Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is Luke 24:1-12
Christ is risen! He is risen,
indeed! Alleluia!
We are risen! We are risen, indeed! Alleluia!
The women were seeking a grave. They
had witnessed Jesus’ burial just two nights earlier as Sabbath had approached.
Sabbath law forbade work of any kind, so with Jesus dead, and time running out
for proper burial, they could only give the body the most rudimentary of burial
care that it deserved. It wasn’t what they wanted to do; it was all they had
time to do. The grave had been cut out of solid stone. It was new; a body had
never been laid in it before; and, most important, it was nearby and available.
In this sepulcher, the God of Creation was entombed into the belly of His own
creation.
The women were looking for a
body. They wanted to show Jesus a final honor. They watched helplessly the last
days of Jesus’ life as He was arrested, hauled away in bondage, tried and
convicted. They wept as they stood in the crowd that lined the streets as Jesus
staggered by under the weight of the cross. They wept again when Jesus was
crucified. They heard His seven words; they saw Him breathe His last. They saw
Him die. They had cared for Him in life; the least they could do was care for
Him in death. They had seen Joseph and Nicodemus take the body, which had been
taken down from the cross, and place it in the tomb.
They were expecting a stone that
stood in the way of their plan’s fulfillment. To get to Jesus, to use the
precious spices and aloes they had purchased, they must move the stone. It was
probably large and heavy; they knew they couldn’t move it themselves. Perhaps a
sympathetic solider would lend them aid, or perhaps a disciple or curious citizen
would help. But even then, it had been sealed – stamped – with Governor
Pilate’s mark. It was as if creation and Rome were both conspiring to prevent
their final act of love from happening.
They were seeking what every
person expects when they walk into the cemetery: a grave, a body within, and
stone. And silence. It’s always silent because the grave, the body, the stone –
they do not speak. The story always goes
the same in a cemetery. Loved ones seek the place where the dead lay. The
silence is broken with whispers, with tears, with sobs. It’s what is expected
in the cemetery.
Except this wasn’t the same
story. It wasn’t the same old grave, it wasn’t the same old stone, and it
certainly wasn’t the same body. This was the third morning. It was the first
day of the week. The sabbath’s rest in the tomb was complete. This was
resurrection day. The one whom they were seeking was Jesus of Nazareth, the Son
of God. The grave they sought was open. The body they were looking for was
gone. The stone they expected to cause so much trouble was moved away. Open
grave, absent body, moved stone – no, this was nothing that they expected.
Two men with dazzling clothes shone
into the darkness, radiating light. “Jesus Christ is the light of the world,
the light no darkness can overcome,” we said on Maundy Thursday. As John the
Baptist said of himself years earlier, these two men were not the Light, but
they come to bear witness to the Light. A
gentle reproach, a direct question: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here but has risen.” This is the first Easter proclamation. Good News
abounds! Where Good Friday was darkness and death, and Saturday’s Sabbath rest
was rest in the tomb, the first day of the week brings resurrection and with
resurrection is light and life.
“Do you remember,” the angels
asked, “how He told you these things?” It’s as if the angels ask, Do you
remember Jesus’ telling you how He spoke plainly, just these past days, how He
must go up to Jerusalem, be arrested, and suffer and die at the hands of the
chief priests and teachers of the Law? Do you remember that? Do you see how
that has been fulfilled in what you witnessed these past days?
Do you remember that this Jesus
who died, died for you? Do you remember that Jesus, who lived a perfect life
because you are unable to, became your substitute? Do you remember that Jesus,
the Lamb of God, was the perfect sacrifice for your sins? Do you remember the
cry of Jesus, “Father forgive them?” He prayed that for you. Do you remember
the plea, “I thirst?” He drank the bitter cup of suffering for you all the way
to the dirty dregs. Do you remember how He gave His mother to the care of John,
the Disciple? It shows He cares for you in this life. Do you remember His
pledge, “Today you will be with me in paradise?” It shows He also will care for
you into eternity. Do you remember the agonized cry, “My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?” He was forsaken by God so you never will be abandoned by your
Heavenly Father. Do you remember his declaration, “It is finished?” God’s plan
of salvation, the atonement – the payment – for the sins of the world is done
in Christ’s death. Do you remember the final prayer, “Father, into your hands I
commit my spirit?” Through Christ, we are restored to the Father’s presence and
His holds us in His hands in love, grace and mercy.
