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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
It is difficult for us to get into the same frame of mind as the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee—such as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others (confer Luke 8:2-3)—who saw the crucifixion and burial and prepared spices and ointments on Friday (Luke 23:49, 55-56a), rested according to the commandment on Saturday (Luke 23:56b), and went to the tomb on the first day of the week, at early dawn. Presumably out of love and devotion to their Lord they were taking the spices they had prepared intending to finish the Jewish burial custom on a dead body that they expected to find in a stone‑sealed tomb (John 19:40). What they found was a stone rolled away from the tomb and no body. No wonder they were perplexed! Then two men in dazzling apparel burst upon the scene! As the women were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the angels (Luke 24:23) asked the women why they were seeking the Living One among the dead ones; the angels said that He was not there but had risen; and the angels reminded the women of Jesus’s words about the necessity of His crucifixion and resurrection. Today’s Gospel Reading gives us the first of three such instances in Luke chapter 24, instances in which otherwise unintelligible facts such as Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection are interpreted in light of the elucidating Word of God that shows His crucifixion and resurrection to be necessary at least as fulfillments of Divine revelation (Just, ad loc Luke 23:56b-24:12, pp.964, 970, citing Dillon). So, considering the Gospel Reading, this morning we realize that “Jesus’s Words interpret perplexing events like His Resurrection”.
It may be difficult for us to get into the same frame of mind as the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee and were perplexed by the empty grave and frightened by the Divine messengers that witnessed to the resurrection of the Lord (confer Arndt, ad loc Luke 24:1-12, pp.482-483), but that difficulty does not mean that we cannot relate to the women’s perplexity and fear. Our minds can also be so focused on a task at hand or circumstances that we expect to find so that, when we are faced with a different task or find circumstances to be other than what we expect, we also might be perplexed, perhaps in doubt, not knowing which way to turn, or even how to decide (ESL #639). We may not have angels in dazzling apparel burst upon our scenes, but sometimes all too easily other things throw us into fear, terrify us, or leave us frightened (ESL #1719). And, those other things do not even have to be “bad” from our perspective. Jesus’s resurrection may have seemed to the women to be impossibly “good”, as some things may also appear to us. How often in our lives would our remembering Jesus’s Words help us deal with our perplexity and fear?
Too often we do not give God’s Word the opportunity to interpret the perplexing events of our lives, if we even know or make use of God’s Word in our lives at all. We sin in these ways and countless other ways, for we are sinful by nature. On account of our sinful nature and all of our sin, we deserve to die in this life and be tormented endlessly in the life to come. But, as the angels’ words to the women brought them out of their perplexity and fear, God’s Word calls and so enables us to be sorry for our sins, to trust God to forgive our sins, and to want to change our sinful ways. When we so repent, then God forgives our sins. God forgives our sins of not letting His Word interpret the otherwise unintelligible aspects of our lives, and God forgives our sin of not knowing or making use of His Word to begin with. God forgives our sinful nature and all our sin, whatever our sin might be. We know God forgives our sin because Jesus was resurrected after being crucified for us.
The angels reminded the women from Galilee of what they apparently had known directly or indirectly, that, while Jesus was still in Galilee, He had said that He must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise (Luke 9:22, 44). The God‑man Jesus’s betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection were Divinely necessary in part because they were prophesied, but they were only prophesied because they were part of our loving God’s plan to save the whole human race, including you and me. So, Jesus’s death on the cross was really necessary for us! Jesus lived the perfect life we fail to live, and died the death that we deserve, in our place. Jesus went from humiliation to exaltation. Some time between sundown Saturday and the opening of the tomb Sunday morning, Jesus rose; no one witnessed the process, but they saw the results! Jesus’s resurrection shows that God the Father accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. Not only in spirit or soul but also in body, Jesus is the Living One: He died but now is alive forevermore, and He has the keys of (that is, authority over) death and hell (Revelation 1:18).
Jesus has entrusted the exercise of those keys to those whom He sends. These men may not burst on the scene in dazzling apparel, but they nevertheless remind you of what Jesus has said, and, like the angels’ message, their words, as Jesus’s words, accomplish what they say. His Words of His Gospel read and preached speak us into the Kingdom of God. His Words combined with water in Holy Baptism work forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and give eternal salvation to all who believe those words and promises of God. His Words of individual Holy Absolution forgive sins on earth and in heaven (Matthew 16:19; 18:18). And, His Words combined with bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar give Christ’s true Body and true Blood and so also give the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Here we remember Him, and He is really, physically present with us (Luke 22:19). Otherwise unintelligible facts are interpreted in light of the elucidating Word of God!
The angels spoke Jesus’s words matter‑of‑factly to the perplexed women (Just, ad loc Luke 23:56b‑24:12, p.967), and the angels’ words at least resulted in the women’s remembering Jesus’s words, if not also in their understanding and believing Jesus’s words (so Just, ad loc Luke 23:56b‑24:12, p.968). Returning from the tomb, the women told all these things to the eleven and the rest, but the eleven and the rest did not believe them: the women’s words seemed to them an idle tale, what one mid‑twentieth‑century commentator rephrased as “wild talk of a pack of hysterical women” (Lenski, ad loc Luke 24:11, p.1176). The fact is that Jesus rose, but, unless you personally believe that Jesus rose for you, the fact that Jesus rose does you no good.
Whether or not we can get into the same frame of mind as the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee, enabled by God, we live every day with repentance and so in His forgiveness of sins, and we let “Jesus’s Words interpret perplexing events like His Resurrection”. Things may not be as they might appear! When we are perplexed by a loved one’s death, or when we fear our own deaths, we should remember Jesus’s words that, because He lives, we, too, shall live (John 14:19). As we heard in the Epistle Reading (1 Corinthians 15:19-26), Christ is the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep; in Christ all shall be made alive, but each in his own order. As described in the Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 65:17-25), under His new (or “restored”) sky and on His new (or “restored”) earth, the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind, but we are glad and rejoice forever in what He creates (or “recreates”). As we sang in the Psalm (Psalm 16; antiphon: v.10), He has made known to us the path of life; in His presence there is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +