Sermon -- Easter Day (March 31, 2024)

JOB 19:23-27

MY REDEEMER LIVES!

In the name + of Jesus.

M:       Alleluia!  Christ is risen!

C:        He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

     Modern Bible scholars claim that Christian doctrine progressed over time.  One doctrine which is claimed to be a later addition is the resurrection of the body.  It is argued that the concept of the resurrection does not appear until perhaps the time of King David, about 1,000 BC, and its frequency increases after that.  It is suggested that the resurrection was not known by the likes of Abraham or Noah or Adam. 

     The patriarch Job would have lived about the time of Abraham, perhaps even a bit before.  That puts him a good 1,000 years before King David.  Job made a very clear confession about the resurrection of the body.  From this we can draw one of two conclusions.  Option 1: The resurrection had been believed and taught by people who came before Job.  If Job was taught about the resurrection, it is a very old doctrine, believed by people long before Job.  Option 2?  Job was just making this up on the spot.  If that were the case, Job’s friends would have responded, “What are you talking about?!” 

     When a person is facing death, he needs to grasp onto something sure in order to find comfort.  It is not the time to start making up beliefs unless you have no beliefs at all.  But Job made it clear that he was not facing death with wishful thinking.  His confidence was firm.  “Oh that my words were written!  Oh that they were inscribed in a book!  Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever” (Job 19:23-24)!  Job wanted his confession permanently inscribed, chiseled in stone so that future generations would know it.  This was a firm faith based on promises of old.  It is a confession that we still make today: “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come” (Nicene Creed).  The resurrection of the dead is not a teaching invented by the Church.  The resurrection has been believed, confessed, and taught by God’s people based on the very first promise God made.

     Job’s confession was made when he thought that his death was imminent.  You may recall Job’s history.  Job went from being a very rich, influential man to poverty-stricken in a day.  Job lost his wealth, his servants, his status, and his children.  To make matters worse, Job was then afflicted with debilitating ailments.  The Bible says that Job was struck “with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 2:7).  With his body shriveled, his friends did not even recognize him.  Job looked like the living dead, and he was sure that death was close at hand. 

     Despite this misery, despite staring the grave in the face, Job continued to have hope.  He declared, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (John 19:25-27). 

     My Redeemer lives!  This is to say much more than “God lives.”  Job believed in a Redeemer.  If there is a Redeemer, that means that someone comes to pay a ransom.  The ransom price is paid to deliver us from death.  Death is the sentence that has fallen on everyone on earth.  No matter what anyone thinks about the Bible or Jesus or the Church, all people know they are going to die.  When someone dies might be a surprise.  How someone dies may come as a shock.  When those road workers on the Francis Scott Key Bridge went to work that night, no one thought that they would meet their death by a cargo ship hitting the bridge and causing it to collapse.  But none of those workers expected that they would live forever, either.  We all have an expiration date.  This comes because sin has entered the world and has corrupted all of us.  That was the penalty that fell upon Adam and Eve when they sinned against God, and it falls upon all of us.  We are sinners.  Therefore, we are marked for death.

     But God promised to deliver mankind from sin and all its consequences.  He promised a Savior.  If we are to be saved from sin, then we are also to be delivered from death.  Where there is no sin, there is no death either. 

     God does not ignore or dismiss sins.  They are wicked.  You know that.  If someone sins against you, you know it is wicked.  If your spouse cheats on you, if your neighbor swindles you, if your coworker tells lies about you, do you ignore it or pretend it doesn’t mean anything?  No.  You call it what it is: Wrong.  Wicked.  Unacceptable.  Perhaps even unforgivable.  Therefore, God cannot ignore our sins against him, either.

     Because God does not delight in the death of anyone, he sent a Redeemer to pay the price for our sins.  Our Redeemer is the Lord himself.  It has to be.  This is what the Lord says, “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit (Psalm 49:7-9).  But when God steps in and gives himself as the ransom payment, it is enough to cover everyone.  The almighty God died in exchange for all mankind.  The Son of God is your Redeemer. 

