Easter 1—Quasimodogeniti
Dear friends in Christ. It is no surprise when we say that Easter means life. Easter is all about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead—life. The symbols of Easter—the butterfly coming out of the cocoon, for example—point to the glorified Christ coming out of the tomb. The traditions of Easter—like the Easter egg—symbolize life; the chick pecking its way out of the egg and hatching is a picture of Christ emerging from the tomb. Even the “Happy Easter, happy spring” crowd that tries to get rid of the religious significance of Easter and make it merely a spring time returns event see life in it as the world around us—the trees and flowers—all “come back to life” after their winter slumber.
We certainly don’t get any great impact if we just think of Easter merely as the yearly springtime “return to life”—after all, that’s how it’s supposed to be; that’s what is supposed to happen; nor do we even get the full comfort, significance and impact of the life that Easter brings if we think of it “merely” as Jesus’ return to life after being dead 3 days. We only get the full significance of Jesus’ resurrection if we understand its meaning and significance for us. Easter is not just some event that has meaning/ significance for Jesus. Instead, Easter is for us! That’s what we’ll see this morning as we examine our text: Easter means life, new life, for us!
The Church has “picked up” on this new life we have because Jesus rose from the dead. This Sunday is called Quasimodogeniti, which means “as new born babes” and comes to us from the first words of the Latin introit from a few verses after our text [2.2]: As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. We, by virtue of our baptism, are the newborn babes; we have new full spiritual life because Jesus rose from the dead. Our baptism has connected us with Jesus and His death and resurrection; it has given us new life. Easter means life—for us!
1. That’s precisely what the Holy Spirit tells us through St. Peter in our text: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
The foundation of our new spiritual, heavenly and life is Jesus’ resurrection. For Jesus to rise from the dead, means what had to have happened first? Jesus had to have died first! That’s Good Friday. And why did Jesus die? Scripture is clear—the wages of sin is death; the soul that sins shall perish.
But Scripture is also just as clear, that Jesus never once sinned; that He is the holy, sinless God-man. So how could the One who never sinned die? St. Paul answers [2 Cor. 5.21]: [God] made [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin for us. In other words, on that first Good Friday all of our sins were charged to Christ; He took our sins to the cross and there He suffered all of the wrath and punishment a holy God had to dish out because of His offended holiness. Christ became the world’s sinner and suffered for the sins of the world—of all people ever to live. The wages of sin is death.
So what does it mean now that Jesus rose from the dead? It means that He paid the price for all of our sins. The Holy Spirit again says through St. Paul [Rm. 4.25]: Jesus our Lord was handed over on account of our offenses and was raised on account of our being declared righteous. Notice, Jesus died on account of our sins, but because He perfectly paid the price of our sins, fully endured God’s wrath over sin, fully reconciled us sinners, we—the ones whose sins Christ took on Himself to the cross—are, because of Jesus and His work—declared righteous. If there were even just one sin remaining that was placed on Jesus but that He did not pay for, He would have remained dead and buried in the tomb. To put it differently, Jesus’ resurrection, Easter is the public sign that Jesus paid completely for all our sin.
Now because Jesus reconciled all of sinful humanity to the holy God, because He has brought us forgiveness of sin—all proven by the empty tomb—God, according to His abundant mercy has begotten us from above to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In mercy, because of Jesus and His work, God has made us, dear Christian, His dear spiritual children.
Our sin that once separated us from Him has been paid for and forgiven—Jesus’ resurrection shows that. The cross and empty tomb stand as proof of our forgiveness and reconciliation to God. In His mercy, the Father sends His Holy Spirit to work in the word and Sacrament to create faith in our hearts to believe and receive this work of Christ and so make us His dear children and heirs of heaven. On our own, left to ourselves we couldn’t do this, but by the Holy Spirit’s work we are born from above. A few verses after our text, Peter tells us that we have been born from above, born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever; and Paul writes [Ti. 3.5]: but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Through the word and sacrament, the Holy Spirit worked true living faith in our hearts—faith that believes and receives Jesus and the forgiveness and reconciliation He brought—and God receives us as His children and heirs of eternal life. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we can and do have this new life.
