Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Recently on his late-night talk show, Stephen Colbert, was
asked by his guest Dala Lipa about the role his Roman Catholic faith plays in
his daily life, how it interacts and interplays with his comedy. She asked,
“Does your faith and comedy ever overlap and does one ever win out?” Colbert
chuckled nervously, looked up at the ceiling and said, “I think, ultimately,
all of us being mortal, the faithful win out in the end” – and he had to pause
here for some laughter from the audience before concluding – “But I certainly
hope that when I get to heaven, Jesus has a sense of humor.” (approx. 4:30 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUaWDqDOWPk)
For St. Paul in this morning’s Epistle reading, faith and life
are so closely interrelated and interconnected that Christ’s crucifixion and
resurrection is not merely a past-tense event - something that happened outside
of Jerusalem a few years earlier - and Jesus’
return and our own corresponding resurrection isn’t merely a future-tense event
- and if you ask most people, I imagine that they would probably say it’s a far
distant event at that – for Paul, the resurrection is a present-tense reality.
This is so because the death and resurrection of Jesus, fulfilling all of the
prophecies of Scripture, forgives all of our sins. There is nothing that is more present-tense than that we are forgiven children of God through
the vicarious sacrifice of His Son, Jesus the Christ.
Remember, after Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus appeared to many
of His followers so that there would be other eyewitnesses besides just the 12,
too many to discount. First there was Peter, than the rest of the Twelve, then
over five hundred more, then James (who became the leader of the church in
Jerusalem), and finally, to Paul himself, in a brilliant bright light, calling
Paul to repentance and faith in Him, not as one to be prosecuted but believed
and confessed. So, Paul speaks from first-person experience. It’s as if he is
saying, I have seen the Resurrected One! I know His resurrection is true and
that what I speak is true because I am one of those eyewitnesses!
But, what if…what
if there was no resurrection? What if there was no resurrection? If that
were true, then the last breath and the final heartbeat would be it; the grave
would be the final destination, and the closing of the casket would be the
terrible “THE END” of life. And, if there was no resurrection, then there would
be no resurrection for Jesus, either. The Easter victory would be an erstwhile
joke. Without Christ’s resurrection, there is no resurrection for those who
believe in Jesus. The church would be filled with fools and, of all people,
Christians would be the most miserable, pitied chumps ever seen. If there was
no resurrection, everything the church taught, everything preached by Paul, and
Peter, and Luther, and all of the pastors who have stood in Zion’s pulpits over
the years, everything that Christians have died for, what has been confessed by
all of you and your parents, and everything ever preached and taught in the
Scriptures, would all be, at best, a sad punchline; at worst, an out-and-out
lie.
And, an even greater folly would be that God Himself would
be a liar for it would be His promise that His people believed, from Old
Testament thru New Testament to today, that would be exposed as the terrible
untruth. And, if there was no resurrection, if there was no resurrection of
Christ, then there would be no reason to believe in forgiveness of sins, or
eternity with God, or peace being restored. No…if there was no resurrection,
then there would be only death. Physical death leads to eternal, spiritual
death. The curse of Eden would have blossomed from the tree of knowledge of
good and evil into the blackest flower of death.
And, if that were true, what would we be left with? Hope? A
quasi-hope, a pseudo-hope, a faux hope of the life we have this side of the
grave…well, that’s not much hope, is it? Hope without certainty, hope without
joy, hope without “Amen!” is no hope at all. If that were true, what a
hope-less way to live. If that were true, what a hope-less way to die. It’s
pitiful.
Then, Paul shifts. He adds the small word, “But…” Through
his argument, Paul has been making an
argument from the negative to prove the positive. If this were true, then that
would be true. Then, he shifts: He’s moving from the realm of “what if” to the
world of certainty. “But, in fact…” It’s
as if he’s said, “If all of that were true, that there was no resurrection,
then it would be bad news. But it’s not true, is it? In fact, Christ has been
raised from the dead!”
