✠ Psalmody: Psalm 139:18b, 5b–6a; 1–2ab; Psalm 118:24, 1; 1 Corinthians 5:7b, 5:8a, c; Psalm 76:8b–9a
✠ Lection: Job 19:23–27; 1 Corinthians 5:7–8; Mark 16:1–8
Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Come quickly to peer into the tomb of Christ on this glorious Easter morn to behold what awaits you. Human tracks lead to a grave, a place of death, as ours are already determined and as we have those of others all around us as we walk in this place of relentless reminder that “thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.” Fight as we may, advance as we may, deceive as we may, man cannot stop death. Yet, those who follow Jesus on His three-day journey of suffering and death, of Sabbath rest, and of resurrection, are guaranteed eternal promise, bliss, and fulfillment in Him. The promise is secure in Him, Who is no weak false god or paltry world leader who cannot overcome the grave. Jesus is why you are here today, whether by indirect influence or by joy that could not keep you away, for all good things, including every good decision, originates in Him and in His divine work to reconcile sinners to the Father and to draw them to where He, the Victorious Lamb of God, is glorified. Christ, both God and Man in one Person, isn’t merely the best option in this life for an outlet of joy, a dash of hope, or a rooting in reality. He is the One and there is no other, for unlike the things of this life that will pass quicker than memories of us in 100-years’ time, Jesus never saw corruption, even when His lifeless holy body was placed into the tomb. The Life that is the Light of the World rested secure in the Word as He rested on the seventh day before dawning upon the new creation on the eighth. He has secured the sure, but narrow path that leads to where all wise hearts hope to go as they beat now, when they cease, and when they are raised to beat again forever.
The pattern is before you. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so was the Son of Man three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The first of Christ’s three days shows what is in store for those who follow Him here: suffering and death. Do not fear, for the suffering and death that you suffer is not to atone for sins, but to follow in the blessed steps of Christ, your Strength and your Redeemer. Neither fear to follow the pattern nor turn away to less important things for Jesus Himself instructs you to take up your cross and follow Him. It is the only way through to the life He offers. All else is everlasting death. In this temporary place, the presence of suffering and death does not prevent or ban undeniable joy, hope, strength, and comfort. Christ gives all that is needed to endure this, His, road. He is your Strength indeed and He shines all-the-brighter in the face of suffering and death.
Fresh in our hearing is what took place on the night when Jesus was betrayed. He was handed over to sinners and although the sun then rose on that Friday of sacrifice, it was darkened at full day by our sin as the ransom was paid and the totality of God’s wrath fell upon the only-begotten Son. Just as the glory of the Lord shone brightly from His sacrifice upon the cross, so does a life of righteousness, of joy, of hope, counter both the thrill and the lack of care over the current that swiftly runs to the edge of Hell where the waterless fall drops into an eternally tormenting abyss. Light shines in the darkness. To counter such a Hell-bound tide with your life is to suffer for righteousness’ sake, a noble task exemplified by our crucified Lord.
This life of suffering, of which we deserve no better, is one through which righteousness, joy, and hope still dawn upon the narrow way trod by our Lord, even as we encounter death around us. On Easter morning, the women had forgotten the promises of Jesus that dammed up the flood of death that was the default for man since the fall in the garden. In sadness, the women continued to prepare as they would for every other burial by buying spices to take to the tomb, expecting to find it sealed with the great stone, and having a decaying, corrupted body lying lifeless inside returning to the dust. But from of old, the Father had given promise regarding the Messiah through the psalmist David, “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” He Who entered the grave at the full cost of our sin, entered into death without fear, but in confidence and trust in the Father’s promise. Beloved, fear not the suffering and death that you share in Christ, for your Father in heaven uses all things for your good as He prepares you for the Second Day.
The day after Good Friday was a Sabbath and for its duration our dear Lord rested from His work. Just as He finished His work of creation on the sixth day and rested on the seventh, so again He did in bringing forth the New Creation. The day of rest, the Sabbath, was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. This means that the Lord Himself, resting in the tomb, has gone to prepare a restful Christian grave for you. It is no longer a cold, lifeless prison, but a place of rest, prepared in the garden of His sacrifice. His second day is your certainty that however long your body may rest in the grave sanctified by His own burial, it shall be for you a peaceful sleep; no torment, no purgatory, no angst, no tears, no scorching heat. Christian graves are holy ground, sanctified by God into which the bodies of His saints are reverently laid just as God has given them to us. Consider the eternal reality in Christ when you make your funeral plans and wishes made known.
Treat your body reverently, for even as it ages and breaks down now, it is a gift of God that shall be resurrected. Cast it not away into cremation fire akin to pagan ritual, but lay it to rest in the ground as your Redeemer was, for on the Third Day, He was raised from the tomb. His resurrection guarantees yours. St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” We see, know, and feel the proof of death coming through the first Adam, a fallen man. We know it in others and shall know it intimately in ourselves. How much more sure we shall be that through the second Adam, our risen Lord Jesus Christ, both God and Man, we will be made alive!
So, on this wonderful feast of Christ, our Passover Who has been sacrificed for us, let us keep the Feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth that carries on in the hope that He gives into every day between now, and our death, and our resurrection. Come quickly to peer into the empty tomb of the risen Lord, and into your own grave, not as though you approach death, but Life, for it is the latter Who has won the day. Three days He was in the tomb, but Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! And following Him Who lives, we believe that we shall be raised in a resurrection like His, passing through suffering, death, and rest that shall lead us to it.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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