Exordium:
There is a critical message for you to hear on this Easter morning—that is, if death is of concern to you. If you dread what you might face in death, then this morning’s message is critical for you.
Do you agonize over your sins, thinking in your quietest moments, along with St. Paul, that the good you want to do is not always what you’ve done, and about the significance of that when it comes to standing before God on the Last Day?
The Easter message contains good news for you where that’s concerned; a very critical thing that had to be the case was demonstrated on that day to be the case. You have reason to be confident before God on that day; you’ll hear about that in the Easter message.
You can find the same confidence in this message, even if you have currently been struggling in sin, and are troubled by it. Have you given in to sin, letting it control you so many times, that you feel like a total hypocrite even presuming to come before God in repentance? Do you wonder how God can forgive even you, even of all this? Your forgiveness and salvation in the risen Savior is proclaimed in His powerful Word —even for you—this morning.
In answer to all the accusations in your conscience, to your anxious heart, go see in the empty tomb the miracle of God’s love. Hear the angel’s words, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here.” This is where the joy comes from, which we now sing in our festival hymn verse: #348 – “He Is Arisen, Glorious Word”
Sermon:
Dear disciples of Christ who have come to the place about which He told you, to hear the news of His Resurrection:
Psalm 118:17
I shall not die, but I shall live, and declare the works of the Lord.
We’re going to call the first part of our message this morning:
Why dying is even an issue
With the words, I shall not die, but I shall live, the Psalmist addresses your chief concern, doesn’t he? Is there anything more critical than that? Dying is the dread for which no one has an answer. We can’t avoid it even though we want desperately to do so. Otherwise, why does he say it like that? Why does he talk about death like something he’d prefer to escape in favor of living? I shall not die, but I shall live.
Avoiding death is certainly what the Israelites had in mind on the night of the Passover (St. Paul refers to it in our epistle lesson). God had given them instructions on avoiding it. That night, death was coming as the final plague on everyone in Egypt who would ignore God’s warning. Specifically, the angel of death would kill the firstborn in every household not following God’s instructions, not having its doorposts and lintel painted with the blood of an unblemished sacrificial lamb.
And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead (Exodus 12:30); that’s what the writer tells us about the non-Israelite, non-believing homes. There was a great cry. They were in distress over the loss of lives in this world.
It was even worse than they knew, though. Death’s issue is more than ceasing to exist in this world. Again, otherwise, why does God’s eternal Son assume human flesh; why does He present Himself humbly as the payment for sinners (the Passover, Paul says in our epistle lesson, Who is sacrificed for us)? There’s more on the other side of death than a person’s absence from this world.
Your conscience testifies, telling you that you have a debt of guilt that must be paid (Scripture does it too, of course, with statements like, the soul who sins shall die—Ezekiel 18:4). Your sins have consequences. We said the words in our Ash Wednesday service at the beginning of the Lenten season just past; along with the smudged cross on your forehead were the words, “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Our death in this world is the result of our rebellion against God that began with our first parents and continues with us today.
But the end of this life isn’t all there is to it; that isn’t the only consequence of sin. Think of what it means when Jesus says on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He isn’t just saying, Why’d you let me suffer this temporal death, this death of the body in this world, this death that brings about a person’s absence from this world? Many, many, many, many people have suffered that. He’s talking about the punishment that rightly comes to a person after death in this world. He’s talking about being separated from the Father’s love, from His protection, from any hope. He’s talking about suffering hell. That’s why the Psalmist says it like he says it in our text. It’s why he talks about death as, obviously the thing nobody wants.
And it’s penalty, it’s punishment, it’s condemnation doesn’t just come to worst of sinners. It doesn’t just come to people who drive vehicles into crowds to kill as many as possible, or to sex-traffickers, or to swindlers who call up elderly people to try to steal their retirement savings. The fact that every person dies in this world is the evidence that every person is included in its penalty. Every person has inherited Adam’s guilt and the nature he had that sins. You have too.
That’s why death is an issue. The women weren’t going to the tomb on Easter morning with joy in their hearts, because they knew what death is; it’s the curse on sin. It looked to them as though even Jesus was succumbing to it (what a dreadful prospect that was).
The first part of our message was, Why death is even an issue. We’re going to call the second part of our message:
The “works of the Lord” that remove death as an issue
The Psalmist had said he shall not die, but live. And then he had said, and declare the works of the Lord.
We declare extraordinary works, right? Those are the works we declare. We point people’s attention to what is unusually great. So, you might understand the disappointment of the women going to the tomb on Easter morning. What works are there to declare about a savior with the same problem all the rest of us have? What is extraordinary about a savior that’s under the same curse as everyone else? What savior is that?
Nothing seemed extraordinary about the situation. There was a death, there was burial, there’d been a few days in between; now, there would be an anointing of another body like the anointing they’d done on many others before. They’d do this ordinary work that gets done in this world in which people die, and then they would go back home with the presumption that one day it would be them. One day someone would be anointing their body for burial without any hope in terms of what comes after. According to that scenario, the speaker in our text might just as well say the opposite of what he says. He might just as well say, I shall not live, but die (and face the punishment that comes to sinners according to their nature). What else to say?
That’s the stakes on Easter morning. If the Savior remains a dead savior, then He’s no savior. Then, what would St. Paul’s words in our epistle lesson even mean: Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us? In what way could it be for us, could it benefit us if He was to remain dead in the grave? Then, how could He be the fulfillment of what had been presented in the foreshadowing of sacrificial lambs in Old Testament worship. Those stood in for a Savior Who was to be coming, Who was to be truly making atonement (or payment) for sins with His own sacrificial blood on a cross.
But the one who could accomplish that doesn’t have the same problem all the rest of us have, isn’t under the same curse as everyone else. That one can’t be overcome by the same dread for which no one has an answer.
So then, what words could be more monumental, dear sinners, than those of the angel in the tomb that morning?! Having gotten past the stone that mysteriously, had been rolled aside, and having seen the empty tomb, what words could have soothed more completely than He is risen! He is not here. What could change everything so much as those words? Christ has been raised. Their faith hasn’t been in vain. Their hope in Christ for more than this life has been confirmed!
There aren’t any smoke and mirrors here, either. The angel says Jesus was crucified. It had even been proven out there on Calvary, when the soldier pierced His side in order to make sure. Nicodemus and Joseph had partially anointed His body for burial as the Sabbath approached. There wasn’t any question about it. He didn’t just look dead; He really was dead. And He had to be for any of this to mean anything.
You can have joy on this Easter morning because you have someone who did what needed to be done in order to be your savior. You have someone Whom death could not hold. You have the One Who really is the fulfillment of what the Old Testament sacrificial lambs foreshadowed. His blood really has paid for your sins. You have One Who really removes your guilt that otherwise required you to be punished eternally in hell. The Father forsook Him, and punished Him instead. Then the Father raised Him from the dead. Christ’s death and resurrection are the works of the Lord that have removed death as an issue.
So, your death doesn’t mean anymore what it once meant. Jesus’ overcoming of it in the Resurrection has changed the narrative. What had been the curse on sin is now the entrance to eternal life for you and all other believers.
Dear disciples of Christ who have come to the place about which He told you, to hear the news of His Resurrection: Go in joy and peace this Easter morning. Christ, your Passover, has been sacrificed, and is risen! Your debt is paid. Your sins are forgiven. God be praised! Amen.
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Other Lessons:
1 Corinthians 5:6–8
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may have a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
St. Mark 16:1–8
Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said to themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said, “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 and tell His disciples— and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.” And they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.