     But Job’s confession is not, “My Redeemer dies for me.”  No, he declared, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth” (Job 19:25).  Jesus, who was buried in the grave with our sins, is risen from the dead.  He lives, and he cannot die again.  He has mastered death. 

     Your Redeemer lives!  And you are his redeemed!  That means he has purchased and won you from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent sufferings and death.  If your sin has been taken away from you, that means that death does not own you.  For, where there is no sin, there is no death.  At the end of time, our Redeemer will stand upon the earth and raise up all the dead from their graves.  On the Last Day, the grave will get nothing.  On the Last Day, he will raise up me and all the dead and give eternal life to me and all believers in Jesus Christ.  This is most certainly true.

     This was Job’s confidence and confession.  “After my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  My heart faints within me” (Job 19:26-27)!  Job knew that he would die.  His body was corrupted by sin, and sin cannot dwell with God.  But after he died, after his body suffered decay, he would be raised up anew.  And Job knew that he would remain himself.  He would not be morphed into someone else.  He would not be converted to an angel.  The same Job whom God created and whom Jesus redeemed would be resurrected in glory.  “In my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:26-27).  My Redeemer lives, and I myself shall see him!

     Very few people have experienced the misery that Job knew.  But you don’t need to experience that level of suffering to know what suffering in a sinful world is like.  How many have financial hardship—whether from low income, loss of a job, or being hammered with car repairs?  How many have known the pain of having a miscarriage or burying a child?  How many have had their reputation destroyed?  Or perhaps you know the hardship of failing health.  It could be little things like weak eyesight or sore joints.  It could be big things like an illness that requires a hospital stay or an injury that requires surgery.  Maybe it is a terminal disease.  And if it is not you who have experienced these, you know someone who has.  This is the reality of having sin-corrupted bodies in a sin-corrupted world.  These bodies were created by God, but corrupted by sin.  Therefore, they are mortal; for sin brings death.

     But you have a Redeemer, and your Redeemer lives!  He has paid the ransom to deliver you from sin and death.  But it is more than just providing eternal life.  Can you imagine having eternal life in this world?  How many tragedies would you have to endure if you just kept on living in this world?  How many wars would you have to witness?  How many injuries?  How many bed-ridden days?  And how often would you have to experience people sinning against you—lying to you, stealing from you, and insulting you with snobbish arrogance?  Is this the life that anyone wants?

     But you have a Redeemer, and your Redeemer lives!  He will rescue you from everything that has been corrupted by sin.  So, your body will one day wear out.  As Job testified, you will die and your skin will be destroyed.  But then!  But then!  “After my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:26-27).  Your living Redeemer will raise you up from the grave and make you alive again.  Delivered from sin, you will also be delivered from death.  You will be forever free from everything that corrupts and decays and destroys and hurts and saddens and scares.  You will have the body that God had intended you to have from his first creation.  You will have the mind that delights only in what is pure and honorable.  You will have a spirit that loves God and his word, and it will be your greatest joy to live according to it.  And you will be gathered together with redeemed saints who will share in your joy and rejoice in God’s love with you.

     My Redeemer lives!  That is what matters.  Job knew what it was to be rich and influential.  He knew what it was to have a loving family and robust health.  And he knew what it was to have all of it taken away.  No matter what his earthly status was, his status in the kingdom of God remained unchanged.  He was redeemed and assured of a glorious resurrection.  When life was good, he rejoiced in it.  When death felt imminent, it meant even more. 

     Finally, this is all that matters for any of us.  Time on earth is short.  Blessings can be marred or lost.  But our Redeemer lives!  His grace endures forever.  Life in his kingdom is everlasting.  So, your confidence, even in the face of death, can remain firm.  My Redeemer lives!  In the end, he will stand upon the earth.  In the end, we will stand with him.  How our hearts yearn in such a hope and for such a blessing!

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