The Resurrection of Our Lord

The Resurrection of Our Lord (A)

April 16, 2017

Text: Matt. 28:1-10; LSB 458

He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

            And upon that one fact rests our whole Christian faith and our eternal life or death.  Remember the line we sang in the Luther hymn we used throughout Lent: “Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay; Death brooded darkly o’er me” (LSB 556:2).  We are utterly helpless to free ourselves from this bondage.  Our Hymn of the Day this morning, also a Luther composition, states the matter plainly: “No son of man could conquer death, Such ruin sin had wrought us” (LSB 458:2).  There is no one innocent in all the earth.  We all are included in the sin of Adam, and every last one of us has rebelled against our God.  We have gone our own way.  And that is the way of death.  And so death brought us into bondage.  No matter how hard we’ve tried to struggle free with our good works, our good intentions, our sincerity, our being “basically a good person,” it’s all been for not.  The bonds just get tighter.  The noose constricts.  Death’s vice grip upon our fallen flesh squeezes every vestige of life from our mortal frame.  The devil is stronger than the whole world, and his hell-hound, death, sniffs out every one of us and snares us in his steely jaws.  What we need, we who are helpless and damned, is One stronger than death, One stronger than Satan, to give Himself into those jaws, into our captivity, and burst the bonds asunder. 

            “Christ Jesus lay in death’s strong bands For our offenses given” (v. 1).  The bands are the nails that fastened Him to the cross.  He is one of us.  He is one with us, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone.  And He carries His own cross into our captivity.  Our sins are heaped upon Him.  Broken, bleeding, pierced, dying, He gives Himself wholly and completely into the hands of our enemy.  His death is a real death.  Mystery of mysteries, God dies for poor sinners, to save us.  God lies dead in a grave, having completed all the work of your salvation.  He takes His Sabbath rest.  But that is not the end of the story.  So strong is our Champion, Jesus, so infinitely stronger than death and the devil, He bursts death’s bonds asunder and blows a hole so deep and wide through the grave it leads out the other side to life and light abundant and eternal.  Oh, it was a strange and dreadful strife, when Life and death contended.  But the victory remained with Life!  The reign of death was ended.  “Holy Scripture plainly saith That death is swallowed up by death, Its sting is lost forever.  Alleluia!” (v. 4).  Jesus Christ blazes a trail right through the valley of the shadow, a highway for His people to follow in His train.  Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.  Bodily.  The scars, once bitter wounds inflicted upon the suffering Savior, now glorious trophies of victory and proof of our redemption.  God has accepted the sacrifice.  Your sins are forgiven.  You are righteous on account of Christ.  You will not die, but live.  For where your Savior has gone, you will go, through the valley of the shadow and out the other side into life eternal and your own bodily resurrection from the dead. 

            Now at God’s right hand, Jesus stands!  He’s alive!  And He rules.  He reigns.  For you.  He brings you life from heaven and He gives you joy.  Christians have true joy in this life because the war with death has ended…  In victory for Christ, and so victory for us.  Oh, there are still skirmishes in this life and in this world.  Yes, we still suffer here and now.  Yes, we still get sick, and at some point, sick unto death.  Yes, our loved ones still die.  And yes, as long as we remain in this fallen flesh, we still sin.  But just as all appeared hopeless when Jesus gave up His Spirit on Good Friday, and yet that was His ultimate triumph, so it is with us.  Our death is but a portal to life.  Death cannot have us.  We belong to the Savior.  The sufferings of this present age are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.  We live… and not just someday up there in heaven.  Now!  In Christ!  Albeit, our life is now hidden with Christ in God, as St. Paul says (Col. 3:3).  We are baptized into Christ.  His death is our death.  His resurrection is our resurrection.  Rejoice!  Sing!  This Day is your Day of victory.  Now nothing can harm you.  Not sin.  Not Satan.  Not even death and hell.  Jesus has conquered them for you.  “Here our true Paschal Lamb we see, Whom God so freely gave us; He died on the accursed tree—So strong His love—to save us.  See, His blood now marks our door”… the blood of the Passover Lamb that protects God’s people against the angel of death, as it did in Egypt so long ago… “Faith points to it; death passes o’er, And Satan cannot harm us.  Alleluia!” (LSB 458:5). 

            And so, this Day we feast.  Let us keep the Festival to which the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ, our Paschal Lamb, invites us.  He is our Joy.  He is the Sun that warms and lights us.  And His Sun not only shines upon us, but in us, as we take Him into ourselves, His risen and living body and blood for our forgiveness, life, and salvation.  The night of sin has ended.  Where the Light of Jesus Christ has risen, there can be no night.  Jesus not only wins the cosmic victory over sin, Satan, and death, but He wins the victory in each one of us, baptized into Christ, Worded, bodied, blooded with Jesus Himself.  This Easter Day, we feast on Christ, the Bread of heaven, our true Manna, the Word made flesh who casts out the old and evil leaven of sin and death.  As you eat this bread and drink this cup, it pushes out all that is not Christ, not faith.  “Christ alone our souls will feed; He is our meat and drink indeed; Faith lives upon no other!  Alleluia!” (v. 7). 

            Beloved in the Lord, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and on that fact rests our whole Christian faith and our eternal life or death.  The victory remains with Life.  Never forget that when death shows its ugly fangs.  Christ Jesus kicked death in the teeth even as His wounded heel crushed the head of the serpent.  Death’s fangs are now the crudely fashioned dentures of a mortally wounded mongrel.  Death has no more bands to bind you.  For He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.