April 12, 2009
The Festival of the Resurrection

Mark 16:1-8
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back--it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. (ESV)

 Do you believe it? I mean, do you believe that Jesus Christ died in your place on the cross, was entombed, and then rose again bodily on Easter morning?

   If not, tell me, dear friend, what are you living for? What have you to calm and steady you when this life takes a bitter turn? Consider what you will face:

• Your loved ones will leave you as one by one they are carried off to the cemetery. And, as they are lowered in the grave, have you nothing else to say but to utter those plaintive words, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust?”
• Your sin and your guilt will find you out and burden your conscience; and what have you to lift away its oppressive weight?
• Death itself will approach in time and reach out for you with its grimy fingers and where will you then hide from its terror? What then? . . .

   Then will follow judgment and eternal suffering, and whom do you have to save you? Oh, dear friend, you cannot live this way! But you will die in exactly this way--unless you come to know him who shattered the death barrier on Easter and lives and reigns to all eternity as the King of Salvation!1

   My friends, this would have been my fate if it were not for the fact that, as a young adult, I began to read about the life of Jesus. At the time I thought the resurrection story was just a myth. But in my reading, I came across non-biblical sources of about the same time that also reported the resurrection of Jesus.2 This led to even more reading. I also read with interest the record of the four Gospels. In time, I came to discover what most honest skeptics have also discovered, namely, that the bodily resurrection of Christ is historically accurate. The historian Brooke Foss Westcott sums up the weight of the evidence in these brief, but powerful words:

Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ.3

   Indeed, the authenticity of the resurrection is irrefutable. But surprisingly, Christ’s little band of apostles and women, huddled together for fear in the upper room, were the first to disbelieve it.

   They knew well enough that Jesus was dead. And as we all know, dead people stay dead. His limp body was placed in a rock-hewn tomb and a heavy stone covered its opening. So that Christ's disciples couldn't come and steal the body by night, elaborate plans were made. Clay was put between in all the gaps between the heavy stone and the tomb itself. This made the tomb airtight. The clay itself was then stamped with the seal of Rome. A broken seal would, of course, indicate that the tomb had been tampered with. Moreover, a Roman guard unit was stationed in front of the tomb. Their job was to keep intruders away from the grave. Nobody had to remind them that it was a capital offense to abandon the watch. And so we see that the enemies of Christ had made all their preparations to be sure that nothing would happen to the tomb or to the body of Jesus.

   Unaware of all these safeguards, several despondent women, followers of Jesus, got up early on that first Easter morning. They had the unenviable task of going to the tomb to complete the job that was left half-done on Friday, namely, to finish anointing Jesus’ dead body with spices. Deep grief filled their hearts because death had come to their Master, to the One they thought could never die!

   One thing is certain. Their view of that Easter dawn was much different from ours today. Unlike us, they weren’t planning any Easter celebrations. They hadn't yet learned what we now know. But let's give them time. What drew the women to the tomb this morning was their desire to do the most they could do for the One who had reached in and touched their lives as no one had ever done before. And so they go. Their Sabbath-interrupted funeral procession marches onward to the tomb.

   And as they approached the tomb, one thought was uppermost in their minds. They kept saying to one another, “Who will roll the stone away?”4 Yes, who would roll the stone away? The stone covering the tomb was heavy and extremely large, too large for a handful of women to move. Then, suddenly, they caught their first glimpse of the tomb. What they saw was too good to be true. Somehow, in some way, the tombstone had been thrown aside. St. Matthew tells us that the earth quaked and that an angel of the Lord had rolled back the heavy stone.5 This was, was it not, the hand of God reaching down to present to the world the most remarkable event of human history, the empty tomb?

   So earthshaking an event was it that the Roman guardsmen fled for fear--even though they knew they would be executed for doing so.6 But when God moves in, watch these brave soldiers scurry to find safety. Here we see the power of God overwhelming the powers of this world.

   As the women came closer to the tomb, the scene was confusing. Yes, the stone was out of the way and the guard unit had fled. But where was the Lord’s body? Was it still in the tomb or did some thief steal it? They came closer. As they entered in, they saw a man--no, an angel in human form. Fear gripped them! But the angel silenced their fears. He had the unique honor of announcing what had happened. To the women, he said,

Be not afraid. You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, for he has risen just as he said! Come and see the place where the Lord lay. Go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead.7

   Now, finally, the women knew. But it was almost too good to be true. But it was true! Their grief-stricken faces were now filled with joy and excitement.

