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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!)
Usually when a person dies, he or she is buried in some way, and there is a marker of some sort. The grave and its marker are in some sense a reminder of the person, and the grave and its marker can serve as a place both to remember the person and to honor the person. Remembering is an important part of the Gospel Reading appointed for today, the Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter Day. For example, the two Greek words used a total of four times to refer to Jesus’s tomb are etymologically connected to remembering, specifically by way of a memorial or monument for the dead (Michel, TDNT 4:679-681), and the angels told the women to remember—and then the women did remember (and perhaps also understood)—what Jesus had earlier told them about His crucifixion and resurrection. So, considering the Gospel Reading, this morning we direct our thoughts to the theme, “Remembering Death and Resurrection”.
As the Divinely-inspired St. Luke reports, on the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women, who had come with Jesus from Galilee, who had followed Joseph of Arimathea and had seen the tomb and how Jesus’s body was laid, and who had prepared spice and ointments but rested on the Sabbath according to the Commandment (Luke 23:55-56; confer Exodus 20:10; Deuteronomy 5:14), went to the tomb from wherever they were staying, taking the spices they had prepared. Neither Joseph of Arimathea nor they were embalming Jesus; the aromatic items were simply to make the tomb as pleasant as possible for those who would be grieving there. Their hopes may have been dashed that Jesus was the Redeemer (confer Luke 24:21), but they still loved Jesus and wanted to honor Him (confer Arndt, ad loc Luke 24:1, p.482). They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. The empty tomb, the angels explained to the perplexed women, was evidence that Jesus had risen, as He had said that He would rise (confer Arndt, ad loc Luke 24:6, p.483). The women told the apostles, and Peter and John went to the tomb, who, regardless of what they may have wondered about or believed (confer John 20:3-10; Luke 24:24), at least then were a second set of witnesses to the tomb’s being empty, except for the linen cloths, which would not have been left there if the body had been stolen (confer Arndt, ad loc Luke 24:12, p.485). Jesus died and rose bodily: He was not just seriously injured and nursed back to health; His disciples did not remove His body; Jesus did not later appear to His followers only as a ghost; nor did they merely have a vision of Him while His body remained in the tomb (confer Arndt, ad loc Luke 24:1-12, p.482): there is no so‑called “Skeleton in God’s Closet” (Amazon). And, that Jesus rose bodily is important for you, because Jesus’s bodily resurrection means you also will rise bodily!
A popular news outlet this past week featured an Easter message from televangelist and author Joel Osteen (FOX News). Now, I do not know whether or not Osteen believes, teaches, and confesses that Jesus rose bodily and that we also will rise bodily, because this particular Easter message did not say but rather seemed to limit for you God’s resurrecting things that only look dead, such as dead dreams, dead relationships, and medical situations; God’s helping you resolve issues with your children, overcome addiction, and resolve other health issues here and now. As the Divinely-inspired St. Paul said in today’s Epistle Reading (1 Corinthians 15:19-26), if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied!
Yet, sometimes you and I act as if this life is the most important and as if, if a loved one or we ourselves physically die in this life, that somehow that is the end! Of course, there is a place for honoring a departed loved one at his or her grave, but, while his or her physical remains may be there at the grave, he or she is not there! As the angels asked the women: Why do you seek the living among the dead? As Jesus had earlier told the Sadducees, who denied that there is a resurrection, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob is not God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him (Luke 20:38; confer Stein, p.605, cited by Just, p.967 n.4). We are not permanently but only temporarily separated from our loved ones who believed; we will see them again, and we will see them again in their resurrected and glorified bodies! We do not need to, as some people say, “keep them alive” in our thoughts or hearts. And, as much as we may love people and things in this life, we should love more the life to come, and we should want more to be there. As the Divinely-inspired St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, to depart and be with Christ is far better (Philippians 1:23).
Even you and I who believe may have a hard time putting such faith into practice, because our sinful natures still cling to us. On account of those sinful natures and all of those and the other actual sins that those sinful natures lead us to commit, we deserve nothing but death here and now and punishment in hell for eternity, unless, as God enables us to do, we repent. When we repent, then God forgives us: all our sin, whatever our sin might be, for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. As we heard in the Epistle Reading, for as by a man came death, by a Man has come also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. As the angels reminded the women in the Gospel Reading, Jesus Himself said that His being delivered (or, betrayed) into the hands of sinful men, being crucified, and on the third day rising were Divinely necessary as part of God’s plan to save all people from their sins. Out of God’s great love and mercy, He sent His Son into human flesh to die on the cross for you, in your place, the death that you deserved. Out of God’s great grace for Jesus’s sake, He saves you through faith in Jesus Christ. And, He saves you by working through His Word and His Sacraments.
In the Gospel Reading, God’s sent messengers used Jesus’s own words to at least try to lead the women and eventually the apostles and the rest to faith. They did not find Jesus in the tomb, but they found Him elsewhere. Similarly, the apostles and their successors, pastors today, use the reading and preaching of God’s Word to at least try to lead people today to faith. We do not find Jesus in the tomb, but we find Him elsewhere: where He promises to be. We find Jesus in His Word attached to the water of Holy Baptism, where He works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe the words and promises of God about Holy Baptism. We find Jesus in His Word attached to the ritual of Holy Absolution, where He forgives the sins of those who repent and want to do better through the pastors whom He has called and ordained. And, we find Jesus in His Word attached to the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar, which are His Body given for us and His Blood shed for us and so which also give forgiveness, life, and salvation. We do this to remember and proclaim Him (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24-26), and He is really, physically present here. Whoever feeds on His flesh and drinks His blood abides in Him, and He abides in them (John 6:56). So, too, here we are united not only with Him and with those communing in this life but also with all those in Him who are already in the next life, including our loved ones who have gone before us in the faith.
We who are so saved and forgiven through Word and Sacrament still can and do grieve the loss of our loved ones from this world, but we do not grieve them as those who lack the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the body and the blessed reunion in heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:13). For, in that sure and certain hope, we commit our loved ones’ earthly remains to the ground (embalmed or not); we commit them to the ground to rest not forever but for a time. We so honor and remember them, and we remember that their souls live with God and their bodies will rise again. All of our sorrows and everything in our lives are brought into the light of Judgment Day and the glory that will be revealed then. We look forward to the day when our Savior will return visibly and take us to be with Him in His eternal glory, and that view impacts our entire lives as Christians, as pilgrims here whose home is above (Lutheran Service Book 685:1; confer Pieper III:84-85).
We are “Remembering Death and Resurrection”, both Jesus’s death and resurrection for us and what they mean for our death and resurrection, especially that, because He has died for us and lives, we, too, whether or not we die in this world, will live (John 11:25-26; 14:19). As we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 65:17-25), God rejoices and is glad in His people, and He calls and enables us to be glad and rejoice forever, for He has created us to be a joy and a gladness.
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 + + +