Easter Sunday [Luke 24:1-12] (31 March 2013)

This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran Church Tailem Bend at 9 am and St. John's Lutheran Church Karoonda at 11 am. 

The apostles left us an important thing when it comes to Easter: most importantly – their eyewitness testimony. Secondly – that they preached it so hard. It's not just today that people mock and ridicule that we rejoice that Christ Is Risen. We know why people think that just can't be. But in the days of the apostles the people ridiculed the resurrection for two different reasons. “Oh, the body is raised from the dead? How . . . physical.”. And “Oh, this Jesus was raised at a particular time at a particular place? The most important event happened in far away Jerusalem on a Sunday. How . . .small seeming.” But they didn't stop proclaiming it; they proclaimed it harder. That's because, Christ's resurrection isn't optional, even if it's unpopular to say. It's for you. And here's the formula for Easter:

History + Word → Faith (and don't worry, this is all part of the plan)

Let's start with the history. And that means we start with the empty tomb. The tomb was empty because of the historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead. But here's how the women reacted to the fact of the empty tomb: (these were the women who went to prepare the dead body of Jesus for permanent burial, or so they thought) “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. ² And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were perplexed about this”, and let's stop right there. They were perplexed. They didn't know why the tomb was empty. That's their reaction to the fact of the empty tomb. They went in, they saw, they couldn't deny – the tomb was empty, and they were perplexed.

That's the fact of history for them (before they saw the angels). But there's the history we need to know to celebrate Easter. History: The tomb was empty. Jesus' 12 disciples after Easter, all but one died because they confessed that Jesus rose from the dead. If it was something they made up, why die for it? History – this happened just outside Jerusalem, almost 2,000 years ago. History – If Jesus' 12 disciples made the Resurrection up, why do they come off sounding so thick in the Gospels? When you make something up, you make yourself look good in it. They don't, even when the women come in and tell of what they saw and heard, the disciples don't believe them, like they're delirious. Jesus' resurrection is a fact of history because the tomb is empty and there were so many eye-witnesses, and we have their accounts.

 

But the historical facts were confusing (remember how the women, upon seeing the empty tomb, were perplexed?) The words of Jesus interpret the historical fact of the resurrection. Why was the empty grave perplexing to the women? Because the cross was perplexing. They saw both with their own eyes, they couldn't make sense of either. And their guessing what it meant wouldn't have gotten them anywhere. Christ had to do it by his words!

 

The angels words bring to remembrance Jesus' authoritative words. In Luke, “remember” is a word only for something that God does. And the angels tell the women to remember what Jesus said. Jesus is God! So what he does and says carries authority. (If this is a work of God, then of course it's so amazing that you can't guess it. For example, you could feel that Jesus lives on in our memories or hearts or by being nice – that's what we would come up with and it is so far from “He is risen.”.)

 

And the apostles do worse. The apostles rubbish the women for these words because they were perplexed by the cross and the news of the empty tomb. It's as if they needed something more, needed to hear something more for it to make sense, and that only shows that the resurrection is nothing we could have guessed. And we're no better when we go around needing something more than the good news of Christ's death and resurrection (and most of the time that something more is a message of how great we are or a way we can be more happy instead of hungering and thirsting to hear the Gospel as a matter of life and death!).

So what are the words that must interpret Jesus' death and resurrection? Let's use a series of questions: Did Jesus rise from the dead? Yes. Why? . . . Um. Well, Luke chapter 24 gives us a threefold answer to this question, starting with today's reading. 1) “"Why do you seek the living among the dead? ⁶ He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise." ⁸ And they remembered his words” - and that made all the difference. Jesus himself said this must happen way back in Galilee – first crucifixion, then resurrection. And Jesus says to the disciples on the road to Emmaus “"O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" ²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Again, it was necessary that this happen, so necessary that the whole Old Testament is about Jesus and what he would do. And last, to the 11 disciples, “"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶ and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷ and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things.” This was necessary, the Scriptures speak of it, and because of this, repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in Jesus' name to all nations (and the disciples are the eye-witnesses). That's pretty simple as an answer to “why?”.

 

But there's a simple way to complicate it all – just take out Jesus' words. Then all the things mentioned above gets taken out, and everything false floods in. These are wonderful facts because they are saving facts, and the only way we know they are saving facts is if we hear that they are saving facts in the Bible! We need the Word! So if you were the devil, where would you attack? “Did God really say. . .?” Yeah, it's an old trick.

 

But notice how Jesus explains his resurrection, but never leaves out his crucifixion? Yeah, they always, always, go together (and in that order). So for us, the cross is never left behind when we confess that Jesus is risen – never a distant memory heard once and then never again. Why? Because we're interested here in the full picture of Jesus, not just a day to celebrate on the calendar. The cross was necessary, and God's Word interprets history for Christians. And don't worry – this is all part of the plan, the plan to restore the whole broken creation.

The faith that comes from this history and this Word of God is the plan to restore the broken creation and empty your graves. The plan is for you to believe, and believing, to have life in his name. That's why the final word of Christ in Luke is the word that this message of the cross, this Gospel, be put in mouths and sent into the world, and through the Word the Holy Spirit is active bringing faith by his power.

 

This is the plan – all those “it is necessary”s. It is necessary that Jesus win and bring the forgiveness of sins. It is necessary for him to bring salvation. It is necessary for him to bring the new creation of eternal life in himself to the broken creation that fell in Adam's fall. It's necessary because God's love would have it no other way. Jesus Christ died for you, that sin may not harm you and death may not kill you.

This is the plan – marvelling at the mighty works of God. That's how our reading today ended: “ But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.” Two words should sound familiar, about 4 months ago familiar – linen cloths, and marvelling. The shepherds found the baby Jesus wrapped in linen cloths, and they went away marvelling. Peter found the cloths in the grave, but no Jesus, and went away marvelling. Both are the mighty works of God. Both are for you.

 

The plan is the Word applied to you in baptism, absolution, and the Supper. All of them deliver the eternal life with which Christ our Lord was raised. If the plan is the forgiveness of sins, well there it is. There's Christ doing it, physically and particularly. Preaching these things hard is preaching Easter hard.

 

The plan is the faith created by God's Word interpreting history. And there's one more interpreting word: The Word interprets our graves too – that death is not death, but the gate to life immortal, as surely as Christ is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. Christ's resurrection and ours go together. He's done the one, he can do the other. He applies these promises to you. This is most certainly true.

 

Conclusion:

History + Word → Faith (and don't worry, this is all part of the plan)

The plan remains the plan, whether it's popular or not. The Word remains the Word, whether it's popular or not. The resurrection remains the resurrection, whether it's popular or not. The Gospel remains the Gospel, whether it's popular or not. Don't worry, this is all part of the plan. He Is Risen! Amen.