God’s promises are, in fact, fulfilled with resurrection. Or,
perhaps, we should say they are filled with resurrection. From the “he
will crush your head” of Genesis 3 to Jesus declaration, “Destroy this temple
and I will rebuild it in three days,” to “It is finished,” to “He is not here –
He is risen as He said,” the resurrection is not a “what if” moment. It’s a
“this is most certainly true!” moment. There is Easter; there is resurrection;
there is eternal life. The grave is a resting place, not a final
destination. God takes something that
was not intended, death, and He uses it as His instrument to rescue His
faithful from this world of a resurrection-in-waiting to the life everlasting.
Need evidence? Want to be sure this is not another “what
if?” Don’t just take my word for it. Look to Jesus. He’s the firstfruits of
those who have fallen asleep. Firstfruits: firstfruits are the initial crop; it
implies that more will follow. It’s the beginning with a promise of more to
come. It’s the initial harvest; more will be brought into the larder. Because
of Christ’s resurrection, those who believe in Him will likewise be raised. Because
of Christ’s resurrection, those who have been baptized into Him will be raised.
Because of Christ’s resurrection, those who have fallen asleep in Him will be
raised. Because of Christ’s resurrection, because He has conquered sin, death
and hell in His resurrection, because of Christ, the faithful will be
resurrected as well.
Because of Christ.
What a difference those three words make when facing the harsh reality of
death, the ridged coldness of the casket, and the dark depth of the grave.
Because of Christ, the bodies of the faithfully departed are at rest, a
peaceful “sleep,” if you will, while their souls already receive the eternity
with Jesus. Because of Christ, the casket is the place where the body waits.
The grave is temporary.
Too often, in funeral sermons you hear the pastor say
something like this: “And now, Dear Aunt Maybel is with Jesus and she’s not
suffering any more.” And, after a few more polite jokes about sharing her pie
recipe with all the others in heaven, he says amen.
I hope you never hear me leave a funeral sermon with the
soul in heaven. That misses out on the best part, in fact, it’s the very Gospel
of Jesus in the face of the terror of the Law that stares from the earth.
When you die, it’s not just body in the grave and the soul
with Jesus. There’s more – Paul Harvey would say, “The rest of the story.” Remember:
Christ is the firstfruit. He’s gone through death and the grave first. And, He
rose from the grave. In His resurrection He has conquered death and has blown
open the grave. That means there will be a resurrection for you, as well, and
for all of the faithful who die in faith. Christ’s resurrection is the
prophetic promise of your resurrection. That’s why you confessed it a few
minutes ago, “We believe in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” You confess it, you
believe it, you trust it because it is true.
There is a wonderful hymn that I would encourage each of you
to learn and memorize. Hymn 486, “If Christ had not Been Raised from Death.” It
takes 1 Corinthians 15 and puts it to rhyme, meter and music to make it
learnable and accessible. Verse two speaks to the promise:
If Christ still lay within the tomb, then death would be the end,
And we would face our final doom with neither guide nor friend.
But now the Savior is raised up, so when a Christian dies
We mourn, yet look to God in hope – in Christ, the saints arise. (LSB 486.2)
That’s important, because when death is knocking, when satan
is lying about what is happening to your loved one or to you, you need to hear
that Jesus will not leave you abandoned. Christ suffered for you. He died for
you. God forgives you because of Christ Jesus. You are redeemed. If satan tries
to throw your sins in your face, throw them back at him. Admit it: Yep, I’m a
sinner. But Jesus is a greater Savior and He’s stripped that from me so all
that God sees is His beloved child. And, because of Jesus, He promises that He
will one day raise me just as He did His own Son.
I understand that Colbert’s vocation is not to be an
evangelist. He’s an entertainer who occasionally brings his faith into the
storyline. For him, faith and life sometimes intersect that way. And, on his
show, he was trying to be both funny and diplomatic while at the same time
speaking a word of truth about the faith he believes. If he had memorized this
hymn, he could have answered, without chuckles, using verse three:
If Christ had not been truly raised, His Church would live a lie;
His name should nevermore be praised, His words deserve to die.
But now our great Redeemer lives; through Him we are restored;
His Word endures, His Church revives, in Christ, our risen Lord. (LSB 486.3)
Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, who is the
Resurrection and the Life. Amen.
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