   But the women and the apostles should have expected this. It wasn’t as if his resurrection had not been heralded in advance. It was foretold by the Old Testament prophets.8 Jesus himself had been very clear on the subject. On one of many similar occasions, Christ said plainly to his disciples,

Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up. (Matthew 20:18-19, NASB).

   And true to all that had been prophesied--and despite the best efforts of the Jewish and Roman leaders to ensure that Jesus’ dead body remained in the tomb--the crucified One was brought to life. That is, his soul was reunited with his body. In his glorified body, he simply (but emphatically) vacated his burial wrappings and the first thing he did was to descend into hell to proclaim his victory over Satan and the damned.9

   This done, he showed himself alive to Mary Magdalene alone, to the other women, to the two Emmaus disciples, to Peter alone, and to the remainder of the disciples (with the exception of Thomas)--all on this very first Easter day. What a miracle!

   Do you remember the words of the sermon hymn? In the third stanza, we sang,

God cannot ever lie,
His Word shall come to pass.
Though holy women once did cry,
Their sorrow cannot last.
For soon the Holy One,
Shall break the chains of death.
Arise, O Victor from the grave,
The Lord Our Righteousness!

   And arise he did! He is the Victor over sin, death, and Satan. Yes, the resurrection of Christ sends a powerful message. It says to science and philosophy, “Try to explain this event.” But they can’t. It says to history, “Try to blot out this event.” But it can’t. It says to skeptics, “Try to disprove this event.” But they can’t. It says to us, “Believe this event.” And we do, for God creates what he commands. Indeed, the Scriptures cry out, “Now has Christ been raised from the dead!”10 And Jesus is the one who comes to you and me with the greatest promise ever made, saying, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life.”11

   My friends, please consider what Jesus said would happen to him months before it actually did. He predicted his unjust trial at the hands of the Jewish hierarchy. He predicted that they would condemn him to death. He predicted that the Gentiles (the Romans) would carry out the execution. He predicted that he would be mocked, flogged, and crucified. And he predicted that he would rise from the dead on the third day.

   This is a staggering prophetic statement. For any man to know even one of these things about himself in advance is a miracle. To know that all eight of them would come to pass means that Jesus is who he says he is, namely, God in human flesh.

   Easter means that God, the Father has accepted Christ’s sacrificial death on Good Friday as full payment for all of our sins! It means that Good Friday is, indeed, good! And it also means that we who trust in Christ shall rise to everlasting life, for our Lord says, “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19).

   Yes, Christ, our Victor, has arisen!

   And so I say to you all, “He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

   In the name of Jesus, Amen.

 

 

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

 

Endnotes

 

1        Adapted from a sermon by A. W. Schelp, Pastor, Zion Lutheran Church, Corvallis, OR, on April 22, 1962.

2        See the works of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus. Consider also the testimony of Ignatius of Antioch (c. 50-115 AD)who said of Jesus, “He was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; He was truly crucified, and [truly] died, in the sight of beings in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth. He was also truly raised from the dead.” See http://www.piney.com/Ignatius.Trallians.html, Chapter IX. See also Clement of Rome (c. 100 AD) who also speaks of Christ’s resurrection. See Chapter 24 of his epistle at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1_Clement_(Hoole_translation).

3        As cited by Josh McDowell, Evidence that demands a Verdict: Historical Evidences for the Christian faith, (Campus Crusade for Christ, 1972), p. 216. See also http://www.awordfromtheword.org/what-if.htm.

4        See Mark 16:3. The Greek elegon is, here, taken to be an iterative imperfect.

5        See Matthew 28:2 reads, “And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it” (RSV).

6        In Matthew’s Gospel, we learn that the guardsmen made a deal with the chief priests. The Jewish hierarchy gave the soldiers a sufficient sum of money to say that Christ’s disciples had stolen his body. In return the chief priests would keep them from getting into trouble with Pilate. See Matthew 28:11-14.
It is, indeed, strange to find the chief priests and the Romans working with one another here. They are united in one thing, viz., their opposition to Christ. This account also shows that both the guardsmen and the leading Jews knew that Jesus’ tomb was empty! Their only purpose now is “damage control.” This point is often missed by skeptics.

7        See Mark 16:6; Luke 24:5; Matthew 28:6-7, passim.

8        See Psalm 16:8-11, Isaiah 53:10.

9        On Christ’s descent into hell, we read in 1 Peter 3:18-20, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey . . .” (ESV).

10        See 1 Corinthians 15:20.

11        See John 3:36a.

© Copyright 2009 by Redeemer Lutheran Church. All rights reserved.