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The empty tomb is peace for all who believe

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Sermon for Easter Sunday

1 Corinthians 5:6-8  +  Mark 16:1-8

Fellow believers in Christ crucified: The crucified One is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia! Praise the LORD!

When we say that Jesus lives, we don’t mean it figuratively. We don’t mean that He lives in our hearts, or in our memories. We mean that the real Son of God, who took on real flesh and blood, born of the virgin Mary, who truly suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, actually came back to life on the third day after His death, stepped out of His tomb, and, throughout that day and the coming days, appeared openly to all His disciples—who were glad, but surprised, to see Him.

It really shouldn’t have surprised them as much as it did. They had confessed Him to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. And He, the Christ, had told His disciples how He would be nailed to a cross, die, and rise on the third day, which was the very same thing that was prophesied about the Christ in the words of King David in Psalm 16 a thousand years before, “I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to the grave, or let your holy one see corruption.”

As the apostles pointed out to the Jewish crowds later on, King David, who wrote those words of Psalm 16, most certainly died and most certainly decayed in his grave. But the Holy One about whom he was writing, the Son of David, the Christ—He was not abandoned to the grave or left in the tomb. He was raised from the dead.

That’s what the angel announced to those wonderful, devoted women who went to the tomb that first Easter morning to serve Jesus one last time, to finish taking care of His body, which, they assumed, was already beginning to see corruption. They expected to have trouble rolling away the big stone that blocked the entrance, but, no, they saw that it had already been rolled away, and they saw an angel waiting there to give them the good news. Do not be afraid. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the One who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid Him!

Wouldn’t you like to have seen it, too? The place where they laid Him? The stone rolled away, the empty tomb, the neatly folded linens lying there, no longer wrapped around Jesus’ body, and the angel sitting where Jesus had been? Or what if you had seen the empty tomb? Then what? Then you would have been just as afraid, just as terrified as those women were. Because an empty tomb, all by itself, doesn’t calm anyone’s fears.

The fact that Jesus’ tomb was empty, the fact that the Son of David, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, has risen from the dead, is neither good news nor bad news, all by itself. It just is. It’s a fact. It happened. But what does it mean? Is it a fact that saves or is it a fact that damns? The only way to know what it means is to hear what God reveals about it in the preaching of the gospel.

And what does God reveal in the gospel about the Son of David, Jesus Christ, risen from the dead?

Well, in Psalm 2, a Psalm about the coming Christ, it says, Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. So those who take refuge in the risen Son of God are blessed! But those who do not seek refuge in Him will be the objects of His wrath and will perish eternally.

According to the gospel, then, the empty tomb of Jesus means that His enemies and all who hate Him or His beloved Church had better be very afraid. The resurrection of Jesus is terrible news for the devil and his demons. It’s terrible news for the one who denies the existence of God, or who wants to get to heaven by serving some other god, or by offering God his own goodness and decency. It’s also terrible news for all who refuse to repent of their sins. Because if Jesus is dead, then you get to decide what’s right and wrong for your life, and then, when you’re dead, you’re dead. That’s it. But if Jesus is alive, then everything He said is true, and there will also be a resurrection of all the dead and a Day of reckoning, for all. So for the impenitent and unbelieving, the empty tomb of Jesus is cause for fear.

But for those who want a sure refuge from God’s wrath, for those who wish to be reconciled to God through the death of Christ, for those who want Jesus for a Savior, the gospel reveals this truth: that Jesus was delivered up for our sins and raised to life for our justification. His death was sufficient payment for all sin, for every sin, for the worst sinner; and His resurrection means that all who hope in Him, all who trust in Him, all who look to Him for forgiveness of their sins are declared innocent before God’s own courtroom in heaven. The empty tomb means the justification of all who believe in the risen Lord Jesus.

And with justification comes every gift and benefit of Christ: the adoption as God’s children, the full acceptance into eternal life, the daily forgiveness of sins in this Christian Church, and the promise of your own empty tomb when Jesus returns with salvation for His waiting people.

But even those faithful women didn’t understand all that when they first arrived at the tomb on that first day of the week. Jesus’ empty tomb, all by itself, is still a scary thing, and those women remained afraid until, later that morning, they saw Jesus for themselves and, more importantly, heard His gospel, His word of peace. Then they rejoiced with a joy that nothing could ever take away.

You have to see Jesus for yourself, too. But not with your eyes. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed, Jesus said. Believed what? Believed that the tomb of Jesus was and remains empty? Yes, but only if you believe in the One who stepped out of that tomb. Believe in God’s promise of forgiveness in Christ. Believe in His Gospel. Believe in the word of God the Father, who emptied Jesus’ tomb by raising His Son from the dead. This word from God that He has commissioned me to preach to you today is better than seeing a thousand empty tombs. Because here in the Word you don’t see the place where Jesus isn’t. You actually get to see Jesus in the only way that can save you from eternal death and grant you eternal life. Because here in the Word of God, here in the Sacrament of Christ’s Holy Supper, the risen Lord Jesus comes to you today with a message: “He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” Those words would be utterly meaningless if Jesus had remained in the tomb. But He didn’t. So believe in Him who rose from the dead, because, for you who believe, the empty tomb of the crucified One means peace with God, and joy, and life everlasting. Amen.

