✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Psalm 118,15-17.22-24; Luke 24,6.34 2517
Ostersonntag 034
Aaron, high priest, brother of Moses
16. April 2017
1. O Christ Jesus, This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever! Amen. (Gradual).
2. Hallelujah! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah! Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: „The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!“ I will not die, but I will live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Stone that the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
3. Perhaps the oldest Christian confession is: »Christ is risen!«, and another Early Christian confession based on it is: »Hallelujah! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!« This confession is the confession of Easter, the Four Gospels and the Epistles.
4. The Psalmist beautifully typifies our Easter confession 1000 years before the actual event. »Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous.« Easter is a Church feast of salvation and righteousness. The somber moods of Maundy Thursday and Karfreitag yield to the anticipation of the Holy Saturday vigil and the joyous songs of praise we gladly sing this day. The Gospel according to Mark tells us that the women left Christ’s empty tomb trembling and astonished, but it did not take them long, lead by Mary Magdalene, to proclaim to the apostles what they had seen and heard: »His tomb is empty; Jesus is risen!« But what does this mean? A: Paul began his Epistle to the Romans, writing: »Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ« (Romans 1,1-6). St. Paul tells us that grace and faith are received through Jesus’ resurrection. Paul then tells us that faith reveals that God declares us righteous. »The righteous shall live by faith« (Romans 1,17).
5. »The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!« The right side is considered to be a position of power, favor and authority. Remember how James and John asked to be seated at Jesus’ right and left in His glory. They wanted to be chief among the apostles as the first and second in command under Jesus’ reign. We confess in the Nicene Creed that Jesus ascended and now is seated at the right hand of His Father. What Jesus says is the same as what His Father says; such is the authority to be at the right hand of someone. And with this great authority is the power that Jesus Himself exercised when He rose from the dead. Jesus tells John in a vision that the authority of His resurrection is »Fear not, I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades« (Revelation 1,17-18).
6. Thus the Introit: »I will not die, but I will live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.« Jesus has authority over Death and Hades. Those two are mankind’s oldest and indefatigable foes. We cannot cheat death forever, and many fear they will be separated from God after they have died. Jesus comforts us by saying: Don’t be afraid; do not fear Death and Hades. I have died. I have been to hades. I returned. I am the Living One. You will live, too. You will live forever in My Father’s glorious presence. You see, this is what makes the gospel so extraordinary: We had severed our fellowship with God through our sin; we cast our lot to dwell apart from Him. Other religions then say: you must earn your way back to God. You must merit your own righteousness by being a good person and doing what God commands. Jesus entered our world and turned religion on its head. You do not need to do anything to merit yourself into My good graces; I will do something for you and in doing so declare you righteous. I will become your vicarious sacrifice; I will take your place under the law and suffer your punishment on the cross as payment for your sins; I will die and even travel to hades where I will proclaim My gospel and release all bonging to see My Father. I will return from hades, rise from the dead and ascend into heaven where I will now prepare your place in My eternal presence.
7. »The Stone that the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone.« Many in Jesus’ day rejected Him and His gospel; many today reject Him too. But the rejected Stone is the Cornerstone of salvation, and the cornerstone of our Christian faith is: Christ was raised on the third day; His tomb is empty (1. Corinthians 1,4; Mark 16,6). Easter Sunday is the cornerstone of our faith. Christ has been raised, and on the last day He will raise all the dead (1. Corinthians 15,14). »This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.«
8. The Four Gospels give us a complete picture of the events that first Easter morning. Everyone believes Jesus is dead. The women find the tomb empty. They are astonished at this news. They tell the disciples who don’t believe Jesus has risen. Jesus starts appearing to the women and the disciples and unbelief yields to faith: Jesus has surely risen from the dead!
9. Easter »is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.« Let us continue the proclamation of the women, and tell others that Jesus is risen, sin has been forgiven and salvation has been secured. Jesus is the Greater Jonah (Matthew 12,40); Jesus is the Greater Temple (John 2,19).
10. Our faith is not in vain. Jesus’ tomb is empty. Christ is risen. Our sins are forgiven. The Gospel according to Mark is so compelling and powerful to us because in Mark 16 the women did not see the risen Jesus. The only evidence they have for His resurrection is that the tomb is empty and the angel (a young man) proclaims to them that Jesus is risen. Like those dear women, we are seated here this morning hearing that Jesus is risen. We have no tangible evidence before us save the 1984-year old empty tomb, the testimony of the women and the proclamation from the Gospels. The pastor preaches it. And like the women, you hear the gospel message and believe that Jesus is risen. Christianity grew from the words of three Jewish women: The tomb is empty; Jesus is risen. May that gospel console you and strengthen your faith. The risen Christ and His empty tomb proclaim that Jesus has triumphed over death. Sin and the devil have also been conquered. Hell hath no fury for those who are in Christ Jesus. Believe it, and share the gospel. Amen.
13. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou risen Savior, You hold the keys of Death and Hades so that we may fear death no more nor tremble at the thought of hades for You have redeemed us from both and given us eternal life in heaven. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Soli Deo Gloria
✠
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
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