Vigil of Easter

 Video of Service

The Resurrection of Our Lord: Vigil of Easter

April 4, 2026

Text: Mark 16:1-8

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

            This is the night...  Of death succumbing to resurrection and life.  The great passing through the valley of the shadow, then, coming up and out.  The drowning and death of Old Adam.  The emerging and arising of the new man, the New Creation in Christ.  Darkness to light.  Repentance and faith.  Mortification of the flesh.  Growth in the Spirit’s fruits.  Out with the old and dying and dead.  In the with the new and living and eternal.  In foreshadowing, and accomplished fact.  In delivery of the gifts, and following in His train.  This is the night.

            This is the night... Creation out of nothing.  God’s almighty Let there be!  And so, there is.  Formed and filled.  And it is good.  In fact, very good.  And man and woman.  Male and female.  Fashioned in God’s own image and likeness.  Tending the Garden.  Stewarding creation.  Having dominion over fish and birds and livestock and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.  Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.  This is the night.

            But we know what happened.  The beguiling serpent.  The woman deceived.  The man, silent, when he should have spoken.  Taking and eating what God had forbidden.  Not good.  Not good.  A Promise, yes.  The woman’s Seed, crushed, but crushing the serpent’s head.  Yet, before you know it, a brother’s blood crying from the ground.  Adam’s seed, corrupt... all.  And so, a Flood.  Of worldwide proportions.  The death of all the living.  Except one man and his family.  Our father, Noah.  His sons.  Their wives.  Saved in an ark.  Eight souls in all.  And pairs of animals in which is the breath of life.  A starting over.  A reset for the God who is grieved, and death for humanity, hellbent on self-destruction.  But delivery through water, to life, for the one who is righteous by faith in the LORD, his God.  And another Promise.  The bow in the clouds.  God points His weapon away from earth.  Never again shall there be a Flood to destroy the world.  God’s solemn oath.  This is the night.

            Israel, trapped, with their backs against the sea.  Before them, slavery and certain death.  Behind them, a watery grave.  But there is the pillar of fire, God’s Glory.  And there is the rod, and the Word of God.  Lift up your staff.  Stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.  A strong east wind.  The Read Sea parts.  Israel crosses through the water on dry ground.  But Egypt pursues.  The hoards of Pharaoh, with chariot and horse.  Moses, stretch out your hand again.  And the waters of the sea come crashing down.  Water destroys the enemies of God.  Water saves the children of God.  “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea” (Ex. 15:1; ESV).  The passing through.  The coming up, and out.  To freedom.  To life.  And communion with God.  This is the night. 

            Baptism by water.  And Baptism by fire.  Three faithful men who will not bow the knee.  Who will not prostrate themselves before a pagan idol.  They will pay the price.  And they are willing.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Nebuchadnezzar’s fury.  A fiery furnace seven times hotter.  God will deliver us, O king, from your hand.  But even if not, we will not bow down.  And so, bound.  Cast down.  In smoke and flame.  Even the executioners are killed.  But now, the men are unbound, and unhurt, walking around in the midst of the fire.  And who is that with them?  We only cast three.  That fourth One appears like a son of the gods!  He is, as it happens, the Angel of the LORD.  Which is to say, not a son of the gods, but the Son of God!  God will deliver us, O king, from your hand.  And He does.  That is precisely what this God does for those who belong to Him.  And so, passing through.  And coming up, and out.  To freedom and life.  This is the night. 

            The Vigil of Easter, from ancient times, was a night of Baptisms and Confirmations (we don’t have any ready to go this year, but it’s always fun when we do).  The passing through water.  The death and defeat of God’s enemies (and yours!).  The devil.  Old Adam in you.  Your sin.  Your guilt.  The coming up, and out of the blest baptismal water.  Forgiven.  Born anew.  Washed clean.  Clothed with Christ, and His righteousness.  A New Creation.  To live by faith.  Image restored.  Likeness reclaimed.  And then, the blessing of the Spirit, as the faith is confessed.  On pain of death (we ask even our children... are you willing to die, rather than fall away from this faith?).  A Baptism of fire.  Because, do what they might, the world and its prince cannot kill us.  Our God will deliver us from their wicked hands.  And He does.  Always.  Even if it be through suffering and martyrdom. 

            Because, this is the night.  Dissipating into Day.  What do the women find, as that Day dawns?  The stone rolled back.  No Jesus in the tomb, but a young man, dressed all in white, seated on the right side, like he is waiting for them.  “Do not be alarmed,” the angel says.  “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has risen; he is not here.  See the place where they laid him” (Mark 16:6).  It is the first Easter sermon.  And the women are the first to hear it.  They are not to keep it bottled up, this news, as though it is a secret to themselves.  Go, tell His disciples.  And especially Peter.  He’ll meet you in Galilee.  You’ll see Him for yourselves!

            And they flee in fear.  Trembling and astonishment.  Because the night is over.  Everything has changed.  Jesus took hold of the night by its ears and leapt with it into the abyss.  It is the death of the darkness forever.  But, for Jesus... He was just passing through.  Through the night.  Through death.  And now, He has come up, and out! 

            In this moment, all the women have is the preaching of it, still reverberating in their ears, and in their hearts.  But the angel promised that soon, they would see Him.

            And that is us, tonight.  This is the night when we hear the preaching.  The Good News that Christ Jesus is risen from the dead.  Not the sense or sight of it.  Just a sermon.  Reverberating in our ears, and in our hearts.  But also, a Promise.  We will see Him soon.  And, indeed, we will.  The Risen One is coming.  This is the night, but soon, the Day.  It is, with us, as with all the saints of old.  We’re passing through.  Then up, and out.  With Jesus.  With our Lord.  It is the grand old story.  It is our story.  And here is the climax, the earthshaking culmination of all that came before... the sum and substance of our eternal future: Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  Up and out, and into resurrection life.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.