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Easter Vigil , 04/20/2019
Sermon on Luke 24:1-12, by Andrew Smith
Luke 24:1-12 [English Standard Version, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers]
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 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? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But 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.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia. Amen.
Every winter folks complain about the war on Christmas, where is the hue and cry about the war on Easter? There are far more bunnies and eggs in the shops than icons of the resurrection. Why aren’t the stores playing Easter music? There are far more March Madness stories than there are Easter stories in the news. I think it’s a conspiracy, a war on Easter.
Okay, so it’s not a conspiracy. And the war on Easter is something I just made up but for how many of you is March Madness more than Lent and Easter? Or if college basketball is not your thing, pick something else—shopping for the new Easter dress rather than preparing your heart to celebrate the paschal feast with sincerity and truth.
Do we acknowledge today for what it is? Yes, Easter is the highest day in the Church Year, but that’s faint praise. Easter is truly only second to the Last Day. Think about that for a second. Easter, truly, is second in significance, really, only second to the Last Day and we might be able to make a case that it’s even more important because it is on account of Easter that we will stand and be blessed on that great day, on the Day of the Lord. It is on account of the Lord’s resurrection from the grave on Easter morning that we will stand on the Last Day and be blessed by God. That first Easter morning, and all the ones that have come after it, is the sole basis for our hope that when we are buried we will not stay in the grave. The angel’s message is, “He is not here; He is risen.” Easter is not just about celebrating some vague sense of something new and springlike; Easter is about the end of death.
I’m struck this year by the loss of so many loved ones so many of you have suffered this year. We’ve not lost many of our congregation but many of you have lost so many of your people, brothers and sisters and other family members. Easter is personal for you because the Easter message is Christ Jesus’ victory over death and what is true for Him is true for all who believe in Him, who have been baptized into His death and into His resurrection. Easter is about the end of death.
I know what it looks like. I know what it looks like all too often. Death looks like it has won. We make trip after trip to this funeral home or that one. That’s how the first Easter morning began. The women were taking the spices they had prepared to the tomb. They were going to the funeral home. Preparing a loved one for burial was a much more hands-on affair back then. But back then, death was far more real and less funeralfied, you know what I mean? They even put astroturf over the dirt pile! Funeralfied. Jesus had spoken about resurrection prior to His death, twice actually, but the disciples didn’t understand what He meant by it. In Jesus’ day, resurrection was something that would happen on the Last Day for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and for all the righteous of God. There would be no mistaking that Day when it came and so the women were not expecting resurrection when they went to the tomb that morning to finish burying Jesus. Nobody had ever dreamed that one person would die and be bodily raised again on the other side of the grave while the rest of the world carried on much as it had before.
Usually about this time in an Easter sermon I thump on about how there are many Christians today who don’t believe Jesus was raised in His body that day. They are spiritualists, we might more accurately call them Gnostics, but few know what a Gnostic is, so “spiritualist” makes a good handle. They don’t believe they will be raised in their body on the Last Day either. They’ve turned the Last Day into something else entirely—their own “Last Day.” And when they die they think their soul just flies up to heaven forever. They don’t believe Jesus was raised in His body and they don’t believe they will either. Even though that’s not what the Scriptures, Old and New, say. Although I really shouldn’t blame them, they’re not that much different from the women and the rest of the disciples on that first Easter morning. But Easter morning really does change all that. There really is a resurrection of the body; Jesus was raised. Next week we’ll hear the account of the week after Easter when Thomas put his finger in the place where the nails were and his hand in the place where the spear was. And if Christ was raised in His body, that’s your promise that you will too. Death will not have won because, we know, death has not won.
The mood of Easter morning then, is one of great astonishment, confusion, maybe even, but as the Good News begins to sink in, great joy. “He is not here but has risen.” The Good News of Easter morning is that death no longer has the power it once had. Jesus Christ, eternal Son of God and true man, the one who was crucified Friday for the sins of the whole world, had not remained in the grave but has shown us the way through death and the grave to the resurrection from the dead for us and for all who believe. “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” Remember? “He is not here; he is risen just as He said He would.” It is the certainty of Christ’s resurrection that gives us strength and confidence in the face of loss and tragedy whether in our own lives or in the wider world.
From the beginning, the message of Easter was the message of Christ’s victory over death. That’s the Good News—the conspiracy of sin has been wiped out; the madness of death no longer reigns. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! The oldest hymn text in our hymnal is from John of Damascus, from the late 7th century. He writes:
The day of resurrection!
Earth, tell it out abroad,
The Passover of gladness,
The Passover of God.
From death to life eternal,
From sin’s dominion free,
Our Christ has brought us over
With hymns of victory. (LSB, 478:1)
Alleluia. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.