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The Resurrection of our Lord, April 11, 2004 |
Luke 24:1-12 [NRSV Text] THIS WEEK’S SERMON I need your help today. This sermon is only going to work if you help me. Those of you that know me best know that I could talk all day. But talking is not preaching. Preaching is sharing God’s Good News. But what’s the use of having Good News to share if no one listens? God’s Good News is the greatest news of all. And I need you to help me get it across to everyone in this room that we have the greatest news of all today! If anyone leaves here without at least the tiniest bit of hope in God’s Good News, then for them the sermon will have just been words. So please help me tell the Good News. Here’s how you can help me. When I ask you the question, “Do you think Jesus is alive today?” If you believe that Jesus is alive, I want you to answer, “I know that my Redeemer lives!” OK, let’s try it. Do you think Jesus is alive today? I know that my Redeemer lives! Of course if you want to get a bit more radical in your helping you could encourage me with an occasional “Amen.” Now I know that most lifelong Lutherans would sooner die than say “Amen” in the middle of a sermon. But if you didn’t grow up Lutheran you can show the Frozen Chosen how it’s done. Just one word of warning to those that are used to saying “Amen” at the end of things. If you want me to stop preaching, saying “Amen” won’t help. It will only encourage me to go on longer. It was very early in the morning on the first Easter Sunday when a group of women went to Jesus’ grave to lovingly anoint his body. They had been followers of Jesus. They had gladly heard his teaching. They had seen his mighty works. They had offered him hospitality and devotion. When he was arrested, beaten, and crucified, they were there. When he drew his last breath, they were there. When his body had been laid to rest, they were there. They had cried and cried and cried. Now on the third day they went to the tomb to offer their best and last caring ministry. They came early in the morning to anoint the body of their Master who had quickly been buried before the Passover began at sundown. When they came to the grave the stone was rolled away and there was no body in the tomb. What do you think about that? Do you think Jesus is alive today? I know that my Redeemer lives! Not having been Christians with 2,000 years of preaching and teaching these women didn’t know what to think about the empty tomb. Luke tells us that while they were puzzling over this fact suddenly there were two men in dazzling clothes standing beside them. And the women were scared out of their wits and bowed their faces to the ground. No kidding! I’ve seen my Mama chop a garden snake into 15 pieces without thinking. There’s no telling what she would have done if two men in dazzling clothes suddenly stood beside her at an empty grave! The men in dazzling clothes said to the women, “Why do you look for 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 handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Luke tells us “then they remembered Jesus’ words.” But what about you? Do you think Jesus is alive today? I know that my Redeemer lives! Luke goes on to say that remembering Jesus’ words the women returned from the tomb and told the eleven apostles and all the rest of the disciples. “But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” Now I have to say that it’s clear that these men were not raised in the southern part of this country where if your Mama tells you something, you’d best believe it. In our house, you knew that if Daddy told you a story it had been polished over the years with a number of embellishments. If he had been cut by flying glass in a car wreck, by the time we heard it, Daddy had lost three pints of blood. If he cracked a rib falling off a three-legged stool, he was dying. But if Mama told you something you’d best believe it. Luke tells us, “Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.” Luke doesn’t say that now Peter believed the women. Luke doesn’t say that Peter went back to the others and said, “By golly they were right!” No, Luke says that Peter was amazed at what had happened. But what about you? Do you think Jesus is alive today? I know that my Redeemer lives! Does it really matter that Jesus rose from the dead? After all if you believe in the immortality of the soul as many people do in the world, then maybe the resurrection isn’t necessary. There are plenty of people that have thought that way. Maybe it’s enough to be nice people that do nice things like service clubs and charitable organizations. And if you’re nice then your soul goes into eternal bliss because you were a nice person. Well that’s not the Christian faith. In fact if it didn’t matter whether Jesus rose from the dead, there would be no reason to be here this morning. I would be earning my living some other way. You would have Sundays off forever. The world would be spared a lot of Christian hot air, Spam e-mails, and really awful books. And we would all be trying to be nice enough for our immortal souls to enjoy eternal bliss. But that’s not the Christian faith. Both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament teach that our bodies matter and what we do with them matters. When God decided to save us from our sins, God became human in Jesus Christ. When Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus died, Jesus raised them from the dead. When he told his disciples three times in advance what was going to happen to them, every time the Lord Jesus said that on the third day his body would be raised. What do you think? Do you think Jesus is alive? I know that my Redeemer lives! Paul declares in 1 Cor. 15:19: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” When someone we love dies, we grieve that loss forever. We don’t get over it. In time we have more good days than bad, but when you bury a child, a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a grandparent, a best friend, you don’t get over it. The longer we live the more hurts we accumulate. Grief, at times, is overwhelming. Paul is reminding us that faith in Jesus doesn’t promise us a pain-free life. Faith in Jesus gives us hope that even if our bodies die, we will live and one day we will receive bodies that can no longer wear out, feel pain, experience grief, or die. Yes, faith in Jesus is something more than an answer to our grieving. When we trust the promise of our Baptism, that we have died and been raised with Jesus, then we live with the resurrection hope that sin, death, and evil can’t have the last word. The last word is Jesus, the one little word that fells the mightiest enemy that can attack us. Lies, betrayal, divorce, unemployment, addictions, demons within and demons without, disease, failure, disappointment, not even death itself can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus! We are not disembodied souls. We are not mere spirits housed in flesh. By the cross and empty tomb of God’s only Son Jesus, by the washing of water and the Holy Spirit, we are beloved sons and daughters of God. Yes, these bodies are assaulted by repeated and cunning attacks of the old enemy; they wear out and fail us especially in death. But we shall live forever with God in bodies that have been made new, because the Resurrected Jesus promises in Revelation 21, “Behold, I make all things new!” On this most festive day, as the one holy catholic and apostolic Church gathers at the table to receive the body and blood of the Living God in bread and in wine, he makes us bold to shout in the face of all the forces of darkness. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Indeed the Lord Jesus goes with us back into a world marred by the darkness. He goes to help us live hope-full lives. So once more I ask you: Do you think Jesus is alive today? I know that my Redeemer lives! Pastor Samuel D. Zumwalt
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