Because He Lives, So Do You! – Easter Sunday

Because He Lives, So Do You

Easter Sunday T Matthew 28:1-10, Col 3:1-4

INI

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the most unique event in all of human history. The man who claimed to be the Jewish Messiah, who healed the blind, sick, and lame, who even raised the dead Himself, who fed thousands fro m 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, who taught thousands about the will of His heavenly Father, who claimed that His body is the Temple we should worship at, who even claimed to be God – everything this man said or did was vindicated by His heavenly Father. By His resurrection, He was proven to be right.

            For the Heavenly Father raised His Son from the dead on that Easter morning when the women went to visit the tomb. Guards were all around the tomb – so there’s no way the disciples could steal the body, which the Jews at the time said anyway. But the guards who were there were so stunned by what they saw, the text says they became like dead men! What caused such great alarm? An angel of the Lord descended upon them. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as bright as light! When the angel came, he caused an earthquake to happen, rolling the stone away.

            When the women got to the tomb, they saw the stone rolled away and the angel sitting on it. But the stone was rolled away not so that Jesus could go out – but so that the women could go in and see! The angels invited them in – “Come and see the place where He lay.” Going in, they found an empty tomb! Jesus’ body wasn’t there! He had risen! Not just spiritually – but a REAL, PHYSICAL, BODILY RESURRECTION!!

            The resurrection is certainly a unique event – especially when compared to other world religions. And in that way, the core of the Christian faith is subject to be proven wrong. Paul makes that case in 1 Corinthians 15:17 – he says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

No other religions rest on a claim like the resurrection. Hinduism is based in subjective spiritual truths, and not on any verifiable story. In Buddhism, their Buddha lived, but he died. And no one can prove if he made it to their version of salvation, called Nirvana. Islam has a lot of history – but whether or not Muhammed was a true prophet or not is something just to be taken by faith, with no real proof or evidence or prophecy to verify his claims.

But Christianity is different. It can be proved wrong – all it takes is a body. The Jewish leaders could’ve silenced any rumors about a resurrection by providing Jesus’ body.  But the guards had to be bought off to perpetuate a lie because no body could be provided.

And that’s the difference between Christianity and the rest of the world’s religions. All religious leaders entered death – but only one came out of it. It was Jesus of Nazareth. Who is the only-begotten Son of God. His resurrection wasn’t secret. After Jesus rose, He showed Himself to 500 of His followers. And the proclamation of this historical truth continues on to this day – changing the lives of billions.

If you came to the Maundy Thursday service, we saw from Scripture in the Old Testament how it wasn’t enough that the blood of the Passover Lamb was shed, it had to be applied to YOU personally. The blood of the Lamb had to be applied to you personally, if you wished to be passed over by the angel of death. Likewise, in Holy Communion – it’s not enough simply that Jesus blood was shed on the cross – this blood needed to be applied to YOU! Personally! And through eating His body and drinking His blood given in the Lord’s Supper, you are washed clean of all your sin.

It’s a very same thing with the resurrection of Jesus. It’s one thing to say that Jesus rose from the dead. It’s quite another to have the benefits of that resurrection be applied to you! There’s a Christian saying that applies here: ‘Those who are born once die twice. Those who are born twice, die once.” Those who are born once – only biologically – will die twice – once in the body, and once eternally. But those who are born twice – born physically and then born again in Christ through Baptism and faith in that baptism – will only die once. That is, they die in Christ. And the physical death they experience isn’t lasting – for they will be raised again to everlasting life. So, the victory over sin, death, and the devil that came on Easter becomes YOURS in Holy Baptism!

That’s Paul’s point in the epistle reading. You’ve died! Thus, you have a new mind and new desires! So, set your mind on things above, and not on the things of the earth – because YOU have died. And your life is hidden in Christ. Paul says the same thing a bit differently in Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ, yet I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

And how does the Lord grant us such assurance? In the previous chapter Colossians in 2:12, Paul writes “having been buried with Him (that is, Jesus) in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”

Through baptism, Easter Sunday isn’t just one day out of the year. It’s not a singular holiday that comes around this time of year usually in the beginning of April. It’s a DAILY reality in which we live for the rest of our lives. Each day, we remember we’re baptized – maybe even make the sign of the cross on our forehead and heart – and because of that, we don’t follow the whims of a sinful world. We don’t follow our own hearts. We don’t follow our desires and what makes for ‘a happy life.’

For the only lasting happiness and joy is lived and experienced in the daily, baptismal, resurrected life we live each and every day. So, set not your minds on earthly things – like planning your life around money, wealth, or leisure. Don’t plan your life according to your desires. Live the baptized life. Seek out God’s will as revealed in Holy Scriptures. Discipline your bodily desires to seek out God’s will, and live in the resurrection. Because you’ve died. But even now, you live.

 This is the life Christ has freed you to live. So, don’t yoke yourself back to slavery of your sins. Repent, and live in the freedom of the Gospel.

And the Gospel promise is this – since Christ is risen, your death isn’t a curse of punishment. It’s become a portal….  There are too many good Easter hymns to sing, so you’ll have to wait to sing it next Sunday, but our opening hymn next week describes death as a portal in the fifth stanza – “Jesus lives! And now is death but the gate of life immortal; this shall calm my trembling breath when I pass its gloomy portal. Faith shall cry, as fails each sense: Jesus is my confidence!” Since death is a portal, and no longer a place of defeat – our bodies lay resting in our graves until that day when Christ raises us from our graves, having the assurance of bodily resurrection.

So, when you stand at the grave of a loved one, the curse of sin seems real and final. But since Christ has risen, and He lives – so all who have faith in Him have the promise of eternal, bodily life.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston