Easter
Dear friends in Christ. Today we come to the main part/foundation of the Christian faith; why there even is a Christian faith—Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Had Jesus stayed dead and buried in His tomb, He would long ago have been relegated to the dustbin of history; He would have been like any number of people throughout history to have been popular for a while, to have started some movement only to be killed by the powers-that-be and to have that movement fizzle out. But there was Easter! Jesus was different! His message and work were different.
We get a glimpse of Easter’s significance already with the very first words of our text. The words literally read: On the first of the Sabbaths at the deep of dawn... The translations and commentators all handle it this way: On the first day of the week. That is true enough—the events of Easter happened on Sunday, the first day of the week. But maybe by using that phrase, on the first of the Sabbaths, the Holy Spirit is pointing us to a deeper reality. Not only is this a new week, but the day of Jesus’ resurrection, Easter, truly is the first of the Sabbaths—Sabbath meaning “rest”—that is, Easter is the beginning of our true spiritual rest and peace which we now continually have and enjoy in the Lord; in Christ we now live in the perpetual spiritual rest He brought about for us—that peace, rest, reconciliation we now have with God because of the forgiveness of our sins. When Jesus rose from the dead Easter Sunday, that was the Father’s announcement that He accepted Jesus’ Good Friday sacrifice for us. When Jesus rose from the dead, that was the Father pronouncing the world: “Forgiven!” “Reconciled!” “At peace!” That first Easter ushers in a new day, a new age, one in which we sinners can live in that glorious peace and rest of the accomplished fact of our forgiveness and reconciliation with God—all of which the empty tomb proclaims to us.
As we examine our text this morning, we will hear the angels’ Easter proclamation, their song of Christ’s victory over death: Why do you seek the living among the dead? May that become also our victory song this Easter and beyond.
1. Our text begins: Now on the first of the Sabbaths, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. The women had watched Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus take Jesus’ body down from the cross by; they had seen them hastily place Jesus’ body in the tomb. They knew where Jesus was. They had planned that Sunday morning to come with the spices to make Jesus’ tomb and corpse as attractive and fragrant as they could. The women came in great sorrow to that tomb. They still loved Jesus and wanted to show Him one final act of love and devotion—even though their hopes in Him as the Messiah were seemingly dashed. They came that first Easter Sunday morning thinking that all the hopes He had awakened in them had to stay in that tomb.
Then it goes from bad to worse. They began full of sorrow and then become even more sorrowful once they got there. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, …they were greatly perplexed about this... They knew where Jesus had been laid—they saw the spot—but now He was gone. They couldn’t even show Him one last act of love and devotion. But God would not leave them long in this confused and sad state. Instead, He sent two angels to tell them what had happened: behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! The women were afraid of the angels—not because the angels had seemingly just suddenly come on the scene—but because they recognized them as holy beings and they couldn’t look upon their glory. The angels then give them the jubilant Easter announcement of Jesus’ resurrection: Why do you seek the living One among the dead? Jesus shouldn’t be there in the tomb, because He is the Living One; in fact, as true God, Jesus is the source of all life, [Jn. 1.4] in Him was life. What a triumphant announcement! Why do you seek the living One among the dead?
The angels then preach the Easter Gospel to the women: He is not here, but is risen! The angels proclaim the heart and core of the Easter Gospel—the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Jesus actually physically arose. But notice, the angels do not merely point the women to the fact of the lack of a body—after all, what we see and experience can be deceptive. Instead, the angels point the women to the word, what He had said in the past: 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.’ Jesus’ death and resurrection was part and parcel of God’s plan to save the world from its sin. If God were to save the world from its sin, it was necessary, unavoidable, that Jesus be handed over into sinful human hands and be crucified—so He could take our sins upon Himself to the cross and lay down His life there as the one perfect sacrifice for sin. But not only would He be crucified but He would also rise again. Jesus’ death and resurrection should not have been news to the women. Jesus had told them plainly long ago in Galilee [Mk. 9.30] and the OT is full of the prophecies. Jesus’ death and resurrection is plainly grounded in the word of God. So how do the women understand Easter? How do we rightly understand Easter? By going back to the word of God! What happened to the women when the angels pointed them to the word of Christ? And they remembered His words. By going back to the word and remembering all that Jesus had told them, they began to believe that Jesus was indeed raised! They realized that the prophecies were being fulfilled right before their eyes. By the word of Christ, by the work of the Holy Spirit in that word they no longer had any doubt/ uncertainty but trust and belief in Jesus’ resurrection.
