Sermon - 2013-03-31 - Easter Sunday

Today we gather to celebrate an event that happened some 2000 years ago.  It is given to us to know and to celebrate today because it was such a great gift that it impacts us even today. We are gathered here to celebrate the unexpected, some experiencing feelings of shock, amazement, and confusion as to how this event happened.

After a long and difficult journey of Lent, we at long last come to the beginning. Normally after a long and hard journey, a person is met with the end, a time of rest and time for recovery.  However, today we find ourselves at the empty tomb.  We arrive at the grave to find the loved one, who we placed there to be gone. We arrive at the beginning of a new life.

Within our modern world, when a person dies, the immediate family gathers together.  Word spreads within the community.  We gather together for a prayer service.  We gather together for a funeral at the church.  We mourn the loss of the loved one and comfort one another in grief; we then process together to the cemetery so that we may lay the loved one into the ground so that they may have their rest.  We place a metal marker, stone or wooden marker so that we and others who gather there will know who is laying to rest in this spot.

Within the time of Jesus, they would not bury someone by digging a hole in the ground.  When a person died, the family would gather to care for the body.  A number of people from the community would gather together, but would place them into a cave. Then often placing a large stone in front of it so that animals or others would leave the loved one in peace.  Only the very rich would have a family cave or tomb for their loved ones.  So for Jesus to be placed within a tomb that no one else had been buried, meant that a very wealthy person took care of the body.

Death is something that has been part of human existence since Adam and Eve were sent out of the Garden of Eden.  They were the first to sin against God and ever since then, sin and death have been part of the human existence.  Death is something that will be a part of your life, the death of a loved one, grandparent, parent, brother or sister, or even a child.  It is here at the graveside that we hear and cling to the very promise of Jesus Christ, and also celebrate this day all the more for we know that this grave is not the end.

Today we gather together to know and celebrate that the promise and the Word of Jesus Christ is true.  We gather to hear that Christ came down from heaven, was born of Mary and was actually human.  Just like you and just like me.  Through Christ we see a human and a God that has come down to Earth.  Who knows what it is like to live day in and day out.  We hear of Jesus healing, teachings, and even being among those who were undesirable within the world.  But it is not through this that we are saved.  No one who was healed, who heard the teachings of Jesus or were in the presence of Jesus, escaped death.   Not a single one, even Lazarus, the man who Jesus raised from the dead, would die again.

Jesus would also face death. For he was fully human and fully God.  Being part of the human existence means to face death, Jesus would indeed face death.  He was light being brought into the dark world.  When light is brought into the world, people will see precisely where their own sin is and even worse, other people will see it.  We don’t like that.  Part of the human nature is that we want to do things ourselves.  We want to know that the job is done and that it is taken care of.  On Good Friday, we did precisely that.  Because the religious leaders felt their power being taken away, God was doing something new within the world and people didn’t like it.  Jesus was talking about being God and loving everyone in this world. About going to the sinners and the ones who were not worthy to enter into the Holy Temple. And we would not stand for it. They wanted a black and white god who made a clear line, so that we knew precisely who was getting into heaven and who was not.  I often hear people say "God is with me when things are going well, but when things are bad, God has forsaken and abandoned me.  Jesus loves me as long as I keep doing good and godly deeds, but if I sin it's up to me to do something really good in order to get back into God's good graces." However, when I find out where the line is drawn, I see that they are the only ones who going to heaven and even Jesus is on the other side of the line.  Even something as simple as regular church attendance confesses the truth of our faith louder and clearer than our lips can ever do.  "I don't need to go to church every Sunday.  I can sleep in.  I can stay away.  I can do what I want to do.  After all, I'm still a believer."

And what is that you believe in?  Sinful attitudes like that betray a belief in an empty Jesus; a Jesus who's not really here.  After all, I'd be willing to bet that if you truly believed that almighty Jesus Christ truly was here in His Word and His Sacrament, you would be here too!  Every one of us would!  These pews would be full every single Sunday!  There would be no such thing as lapsed members or grudges or hard feelings or any of that sinful garbage.  We wouldn't dare act like that in front of our Lord and Savior; that is, if we honestly believed that He really was here with us.  But that's just it.  We do act like that.  We often act like Jesus isn't really here and we're all just standing in an empty tomb of a room…each and every one of us.  Our words and our deeds betray us all the time.  I'm sorry to break this news to some of you, but the church is made up of sinners.  The church is made up of sinful people who have an imperfect faith that doesn't always trust in the Christ who is standing right before our very eyes.

Jesus was sent before religious and political leaders to be punished for his teachings and what he was doing within this world.  The religious leaders were quick to decide but did not have the authority to kill.  They went to Pilate who had the authority but Pilate found no reason for the death.  Yet the people continued, demanding Jesus’ death, death on the cross. A public display of what would happen to those who went against the religious leaders and against Rome.  Throughout this Jesus said nothing.  Nothing that would stop it, for it was to happen.  For Pilate, it was a quick decision, to kill one man or to have rioted in which thousands would be killed.  Pilate chose the death of the one man, Jesus.

Jesus is beaten and takes up the cross upon which he shall die.  Not to please some angry God. Not only to make satisfaction for the sins of thousands; but to show to the world, the very love and extent that God is willing to go to come to you in this world.  And to quote one of the final words that Jesus spoke, “It is finished.”

Yes the work has been done and you have been forgiven of your sins.  That's the real miracle here!  Our Lord still comes to us…in spite of us!  We may cry for his death but he cries for our life. He comes to this graveyard every single week, not to bring justly deserved fire and brimstone, but to bring to us His amazing free gifts of life, salvation, and forgiveness.  He comes to us to literally breathe life into us, breathing life into us by means of His life-giving Word and Sacraments.  That's the miracle of Easter.  It's not a miracle that happened almost two thousand years ago.  It's a real and tangible Easter miracle that still happens today in our midst.  Our living Lord and Savior does come to us in the midst of our emptiness and deadly sinfulness, coming to us to mercifully bring us life. God gives us His glory, His love, and His mercy in His unassuming, yet almighty means of grace. It is a grace that rains down upon us like the spring rain that nourishes the land. A grace that pours out upon us, for each and every one of us.  Yes, even for you.

That's where the miracle of faith comes into play; the miracle of believing in what is not seen. In fact today within the Gospel message, we hear precisely that.  The women came to the tomb and find it empty.  Not to some empty promise but to a promise that is complete and being fulfilled.  This promise is something that still continues today, at the graveside, we lay to rest our loved ones but we know that death is not the end but the beginning of the promise.

However, the resurrection, the big word that we use to talk about the new life that Jesus gives to us.  It is not something that happens in the past, it is not something that will only happen when we die and are buried in the grave but happens here and now.  For it is through the resurrection, the new life, that we are put to death.  Our will and desire that causes us to only think of ourselves in this world.   It is destroyed and dies so that Christ can live and dwell within our hearts and our lives.  That is the promise that is given to us in Baptism.  We are now set free to live in the love and joy that Christ has given to us and it is through that love that we gladly live our lives for Jesus Christ.   We go out into the world to share the good news with others.j

Jesus Christ did indeed die, but today we gather to know that Jesus Christ lives this very day.  He puts to death your life and He lives to give you eternal life and peace with our heavenly Father!  May this miracle of true Gospel peace and life, which is found only in our crucified and risen Savior, be in your minds, in your hearts, and on your lips, this day and every day.

Amen.