Today is no day for pretending

Sermon for the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord

1 Corinthians 5:6-8  +  Mark 16:1-8

Over the years, I’ve asked you on occasion, at the beginning of a sermon, “What are you doing here this morning?” to get you thinking about the purpose of our gathering and about the things you believe that brought you here. That question seems especially appropriate today, doesn’t it? What are you doing here? Didn’t you get the memo last night? Didn’t you get the emergency message yesterday on your phone or on the radio? “Severe threat alert: COVID-19 update: Gatherings not safe, even at church. STAY HOME!” No one promised you you couldn’t catch a virus if you came, for as unlikely as it may be. No one gave you a 100% guarantee of safety from the coronavirus—or from a heart attack, or from cancer, or a car accident, or certainly from death. On the contrary, the safety of Christians is being threatened in many parts of the country, not nearly as much from the virus as from the government’s reaction to it. Many of your neighbors and your fellow countrymen are not just laughing at you right now, as they usually do, for your silly, backward, “unscientific” beliefs. They’re condemning you. They’re threatening you. They’re even wishing death upon you. I’ve seen the comments made by some. “Anybody who goes to an Easter service is an idiot. I hope they get sick and die.”

The devil is trying so hard, isn’t he? He’s so desperate to cancel Easter. Oh, he knows he can’t actually erase what happened on Easter Sunday; he can’t undo his own defeat. But he is trying so hard to keep the resurrection of Christ from being proclaimed from pulpits, trying so hard to keep non-believers from hearing, trying so hard to keep Christians from gathering together and praying together and from receiving the body and blood of the risen Christ from the hand of His called and ordained ministers. And to a large extent, to a global extent, he’s been successful. But not entirely. Never entirely. And you and I are blessed by God beyond measure to be among the few who are gathered today, truly gathered, to celebrate, to “make famous” the Lord’s resurrection.

So let’s solidify this morning what it is that we believe and confess about today, because this is no day for pretending to believe, just as it’s no day for pretending that Jesus is dead.

We believe that Jesus rose from the dead, bodily, on the third day after the Passover on which He was crucified. And that belief is based on facts. You know, someone tried to convince me recently that Easter is really a pagan festival, a myth that Christians borrowed—stole really—from pagans. It’s really about hunting eggs and chasing bunnies, doncha know? But the truth of Easter predates all those pagan beliefs, because Easter is tied to the Passover itself, which is over 3,500 years old. The connection made by the Holy Spirit in Scripture between the Passover and Christ’s death and resurrection couldn’t be more obvious or more beautiful: The blood of the lamb covering the houses of the Israelites and keeping them safe from destruction.

Shortly after that first Passover, Moses gave the Israelites the rituals of the Day of Atonement, when more animal blood was to be spilled. But one ritual on that day stands out: the selection of two goats, one that would be slaughtered, but another—the scapegoat—that would bear the sins of the people and live. What a beautiful picture of the coming Christ, who would die for sins and bear them away, and yet would also live.

A thousand years before the Easter of Christ’s resurrection, David announced it in Psalm 22. And in Psalm 16 he says, “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in the grave, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” 700 years before Christ’s death and resurrection, Isaiah announced them both in chapter 53 of his book.

Then we come to the eyewitness reports. The faithful women who were there when Jesus died, who were there when He was buried, were also the first ones to see the empty tomb. They saw the stone rolled away from the entrance, and the angel told them why: He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. The women were the first to see the empty tomb, but they wouldn’t be the last. Most of Judea would eventually see it. Then the women saw Jesus on the same day. Then Peter saw Him. Then 2 more disciples on their way to Emmaus. Then 9 more of the apostles saw Him. Soon Thomas saw Him. Then more than 500 others. Then Stephen the martyr. Then the Apostle Paul. The written testimony of the apostles has survived now for nearly 2,000 years. And do we think the apostles really believed what they wrote and what they preached? Well, almost all of them sealed their eyewitness testimony with their own blood, willing to die because they had seen their Savior’s victory over death with their own eyes, making them confident that He would be there to raise them from the dead, too.

Those are facts, rooted in history. For all these reasons, Christians have believed Christ’s resurrection for nearly 2,000 years. So this is certainly no time for us to start pretending that He’s dead.

But what would be just as bad as that, or maybe even worse, is to pretend to believe that Christ rose from the dead, or to believe that it doesn’t really have any impact on your earthly life. Oh, but it does. It impacts everything, if you actually believe it. Who you are, what you say, what you do, what else you believe, how you see the world, how you face disease and death, and what happens to you when you die. It all flows from what you believe about Christ’s resurrection, so today is no day for pretending to believe.

What was the purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection?

Why did He die? We believe that Jesus was delivered to death for our sins, as Paul writes in Romans 4. That He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him; and by his wounds we are healed. We believe that God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We believe that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”).

Why did He rise again? We believe that He rose because He said He would, and He never lies. He rose because He was innocent. He rose because He is God. He rose because death no longer has dominion over Him. He rose because He had conquered the devil. He rose because His Father was pleased with Him and His sacrifice. He rose for our justification, that is, so that He might stand as our Advocate before the Father, as our Intercessor at God’s right hand, as the one Mediator between God and men, so that God might have a valid basis for justifying and forgiving all who appeal in faith to that Mediator.

What’s more, He rose so that He could continue to give gifts to men, His own ambassadors, ministers to administer His Word and Sacraments, so that you might be reconciled to God. He rose so that where two or three are gathered together in His name, He could be there in the midst of them. He rose so that He could keep teaching you through His Word. He rose so that He could send His Gospel to you, so that He could baptize you through His ministers, feed you through His ministers, give you His body and blood through His ministers’ hands.

What’s more, He rose so that He could hear your prayers and reign over this whole world as King, so that every knee should bow at the mention of His name, until he comes again in glory for the resurrection of all flesh, for judgment against those who deny Him, and for ushering His believers into everlasting life.

That’s what Scripture says. That’s what we confess. That’s what we believe. And if we believe it, let’s live accordingly. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. So live as those who have peace with God. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So live as those who are no longer condemned. By God’s will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So live as those who have been sanctified—made holy—by the blood of Christ. God raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. So live as those who believe that all things—all things—have been placed under Christ’s feet. Fear? Despair? Guilt? Cowardice? There’s no need for any of it, because Jesus lives. And we believe that He lives, for us.

No, we are not here today pretending that God is real, pretending that He hears and helps, pretending that Jesus conquered sin and death and the devil for us. Today is no day for pretending. It’s a day for believing. It’s a day for confessing. And it’s a day for rejoicing. Amen.