Our text: Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who were telling these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they continued to disbelieve them. The apostles, the 11, too, were deep in their misery of disappointment and grief; they were not a gullible group. What we see here is that the glorious Easter message/ that glorious message of the Church of Christ crucified and risen, of forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake by grace through faith, is not readily accepted; it is regarded as foolishness, as idle tales. Even among us, as it was among the Apostles, it is hard to put our trust in the glorious truth of Scripture at all times—especially when it seems to be so opposite and so contrary to what we are at the time experiencing. It means, then, simple childlike reliance on the word of God in all circumstances; and that childlike reliance is a gift of God for which we continually pray. God’s word and promise stand—even if reason contradicts it.
So, dear Christian, Easter’s message for us is clear. It is the triumphant message of the angels: Why do you seek the living One among the dead? On that first Easter Jesus rose bodily from His tomb. When Jesus rose, He did not rise to lowliness—like He was before. Instead, He rose to His exalted, glorious, heavenly state. That’s why when Peter sees Jesus’ burial cloths they were lying by themselves, as if deflated; that’s why the stone was rolled away from the door of the tomb—not so Jesus could get out but so people could see He wasn’t there. Far from being in the tomb, among the dead ones, Jesus, true God and true man, is the living One, now living and reigning to all eternity.
2. Because Jesus did rise from the dead, because there was that first Easter, it means death is destroyed. That’s what Easter is all about—because Jesus rose from the dead, death’s stranglehold over everyone has been broken. St. Paul puts it this way [1 Cor 15.20]: But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits [that is, the first in the harvest] of those who have fallen asleep. That’s why at the graves of our loved ones or when we ourselves must stare death in the face, we comfort ourselves with the angels’ jubilant announcement of victory: "Why do you seek the living One among the dead?”. Not only were the women not to look for Christ, the Living One, with the dead, but also we dare not look for our Lord’s dear Christians as remaining dead and buried forever in their graves.
Remember what Easter is. It is the Father’s public acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice for the sins of the world; it is the Father’s announcement on the world: Forgiven!
When Jesus went to the cross, He, the holy, sinless God-man, was loaded down with the sins of the whole world. On the cross, He perfectly endured the Father’s wrath and punishment for every single sin. If there was even one sin that Jesus took with Him to the cross and did not pay the price for, He could not have risen Easter Sunday. But He did rise! Our sins have been paid for. We are now reconciled with God and at peace with Him; true Sabbath rest of the soul!
Scripture [Rm 6.23] is clear: The wages of sin—what we earn and deserve by our sin—is death. But now because our sins are now paid for and forgiven, death has no claim on us. Any claim death has, has been paid by Christ for us. Yes, we will truly die, just like Jesus truly died; but death will be unable to hold us, just as it couldn’t hold Jesus. Our bodies will lie in the tomb, like Christ’s did. But Christ, the Victor, the Conqueror of death, on the Last Day will give the command and death will have to surrender all its victims—just as it had to surrender Jesus.
At the graves of our Christian loved ones or when we see our own grave opening before us, Easter gives us the greatest comfort: "Why do you seek the living One among the dead?” Just as Jesus entrusted His spirit to his Father on that first Good Friday awaiting the resurrection on Easter Sunday, so too do the souls of all our Lord’s dear Christians go to the joy and bliss of the heaven of the holy Triune God, the saints, and the angels awaiting the reunion with the body that rests in the tomb until Jesus calls it forth on that Last Day and makes it a perfect body, fit for an eternity in heaven. Death can work its worst but because of Jesus and His work, it will be undone; death has been destroyed; Easter is the certainty of that!
Just like it was sorrowful for the women that first Easter; just as the disciples continued to disbelieve them; so, too, it will be sorrowful and difficult for us standing at graves. But let us always hear Easter’s joyful victory proclamation and call to reality: "Why do you seek the living One among the dead?”
Jesus is the living One who by His death has destroyed the devil’s kingdom of sin and death—and He showed this by His resurrection; by it He established His Kingdom of Life. We now cling to Christ by faith; our baptism connects us to Jesus and His death and resurrection. He died and went through death into life, so now, as we through faith and baptism are connected with Christ, we already now have that new, eternal life in us. It doesn’t end with earthly death; instead we go from life here on earth in Christ to life in heaven with our Lord—and come the Last Day we will be in heaven with our Lord in both soul and body. In vain, then, do we look for our Lord’s dearly departed Christians in their graves: "Why do you seek the living One among the dead?”. There is Easter! Christ is risen! Death is destroyed. INJ