So then, Easter means life for us because now, since Jesus rose from the dead, we, dear Christian, are the children of God. Coming out of the waters of holy baptism and all throughout our earthly lives we are as newborn babes—full of life, life obtained for us by Christ; life given us by God in mercy by His Spirit’s work in His word and sacrament—and it is a life that continues into all eternity: to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, being guarded in heaven for you.
Because Jesus rose from the dead glorified and exalted and ascended into heaven, we have the certainty of our own redemption and eternal life. St. Paul writes 1 Cor. 15.20]: But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first in the harvest of those who have fallen asleep; and [Col. 1.18] Christ is the Head of the Church, which is His body. He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead to become alive that He may be first in everything. Our heavenly inheritance, our eternal life in heaven is certain because it has a sure foundation—Jesus’ own resurrection. Where He has gone, we, His dear Christians, will follow. Easter means life—because Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, we, too, will one day be there soul and body with Him.
The whole reason why God had us born again, from above, by the Spirit’s work in word and sacrament is so that we might have a heavenly inheritance—eternal life in heaven, soul and body, with our Lord. That glorious inheritance is incorruptible: there’s no fear that it will ever end; it is undefiled: it is nothing but pure joy and perfect bliss; it is unfading: we will never grow tired of it and it will always be pure. This heavenly inheritance will be enjoyed by all our Lord’s Christians.
2. The glorious heavenly inheritance is secured and made certain for us by Jesus’ resurrection; our inheritance is safe and secure for us in heaven it is being guarded in heaven for you. Who, though, is the “you” for whom the inheritance is being guarded? It’s the Christian; the one whom God caused to be born again from above; you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Won’t we grow weak in the faith during our wait and give up our heavenly inheritance? Here, dear Christian, we have our Lord’s glorious assurance that He will keep us in the faith! Precisely when we feel our faith stagger, then we must hold God to His promise to keep us in the faith and as His dear child and heir of heaven. The Lord brought us to this new spiritual and heavenly life—He has made us newborn babes and He will preserve us for eternal joy and salvation.
He watches over us; we are, as St. Peter tells us in our text: kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Just as our Lord brings us to faith by His mighty and gracious working in His word and baptism, so also now He keeps us in the faith by His powerful working in His word and sacrament. This, too, is fascinating. God does not show His power in keeping us in the faith by exhibiting His absolute majesty but as He works through His simple and humble word and in that word with simple and humble water, bread and wine. Remember Easter means life and that as Christians we are like newborn babes; but what does St. Peter say about newborn babes? As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Although God is the one who keeps us in the faith, strengthening and preserving us in it, He does so through the means of His holy word and sacrament. That’s the call for us to make faithful and diligent use of word and sacrament; to desire the milk of the word so that God may work through that word to keep us in the faith to receive the heavenly inheritance. Not the desiring of the milk, but the milk makes a newborn grow. Our efforts do not keep us in the faith but only God’s power and Spirit at work the word and sacrament do. Easter means life for us—a life that begins with the first drops of the waters of baptism and that God preserves in us by His power through faith all our days.
3. This promise of our heavenly inheritance and this promise of God to keep us through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time give us the most abundant comfort throughout our earthly lives and in our trials and direct our eyes heavenward to where Christ is. Our text: In Him you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the testing of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to your praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. With our gaze heavenward to the risen and ascended Christ we can endure the various trials throughout our earthly lives. They may grieve us greatly but our joy is not lessened; it is still in the Lord who by His almighty power keeps us in the faith and is working all things for our spiritual good and precisely using these trials to purify our faith.
The Last Day, when Jesus returns in glory in the Judgment and our bodies raised from the tomb and reunited with our soul which has been in heaven since the moment of death, will be for us the fulfillment of Christ’s Easter morning victory. Then we will truly see that Easter means life as we will enjoy our heavenly inheritance for all eternity. Now you do not see Him, yet you believe, and then you will rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, when you receive the end of your faith--the salvation of your souls. When that Last Day comes we, with our physical eyes and in our same body we have now but raised and glorified, will see the risen and glorified Christ just as the disciples physically did that Easter Sunday evening we read about in today’s Gospel. We will go from believing in Christ to seeing Him; from believing that we will be heirs of heaven to actually being given our eternal inheritance in heaven.
Dear Christian, rejoice! Rejoice greatly! Christ is risen! And because He is risen from the dead, we have life! We are now our Lord’s dear children and He will keep us in that new spiritual, heavenly life into all eternity! INJ Amen.