Sermon -- Easter Festival (April 17, 2022)

LUKE 24:1-12

HE IS RISEN, JUST AS HE SAID.

M: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Cong: He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name + of Jesus.

     In Lent, we followed the Man of Sorrows.  Today, we honor the Lord of Victory.  In Lent, our emphasis was on our sins and need for repentance.  Today, our emphasis is forgiveness, life, and joy.  Throughout Lent, our worship was muted.  Today, we restore the Alleluia’s with extravagance.  By my count, we sing Alleluia 50 times in our hymns this service.  Today, we celebrate that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and that he is victorious over death and the grave. 

     Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.  Jesus gave his life as a ransom payment for all sinners by his death on the cross.  He accepted God’s judgment on your behalf.  He bore your guilt, was crushed by God’s wrath, and absorbed all the agonies of death and hell.  But now Jesus lives.  This means that Jesus’ payment for your sins has been accepted.  His death is full compensation for all sins.  Therefore, Jesus has authority to forgive all your sins.  Your Savior lives to declare that your sins are taken away and that God’s wrath has been withdrawn from you. 

     Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.  Jesus’ resurrection means that heaven is open to you.  Since he lives forever and reigns over all things, his word is supreme.  His promises are irreversible.  That means your hope is indestructible.  We look for the resurrection of the dead because we know that we will be raised to everlasting life.  We look for the life of the world to come because we know it is endless peace and indescribable glory.  We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  There is no reason to fear this because the Lord’s love for you is demonstrated by Jesus’ willing death and resurrection victory. Rejoice in your Savior’s victory.  You are the prize he has won, and he is pleased to call you his very own.

     Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.  We rejoice today and always.  But that is not how the first Easter day began.  You and I came to church with joy today because we know the end of the story.  It was not so obvious back then, though it should have been. 

     The disciples were hiding in Jerusalem.  They were afraid, heart-broken, and confused.  They were coping with the death of Jesus, and they were consumed by their guilt because they had failed to stand beside him.  They had followed Jesus until it actually cost them something.  They wondered, “Were the years that we invested learning from Jesus wasted time?”  If Jesus was dead, their hopes and plans were dead, too.

     I suppose the women who followed Jesus were coping a little bit better.  They went to the tomb to tend to Jesus’ body.  His burial was done in such a hurry that they had been unable to show their respects for his body.  After the Sabbath rest, at the crack of dawn, they went to perform one last act of devotion for their beloved teacher.  But they all received a gut punch when they discovered the stone removed from the front of the tomb and the body of Jesus missing.  What sick person would rob a grave and steal a corpse?  Was it the Pharisees and the priests?  They hated Jesus.  They had arranged his arrest.  They had orchestrated the trial which condemned him.  They badgered Pontius Pilate until he sentenced Jesus to the most shameful kind of death available.  Was that not enough?

     And then, everything changed.  “While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.  And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen.  Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.’  And they remembered his words” (Luke 24:4-8).  He is risen, just as he said!

     Jesus’ disciples—whether the women or the apostles—had no reason to be despair over Jesus’ death.  He had told them this was going to happen.  They had no reason to be surprised at Jesus’ resurrection.  He had told them that this was going to happen.  They had no reason to doubt Jesus’ words.  Through the prophets, God had foretold that this was going to happen.  Already in the Garden of Eden, God had revealed his plan of salvation.  He continued to offer more details as the centuries went by.  God the Father had testified at Jesus’ baptism that he is the very one who would carry out all that was foretold.  God never lies.  So, it should not have surprised anyone that everything happened just as God had said.  And it has.  The angels declared, “He is not here, but has risen.  Remember how he told you” (Luke 24:6). 

     When the women who went to the tomb heard the message from the angels, they remembered Jesus’ words.  Indeed, everything Jesus had told them would happen happened exactly as he said.  The words stirred up the faith of these women who went and told the apostles all these things.  “They told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest … but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them” (Luke 24:9,11).  Oh, what peace we often forfeit!  Oh, what needless pain we bear!  All because we do not believe the Lord when he speaks to us.  The disciples remained in their fear and confusion because they did not believe the women’s message.  They did not take Jesus’ words to heart.  He had risen, just as he said, but they did not believe and remained pierced with grief and guilt.

