died the one death of concern and what still lies ahead, though still a challenge to face, is this life that finishes in a peaceful sleep in a grave, but continues on out because of the eternal life already gifted in Christ. Out of a grave sanctified by the body of one redeemed by Christ, you shall rise in glory at the beckon call of your Savior on the Last Day. That sure hope is what makes these days bright, for this day is bright on which you celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and yours. He is the One thing that lasts. He is the One Victory that cannot be overturned, nullified, or ever taken from you. Such is the Victor Who daily shines hope upon you in a world that itself can only offer defeat.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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