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Christ is risen! Hallelujah. Grace, mercy, and peace be upon you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this triumphant and glorious day, the text comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. Whether it has been a long time or a very short time that you’ve been confessing these words Sunday in and Sunday out, I gotta ask you this question. When you say, “and I look for the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come,” do you believe it? That is what Easter is about. The resurrection of the dead. The body rising. Not a spiritual resurrection. Not some ethereal concept. But a body that can feel; eyes that can see; a mouth that can speak; ears that can hear; a nose that can smell; flesh that can feel. That kind of a body shall you have in heaven, for that was the kind of body that God raised from the dead on this glorious day.
But when the women went to the tomb, they didn’t find a body. They did find a stone rolled away. And being good Lutheran girls, they asked themselves this question: what does this mean? Because they still didn’t know by faith what it did mean. They did not say a word, and in their fear, angels found them, the text says. And the angel asked this question of them: “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? For the living one is not dead, but alive.” And he’s not dead in spirit. He is dead. He was dead in both body and spirit. And now he lives in flesh and blood, body and spirit.
And they add the great statement that we’ve been greeting one another: “He is not here. He is risen.” Now they hadn’t learned yet, “He is risen indeed, hallelujah.” That would come later in their response. But just as the linen cloths were the sign to the shepherds, “Go into the city of Bethlehem, and you shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying on a stone manger.” So now, on this stone pavement inside of a stone tomb, did they see linen cloths as a sign to them? For those linen cloths are not cloths that you wear, but cloths that you are buried in, and our risen Lord has no need for burial cloths. He is risen.
Finally, it is the angel’s words to the women that pulls the faith and solidifies it like concrete when they say, “Remember? Remember how he told you the Son of Man must be rejected, crucified, and then raised on the third day?” I kind of wonder if they said “raised on the third day” and winked at him, kind of like, “get it?” Because they were a little slow. But they were not as slow as their brothers in Christ, for they believed at that moment. They believed in this bodily resurrection because the angels had given them the correct interpretation of this event.
Now there are all kinds of people all over the world today celebrating an event with the wrong understanding of what the resurrection really is and what Easter really is. The angels interpret correctly. Remember it was as he told you. The Son of Man must be rejected, must be killed, and must be raised again on the third day. Raised bodily again on the third day. Because that is the kernel of the Christian faith. And it goes back to the promises and the words of God.
They went there seeing nothing, and when they came away from that tomb they saw everything by faith. Now that empty tomb has meaning. Now they can interpret life forward from that event because they remembered his words. Do you remember his words? When you see that which we inherited from the first Adam come into your life, when lies before you a child or a grandchild, what do you believe about the bodily resurrection? When you see the more typical parent or grandparent, what do you believe regarding the bodily resurrection?
Do you look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come? He is not here. He is risen. Paul talked about it. Death came by that Adam, the first Adam. The resurrection came by the second Adam, Christ Jesus our Lord. It was on this day, the first day of the week, when God created the… He brought light out of darkness. And on this first day of the week, does he bring light of life out of the darkness of death.
Christ is called the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Meaning, if he’s the first fruit, then that means you and I will be the second, the third, and fourth, and so forth. In a body. Not in a disembodied spirit, but in a body. Around the world, Christians have been proclaiming and have been confessing this truth. In their services, “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”
I wonder how that played in Belgium today, how that played in Turkey today, and how that played in East Africa, in the Middle East. And the question really that the angels asked Mary and the women is the same question he asks you: Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why? The dead is not how Christ raised himself. He is alive. When we say, “and I look for the resurrection of the dead,” we’re not just talking about the resurrection of the dead who are believers. For you see, unbelievers will also have a corporal body. The problem is, their body will be tormented for eternity. Their body will suffer for eternity. Their body will be without God for eternity, but not you. You look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
God will raise our lowly bodies to be like unto his glorious body by the power that enables him to subdue everything under his feet, for he is the living one, not the dead one. And the eyes that you know in your lover’s eyes you will see again. And the feel of the hair—yes, those of us who are thin will have hair again. And the feel of our hair will be felt by our bride and our groom. And the feel of flesh in our arms shall be felt again of our loved ones. Amen. And even if those loved ones were so small they barely fit in my hand, they shall be fully developed and fully formed. And even if those loved ones were so wracked with cancer and or crippling diseases, they shall stand erect and straight.
Christ’s bodily resurrection means that for you and for all who believe: He is not here. He is risen. Now before we think that it is an amazing thing to believe such a thing, God knows you doubt it. God knows I doubt it at times when we see what we see and we hear what we hear. When those women go back to the upper room where they find the eleven apostles with the doors locked for fear of the Jews and they tell them exactly what the angels told them, did you hear what the text said? They thought it was some lame idea, some far-fetched notion. They didn’t believe. It must have broke their hearts, those women. They tell the men who are the leaders of the church, and the men don’t believe. So don’t give Thomas a hard time when we talk about Thomas. All of the eleven had that problem, not just Thomas.
And what happened was the disciples that were on the road to Emmaus later on today, if you read the text, it’s when they come back and tell the eleven that finally the eleven sort of get it, but they still don’t get it because where does Jesus find them next week? In the upper room with the doors locked for fear of the Jews. So we’re among good people here, you and me. Those eleven are like us who fear the uncertainties and question and wonder.
Listen to the angel’s statement: “Remember what he has told you.” You’ve been hearing this message since you were little boys or little girls. You’ve been saying “Christ is risen” and indeed “hallelujah” since you were little boys and little girls as well. And you will close your eyes in this faith because you look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
There is a beautiful hymn that we have sung many times, and it talks about this confidence in our death. Listen:
“Lord, let at last thine angels come to Abraham’s bosom. Bear me home that I may die unfearing and in its narrow chamber keep my body safe in peaceful sleep until thy reappearing. And then… From death, awaken me that these mine eyes with joy may see, O Son of God, thy glorious face. My Savior and my fount of grace, Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend. And I will praise thee with a voice that makes loud noises without end.”
Christ is risen! Hallelujah indeed. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
