✠ Let no one mourn their transgressions, ✠
1. Thessalonians 4,13-14 2118
Osternacht 033
Joseph, Patriarch
Amos, Prophet, 838-759 bc
31. März 2018
1. »We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.« We all grieve death. Death is the deadly sting that affects fallen man. The grave follows death and the separation is now physically complete. All we have left of our loved ones is a grave marker, a tombstone, a crypt or an urn. Death is brutal: earth to earth and ashes to ashes.
2. So it was for those who loved Jesus. They removed His corpse from the cross, quickly wrapped Him in a burial shroud, hastily buried him in a nearby tomb and covered His face and head with a veil. They then left to celebrate the Sabbath rest and mourn the loss of their Messiah and friend. Hades welcomed to the souls of those who died, and it welcomed Jesus too.
3. „Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept since the world began. God has died in the flesh and Hades trembles with fear“ (Bishop Melito of Sardis ¶ 1).
4. Saint Paul tells us: »For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.« Paul says death is merely a sleep; when you sleep you wake up again. So too in Christ, all who fall asleep in death will be woken up by Christ. He had descended into Hades to search for those who had fallen asleep before Him. Christ visited those dwelling in darkness and in the shadow of Death. He went to free from sorrow those captive in Hades, bringing forth first Adam and Eve, He who is both the Second Adam and the Son of Eve. He took them by the hand and raised them up, saying: „Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, for I, the Christ, give you light« [Isaiah 60,1-3] (Bishop Melito ¶ 2) .Yes, the Lord descended into the regions beneath the earth, announcing there the gospel of His advent and of the forgiveness of sins conferred upon those who believe in Him (Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book 5, Chapter 31, ¶ 2).
5. Behold, the cry is fast approaching with the rising Sunday dawn: Rejoice, for the Sleeper has a awakened! Do not fear, for He has risen just as He told you He would! Christ has risen and He brings with him a train of captives set free from sin, Death, Hades and the Devil. The Apostle Paul Paul proclaims: »All who are in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has arrived« (2. Corinthians 5,17-18). In Christ we are a new creation. The old has died on the cross with Christ, and the new arises with Him on Easter. Darkness has fallen on Good Friday, but the light of Easter dawn is about to rise above the horizon.
6. For our sake Christ took on human flesh, suffered, was crucified, died and was buried; He descended into Hades. All this He did to ransom us back to God the Father. Christ bore His cross and shed His blood to save the world from its sinfulness.
7. The Serpent lead Adam out of the earthly paradise of the Garden of Eden, but Christ our Savior leads us into the heavenly Paradise to dwell with Him for all eternity. Let us leave this place, and with her eyes on Jesus follow Him from the grave to His empty tomb and the bright light of His resurrection. Amen.
8. We pray: O Almighty, Ever-living God, whose Only-begotten Son descended to the realm of the dead, and rose from there to glory, grant that Your faithful people, who were buried with Him in Holy Baptism, may, by His resurrection, obtain eternal life (Holy Saturday Collect). Amen.
for pardon has dawned from the grave.
✠
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