The Resurrection of Our Lord: Easter Day

"The Resurrection" by Dirk Bouts

"After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” 00 Matthew 28: 1-10

Fear is not what we expect on Easter Sunday, on a joyous morning full of the scent of lilies and the smell of breakfast and the excitement of children. But the Gospel of Matthew tells us that fear permeated the first Easter morning: an earthquake, and angel who looks like lightning casually rolling away a giant boulder, guards who literally shook with fear and fell down like they were dead. And the women who saw all this and were terrified, and who even after they heard the angel’s assurances, ran with joy and fear warring in them, until Jesus himself told them to not be afraid.

But it’s not just the first Easter morning—we also live with fear. We’re a nation at war, no matter how far away that seems. As the economy worsens, humans do what we always do, and take it out on each other. The latest statistics say child abuse is on the rise in Minnesota, and domestic violence has sky-rocketed in the last year. Tragedy is all around us—a terrible van accident engulfs a family from Jackson, celebrating a birthday, leaving five dead. A woman with connections to this church and Belview was found dead last week. A man up in Detroit lakes shoots his toddler son, then himself.

And even without sudden death and violence, you know that people are anxious about their future. Making ends meet is harder. Fuel prices are ridiculous. Folks in agriculture face another spring of rising costs and uncertain markets.  The weather this week hasn’t helped. We’re longing for spring in more ways than one.

Maybe it’s better just to skip over these things, to think, “oh, today’s Easter. Let’s not talk about the negative stuff. We know there’s bad things in the world—why dwell on them?” But that’s not exactly honest, is it? To rescue us from sin and death is what Jesus came for, what he died for. Even on Easter morning, you—like the women at the tomb-- have brought with you fear and grief, some new, some old.

You know what I mean:  that stuff that keeps you up at night, the things that worry you over and over. The phone call from the doctor. The friendship that is strained. The marriage that is going through a hard time. The checkbook that never seems to have enough. The depression you can’t shake. That old family conflict.

All of that--we have all hidden sorrow deep in us even as we hide Easter eggs for little ones. We have tasted bitter sadness even as we have sampled sweet Easter goodies. There’s no way we can cover up our fears and our tears and pretend everything is okay-- not if we’re going to be honest about what Easter really means, that it is more than just a spring festival with cute bunnies, more than one of a couple days a year that we feel really religious.

Unless you have some sense of the power of sin, death and the devil, the power of sin which infects our lives and our families and everything about us… it doesn’t mean much for me to stand up here and say that you are rescued from that, does it? This isn’t about spiritual feeling or manufactured joy. It’s about the truth.

The plain truth that everything I have just been talking about, all the tragedy and violence and wrecked friendships and broken homes and grieving families, all your disappointments, all the fear about your future—all that been nailed to the cross and buried in the tomb with Jesus. Every funeral I practically shout these words from that door back there: “When we were baptized in Christ Jesus, we were baptized into  his death.  We were buried therefore with him by Baptism into  death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of  the Father, we too might live a new life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

And that’s the good news for today, amidst the gloomy media reports and our chaotic lives: because Jesus lives, we will also live. Because he rises, we will rise. Because he is alive, we have hope for the future. We know that our tears will not be forever, but only for a little while. Death and separation will not last forever, but only for a little while. Our fears may be real—but they are temporary. “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” All the evil of the world is finished. Oh, it may boil on for a while, even appearing to have the upper hand, but not forever.

Resurrection is not just for Jesus. It’s for Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, and the disciples, and you and me. It’s for all those loved ones that we grieve and mourn and miss this holiday and always. Because Jesus came back to life, that means that you and I will also come back to life. Jesus made sure of that. He fought the Devil for us and freed us from the power of sin and death. With Jesus, you and I have a future.

That’s not pie-in-the-sky-someday-way-off-yonder.  It’s not something that doesn’t have any meaning for your life now. It’s not the same old ho-hum Easter story, or something that the preacher said at your grandma’s funeral. It’s real. Right now. Because of Good Friday and Easter, because of Christ’s death and resurrection, you and I not only will live forever, but we also have the strength and hope to live and love in this world of fear. We have the conviction to look at our world and know that Jesus already goes ahead of us, and promises to meet us where we are,

You don’t have to pretend to have it all together. You can face the evils you see on the internet and read about in the news, and all the violence in the Middle East and the uncertainties of war and the crashing economy and your own family struggles —you can face all that because you know that Jesus has taken it all with him to the cross and to the grave.

You can bear the hurts and pains in your lives, your sufferings, your trials, your deep grief, because Jesus has borne it all the way to hell and back, quite literally. He has taken all your sin and guilt away. He has taken all condemnation away from you. And when he burst from the tomb on that first Easter morning, that was it. Death, hell, sin, the devil, the kingdom of fear—they have done their worst. The strife is over, the battle done. Jesus goes ahead of you. Tears and fears now have an ending point, and that ending point is Jesus Christ.

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!