Do you remember what else He
said? That after three days He will rise again? As the past days have come
true, so also will His third-day promise. Today’s the third day. Today is
Easter Sunday. Today is resurrection day.
It is no small thing that this
takes place very early on the first day of the week. Creation began on Sunday
in Genesis; it comes to completion on Sabbath, what we call Saturday. When else
would you expect a new creation to begin, a new heaven and a new earth opened
but at the beginning of a new week. The old week is complete. It is finished,
remember? As is the week, as is God’s plan of salvation. Resurrection Day
begins a new week; it’s an 8th day of Creation, if you will.
Resurrection gives a new beginning; it gives new life. He who was dead is
alive. He who was buried is raised. He who was restrained cannot be contained
any longer – not by creation, not by a stone, not by a grave, not by death. He
has risen!
Why is the empty tomb such a big
deal? Why is Easter so important? Why is the resurrection such a thing that
Christians, for 2000 years, have been willing to die rather than deny Christ’s
resurrection and the promise of their own?
This is a hand-carved crucifix
from Frankenmuth, Michigan. I did not make this; it was a gift. As Lutherans,
we are sometimes uncomfortable with crucifixes. Some see it as too Roman
Catholic. Yes, it is catholic –
lower case C - because it belongs to the whole Christian church, not just one
denomination.
You’ll sometimes hear someone say
that the empty cross is the symbol of Christ’s resurrection. No, not really.
The cross would have been empty even if Christ was still in the tomb! The cross
and the crucifix are the traditional symbols of Jesus’ death for us. And,
anyone can die on a cross. Remember - two thieves died with Him – their death
didn’t save anyone. But, when God becomes flesh in the person of Christ, when
He adorns Himself with the image of our flesh and dies on the Cross, that saves
us from our sins! The crucifix is a visual reminder of the graphic nature of
what Christ did for us. It’s a reminder, as St. Paul will later say in his
letter to Corinth, “We preach Christ and Him crucified.” The
presence of the corpus is the reminder that Christ died, He was crucified, for
our salvation. This is Christ and Him crucified for us! It’s in my office to
remind me of that: if I don’t preach Christ crucified, I’m wasting your time.
This was left for me by a man named
Godfrey after he died. He was nearly blind by the time I met him, only able to
read the largest of large print on good days. He would come to the Lord’s Table
to receive the Lord’s Supper, and tears would be streaming down his cheeks.
They would stop as He received Christ’s gifts for Him hidden beneath in bread
and wine. As the blessing was said, he would raise his face toward my voice and
he would smile, a big, goofy Walter Matthau-like grin and tears would again
form in his eyes. One day, visiting with
him in his living room, I asked why he cries every Sunday when receiving the
Sacrament. “Pastor,” he said, “you know how St. Paul called himself ‘chief
among sinners’? He was an amateur! He had nothing on me. Yet, Jesus invites me
to eat with Him at His table? My tears are because I’m so unworthy. Some
Sundays, I’m afraid there will be a voice that says, ‘Take and eat…but not you,
Godfrey…not you.’ But, every Sunday, I come to the Table and I kneel and every
Sunday Jesus says, “This is my body and my blood for you. Take and eat.” And I
do, trusting the word and promise of Jesus because in that moment, Christ is
for me – who else can stand against me? And my tears become tears of joy
because I am forgiven. Me…Christ forgives me.”
The empty grave is the evidence
that God accepted His Son as the payment for sinners like Godfrey, and the
Centurion, and the thief, and you, and even me. And it stands as a promise that
we too, when Christ returns, will have our own resurrection day into eternity.
That is why the empty grave, and
the rolled-back stone, and the resurrected Jesus are so important.
Christ is risen! He is risen,
indeed! Alleluia!
We are risen! We are risen, indeed! Alleluia!
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