     Perhaps that is why Peter ran out to the tomb.  One of the last exchanges Peter had had with Jesus was when Jesus told Peter he would deny him three times.  Peter insisted that this would be impossible.  Peter would never deny the Lord.  But within hours of Peter’s boasting, everything Jesus had told him would happen happened exactly as he said.  If Jesus got that right, then perhaps the ladies were not talking nonsense.  He went to see for himself.  “Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened” (Luke 24:12).  John’s Gospel adds that the linen cloths were folded up neatly.  This was no grave robbery.  This was a Savior who calmly and intentionally rose from the dead and departed from the tomb.  Although Peter still needed to connect the dots and see that this had all been foretold in Scripture, the words of Jesus had taken root.  He marveled at the message and its fulfillment.  Jesus is risen, just as he said!

     You need not be surprised by anything God tells you, either.  God never lies.  Everything God tells you is good.  But we don’t always trust that God’s word is good when it is costly or seems cruel and unfair.  We have a hard time believing that the sins which make us happy could be wicked.  We don’t want to turn away from our sins when we are gaining something through them.  We don’t want to put forth the effort of doing good to thankless people.  Our forgiveness and love come with conditions.  We insist that our ways are pleasing but God’s ways are painful. 

     To believe in the Lord is also to trust his word and to do it.  The Lord defines what is good and what is evil.  When God’s word confronts us about our sins, rather than debate about our circumstances and reasons for doing what we do, a better question to ask is this: Is God’s word true?  If God tells me that my behavior is wicked, is he right?  If God tells me to correct my attitude, is he correct?  When we hear what the Lord says, there is one of two responses that we can give.  One is, “God, you are wrong.  You are a liar.”  The other is, “Amen.  Every word of the Lord is true.  Every word from God is good—even if it shows me that I am not.” 

     This is not to say that you won’t struggle against temptations or that overcoming your sinful habits and choices is easy.  We all have a sinful nature which delights in going our own way.  The sinful nature does not even want to listen to God because it concludes that, in the end, God cannot be good.  But if you call God a liar about our sins, then he is also a liar about your forgiveness.  If the life God calls you to is distasteful to you, then he will not bother granting you the delicacies of his eternal kingdom.  Death and hell will take you, and the goodness of God will be lost to you.

     But, dear friends, God is not a liar.  His word is good.  He does not want anyone to perish in their sins.  Yes, he urges you to flee from wickedness, but he also knows that you cannot overcome all sins, and you surely will not escape death.  But that is why Jesus came.  He has come to take away your sins.  He has come to conquer death.  And he has!  He is risen, just as he said.

     “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise” (Luke 24:6-7).  Jesus had said that everything which happened had to happen.  It all had to happen this way for Jesus to deliver you out of the curse of your sin and to relieve you of the terror of death.  It had to happen this way because this is what God promised.  God does not lie; his word is true and good. 

     Jesus lives to declare that your guilt is pardoned.  Jesus lives to have authority over death and the grave.  He also holds the authority to judge—either condemning people for their sins or awarding eternal life to the pure.  But now, through the blood of Jesus, your sins are washed away.  Through holy baptism, you have been purified.  All God’s promises are secured by the death of Jesus and confirmed by his resurrection. 

     He is risen, just as he said.  You are forgiven, just as he said.  He will preserve you in this saving faith through the words he continues to preach to you.  So, if you believe that God is true, if you desire to be delivered from your sins, if you long for a resurrection to everlasting peace and glory, then listen to what Jesus says.  Keep listening to what Jesus says, Sunday after Sunday, year after year.  For only Jesus has the authority to forgive, to raise the dead, and to bring you into heavenly peace and joy.  He is risen, just as he said.  And he says it for your good.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen