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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. (Amen.)

Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!)

As I was playing the game “Words with Friends” on my telephone a few weeks ago, the same advertisement for Homes‑dot-com kept popping up. My seeing the same ad for the same company over and over while playing through the dozens of games that my mother and I play at least once a day is not all that unusual and does not by itself get my attention. But, what got my attention was the statement in large font at the top of the recurring ad that said, “Your forever home is calling”. In view of eternity, I expect that you can imagine why I, or any other Christian, for that matter, might object to a claim that any earthly house in this lifetime would be someone’s “forever home”. On this day of the Resurrection of Our Lord, considering primarily today’s Gospel Reading, we realize that “The tomb was not Jesus’s and will not be our forever home”.

First, the tomb was not Jesus’s “forever home”. Verses before today’s Gospel Reading (Luke 23:50-56), the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke told how Joseph of Arimathea, having gone to Pilate, asked for the body of Jesus, and, having taken it down, wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid it in a tomb cut in stone. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee, having followed, saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then, having returned, they prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment, but, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, on the first day of the week they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb but not the body of the Lord Jesus. While the women were perplexed about that, two angels asked them why they sought the living among the dead, said that Jesus had risen, and reminded the women of Jesus’s prophecy of His betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection on the third day (for example, Luke 9:22). The tomb was not Jesus’s “forever home”; He had only used it for parts of three days! Having returned from the tomb, the women relayed the angels’ message to Jesus’s remaining eleven disciples and the rest of the believers, but the women’s words seemed to the disciples and believers an idle tale, and they did not believe them. Although, Peter, having risen, ran to the tomb, and, having stooped and looked in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home marveling (confer John 20:3-10).

Certainly, the disciples, the women, and the other believers should have known that the tomb was not Jesus’s “forever home” (compare Luke 18:31-34)! The disciples and a great crowd even had seen Jesus raise at least one other person from the dead (for example, Luke 7:11-17), and Jesus had spoken about a time when all those in the tombs would hear His voice and come out, those who had done good to the resurrection of life, and those who had done evil to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29). The tomb will not be our forever home! Of course, by nature we all deserve the resurrection of judgment. By nature we lack faith in God and do not love Him, and so we sin in countless ways, giving evidence of our lack of faith in and love of God. Even we whom God has brought to faith still sin. We might be perplexed about things that do not happen as we might expect them to happen. We might not remember or believe what we are told from God’s Word. We might marvel about what we see but not appreciate its impact for us. Homes‑dot-com is wrong about your “forever home” calling, but Holy Scripture is not wrong about God’s calling us to be sorry for our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to stop sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives: our sinful nature and all our sin, whatever our sin might be, for Jesus’s sake.

In today’s Gospel Reading, the angels essentially remind the women of what Jesus previously had said about the Divine necessity of His being delivered into the hands of sinful men, being crucified, and on the third day rising. His betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection were Divinely necessary for us and for our salvation. Our salvation by the forgiveness of our sins is why the Son of God came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. Because Jesus was truly human, He could die, and, because He was truly God, His death could merit the forgiveness of the sins of the whole world. Jesus’s resurrection is often said to prove that He is the Son of God, that His teaching is true, that God the Father accepted His sacrifice for the reconciliation of the world, and that all believers in Him will rise to eternal life (LSCwE [1991/2011], #145, pp.139-140). We who repent receive the benefits of Jesus’s death through His Word and Sacraments.

As Jesus Himself explains to His disciples a few verses after today’s Gospel Reading, the Holy Scriptures said not only that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead but also that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name (Luke 24:46-47). Jesus’s disciples received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and served as His first official witnesses, and today pastors receive the Holy Spirit in their ordinations and confess Him and work for others to confess Him (confer 1 Timothy 5:22; 2 Timothy 1:6). Pastors read and preach God’s Word to groups such as this group, and they apply the Gospel individually with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with Bread that is Christ’s Body and wine that is Christ’s Blood in the Holy Supper. The same body and blood that were crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered, were buried, on the third day rose, ascended into heaven, and sit at the right hand of the Father are also sacramentally present here for us Christians to eat and drink and so receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Peter ran to the tomb where Jesus was not, should we not all the more run to where we know Jesus is? For example, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther says that we should be glad to run more than 100 miles for confession and absolution (Brief Exhortation, ¶30; confer ¶23, 24, 27, and 34).

Hundreds of thousands of dollars would be needed, not surprisingly, in order to buy one of the homes in our area listed by Homes‑dot‑com. After an investment like that, for what can appear to be a permanent structure, we might be forgiven for thinking that such would be a “forever home”. The Divinely‑inspired author of Hebrews says that by faith Abraham lived in tents with Isaac and Jacob, looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God (Hebrews 11:9-10). Abraham died and was buried (Genesis 25:8-10), like other forgiven sinners before us, and, unless the Lord comes again in glory first, also like us and other forgiven sinners after us. Though we are forgiven, temporal death is still a consequence of our sinful nature and our actual sin. We might spend thousands of dollars, or maybe even tens of thousands of dollars, on a mausoleum, or crypt, or grave, or tomb. But, even those are not our “forever home”. Cemeteries are called “cemeteries” from the Greek for “sleeping place”, like a dormitory is called a “dormitory” from the Latin for “sleeping place”. People may pray to rest in peace for eternity, but bodies do not sleep for eternity. Sleep is a good euphemism for bodies’ death only because the bodies awaken from it, as today’s Epistle Reading described Christ as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep and assures us that the rest of our bodies also will awaken at His final coming (1 Corinthians 15:19-26). So, we confess our sure and certain hope in that resurrection of the body by burying bodies as intact as possible. God buried Moses (Deuteronomy 34:6), and our Lord Himself was buried. Not dwelling on what might have been done in the past, but wanting to do better in the present and future, we do not intentionally cremate, chemically disintegrate, freeze to crystallize, or compost Christians’ bodies (CNN). Christians’ bodies have been created, redeemed, and sanctified by the Triune God, and on the Last Day they will be resurrected and glorified. Our “forever home” will be under the new or restored “heaven”, or “sky”, on the new or restored earth, as mentioned, for example, in today’s Old Testament Reading, where what is arguably the new heavenly Jerusalem is described with permanently occupied homes (confer Revelation 21:9-27).

I sent a screen-shot of that “Your forever home is calling” Homes‑dot‑com ad that I mentioned to one of my Christian friends in town who happens to be a realtor. Not surprisingly, he first reacted to the ad as a realtor, noting that the webpage connects people to the sellers’ agents instead of encouraging them to seek their own representation with buyers’ agents. After I pointed out my objection to the ad, he laughed and agreed, referring to the need for a listing agent for the new heaven and new earth, making me wonder if, in that case, pastors are the “buyers’” agent or the “seller’s” agent or both. Regardless, “The tomb was not Jesus’s and will not be our forever home”. With daily repentance, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins by grace for Jesus’s sake, and, in view of the Resurrection of Our Lord, we have peace and joy in this life already now, as we will have in the intermediate state for a time, and ultimately in our resurrected and glorified bodies for eternity.

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 + + +