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Everything went according to plan

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Sermon for Easter Sunday

1 Corinthians 5:6-8  +  Mark 16:1-8

Every year, on Easter Sunday, we have two main tasks before us: to review the story (the true story!) of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, and to consider the significance of it—what it means for the world, and what it means for the Church, including what it means for you and me as individual members of the Holy Christian Church.

We begin with the familiar story. The women who had so faithfully followed Jesus around throughout His ministry, who had served Him and listened to Him and believed in Him, were there on Good Friday, too, when the disciples hurriedly wrapped up Jesus’ body and placed it in the newly carved-out tomb. They watched as the large stone was rolled into place to block the entrance. They rested in their homes on the Sabbath, even as Jesus’ body rested in the tomb. And then, after the sun set on Saturday, they went out and purchased more burial supplies.

At the soonest opportunity, before dawn on Sunday morning, they set out on their way, sad, confused, afraid, but committed to doing a better job of caring for Jesus’ corpse than the disciples had been able to do on Friday. Among their worries was the question, How will we move that large stone out of the way? As it turned out, they wouldn’t have to. An angel had come down from heaven and moved it for them, so that all could see that the body that once rested there was gone.

As we put the four Gospel accounts together, it appears that Mary Magdalene arrived before the other women. She saw the stone rolled out of the way, and assumed that someone had stolen Jesus’ body, so she immediately ran to find Peter and John. Meanwhile, the other women arrived and saw exactly what Mary had seen, except that they saw two angels there who told them, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you. Luke adds something else that the angel said: Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.

The women were still afraid, we’re told, but they hurried away to seek out Jesus’ disciples.

Meanwhile, Peter and John arrived at the tomb. Mary Magdalene came back with them. Peter ran right inside, and found nothing except for the grave clothes neatly folded up and sitting where Jesus’ body had been. John looked inside, saw the empty tomb, and believed that Jesus’ had risen. Then those two left, while Mary lingered, weeping. She went into the tomb, and suddenly there were two angels there asking her why she was crying. They’ve taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. Clearly she didn’t recognize them as angels. That’s when Jesus confronted her in the garden outside the tomb and asked her the same question: Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She thought He was the gardener. She gave him the same answer. And then, as she wept, she heard Him say her name. “Mary.” Then she recognized Him and was overjoyed. And Jesus told her to go back and tell His brothers the good news, which she did.

Then, as the other women were still making their way back to the city, Jesus appeared to them also and said, Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me. And the women went and did as Jesus had told them, with joy, and with great relief in their hearts. They had all assumed that things had gone so wrong, and they didn’t see any path forward. Now that they had seen Jesus alive and well, they finally began to understand: Everything had gone according to plan.

And that’s the significance of Jesus’ resurrection, or at least, the part we’re going to focus on today. Over the past three days we heard the prophet Isaiah unveil God’s plan before our eyes. No one in Israel understood it all before it happened, but after Jesus suffered and died and rose again, the plan becomes obvious.

No, His betrayal by Judas, His abandonment by the disciples, His arrest in the garden were not unexpected. It went according to plan.

No, the torture and condemnation Jesus received from Jews and Gentiles alike, the coordination of Pilate with Herod on Good Friday, were not mistakes. It went according to plan.

No, the form of Jesus’ death, being lifted up on a cross, having His hands and feet and side pierced, the soldiers casting lots for His clothing, His thirst, His prayers for His enemies, His death and burial were not accidents. It went according to plan.

The resurrection demonstrates that. God was not thwarted or defeated in Jesus’ suffering and death. His plan for the salvation of mankind was being accomplished through it. That’s why we celebrate the death of our God on Good Friday, because it was part of our God’s plan, part of His victory. And now Jesus’ disciples can look back and see the truth: Jesus was in control the whole time. That doesn’t in any way excuse any of the bad actors along the way. It just means that God is so great, so powerful, so wise that He was able to steer everything where it needed to go so that mankind could have a graphic picture of God’s commitment to mankind, and a valid sacrifice of atonement in which to take refuge, so that sinners could be saved.

For the world, this means that Jesus Christ is the King of the Jews, and the King of all, which means that all need to repent, urgently. And while Jesus died for everyone’s sins and wishes to reconcile all people to God through faith in His blood, if they remain enemies of Christ the King, the only Mediator between God and men, then they will remain enemies of God for eternity.

For the Church, including each of you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this means, you can either shout for joy, or, at least, breathe a sigh of relief. Because Jesus’ resurrection means that, no matter how great your sins have been, no matter how much you’ve suffered, no matter how difficult life in this world has become, for however out-of-control things seem to be, it’s going to be okay now. Christ is risen! That means that everything has gone according to plan, just as Jesus said it would. Everything is going according to plan. Everything will go according to plan—God’s good plan to gather His Church and to preserve those whom He has gathered, His dearly loved sons and daughters, whose Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, has already risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and is now preparing a place in glory for each one of His brothers and sisters, that we, too, may rise from the dead one day and join Him in the life that is truly life. Amen.

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