You already know how this sermon ends. That’s true for the sermon specifically. This is now my eighth Easter preaching at Martin Luther and if you have been here before you might have noticed that I end every single Easter sermon the same way, with the Easter cry, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”
But more importantly, you know that every Easter sermon should the same way, with that same great, joyful message. It’s the same message that is heard every year, the same story that is told again and again. And yet it never gets tired. It never grows old. What a joy it is to know how it ends!
For the women who went to the tomb early that morning the day did not start so joyfully. Instead it started with sadness and with questions. These women had been there, near Jesus, while he hung on the cross bleeding and dying. What a horrible thing it must have been to see! To watch someone die is, all by itself, something sad and perhaps traumatizing. To watch someone be brutally executed is all the more shocking. And when that person is someone who is innocent, someone who is loved—for Jesus’ mother Mary, her own son—can you even imagine the grief she must have felt?
Well, maybe in a way you can. Because even though you weren’t there at Calvary to watch Jesus die, the real grief of Good Friday is not the grief of a mother watching her son die an innocent death. It’s the grief of watching the Holy Son of God die because of our sins and because of his love for us. And that grief over sin that deserves death is something you and I feel every bit as much as those faithful women. “Would you have stayed by him at the cross?,” someone might ask. I don’t know. Would I have stood with those women and with John? Or would I have run away like the other disciples? I can’t say because I wasn’t there. But the more important question is, “Do you see that cross and grieve over your sin?
It is true though that the women at that time didn’t seem to know how it ends. Our attitude on Good Friday isn’t dominated by horror or despair, but more by longing and hope, because we know that the end is still to come. It would appear that to them though, it seemed like it was all over. They weren’t really thinking ahead. In fact, they didn’t even think ahead to how they would get into the tomb. Mark tells us
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could go and anoint Jesus. Very early on the first day of the week, at sunrise, they went to the tomb. They were saying to each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb for us?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.
The only reason that these women were going to the tomb at all was because of how hastily Jesus had been buried after he was taken down from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, two Pharisees who believed in Jesus, had gone to Pontius Pilate to ask for his body. Pilate, against the usual norms, had granted it to them, and Joseph had donated to Jesus a tomb that he had newly carved for himself and his family. A new tomb just outside of Jerusalem would have been a very expensive gift. But they didn’t have much time. They needed to have him down from the cross and buried before the end of the day, and so they rushed to get him there and wrapped him quickly with the linen strips and spices that they had.
The women wanted to take the time to do it right, and that’s why they headed to the tomb on the morning of the third day, when the Sabbath was over. And because all their thoughts were focused backwards and not forwards, they hadn’t thought about how they would open the tomb or who would do it for them, at least not until they were already on the way.
But when they got there, what a surprise it was to see that the tomb was already open. Archaeologists say that those tomb doors could weigh as much as one to two tons. It didn’t roll by itself. It wasn’t that someone had bumped into it.
But of course you know some things that those women didn’t know. They didn’t know about the guard that had been standing at the tomb since that night, who had all fainted and fled in terror before the women arrived. They didn’t know about the angel who had easily rolled that very large stone away to show that the tomb was already empty. They didn’t know the message that was waiting for them when they arrived at the tomb’s open door and looked inside.
Mark says
As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. He said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”
They went out and hurried away from the tomb, trembling and perplexed. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
It might seem a little strange that they were alarmed and afraid, trembling and perplexed. Why, at such good news as “He has risen!”? But it’s really not that strange at all, because by nature all we know is the end that is death. Death for us is like that thick curtain that hung in the temple, which no one could see through. We live our whole lives in this world up to that. And if we’re living our lives toward death then we’ll act accordingly.
What does that mean? It might mean different things for different people. Some will try to put the end out of their minds entirely. They’ll live for the here and now, not thinking about tomorrow at all or what lay on the road ahead, giving no thought to the heavy stone tomb doors that they’re powerless to move. Others might spend all their time worrying and fretting, “Who will roll the stone away for us?” Their only thought is how to prolong this life as much as possible because when this life ends, well, that’s the end!
But by the grace of God, you know how this sermon ends. Jesus was dead. There was no doubt about it. It was a public death and a terrible death and it wasn’t for the sake of his guilt but it was for ours. But that terrible, bloody cross is not the end. The tomb is empty because he lives, just as he said. He has risen, just as he promised.
Our natural selves must hear these words with fear and trembling because it means that death is not the end. For the old Adam in us that is not a comforting thought. Why did the Jews yell, “Let his blood be on us and on our children?” They weren’t thinking ahead to their end. They weren’t concerned about any judgment for their crime. What about you, what sins have you hidden, hoping to keep them safe and secret right up until they go with you into your grave?
But even the grave cannot overcome Jesus. He was dead. But now he has risen. Death is not the end. To those who are enemies of God, to my own sinful heart, that is frightful news. But the message of that angel was not that we should cower in terror before the God who dwells behind the curtain and waits beyond our death. That is not why Jesus died and rose again. “Do not be alarmed!” the angel said. And why else could that be other than that he has risen for you? The curtain in the temple was torn. The stone door of the tomb was rolled aside. He lives, and not in a return to this earthly life, but glorified. The life he lives is true life, eternal life, heavenly life.
You might think that our Gospel ends in a strange place. It stops abruptly, before the end. The angel said, “Jesus has risen, just as he said.” The women hurried away afraid.
But there’s actually a beautiful reason for stopping here. Because now we can ask you, “Do you know how it ends?” And how do you know? You run back to Scripture. You run back to those words of Jesus. “Just as he told you.” “Didn’t you know? It had to be this way,” Jesus told his disciples. Yes, you do know. You know because Jesus has taught you. He taught you that he came into this world for your sake. He taught you that his perfect life and innocent death were for you and for your sins. He taught you that his resurrection is as the firstfruits from the dead, and that because he lives you too shall live.
You know how it ends, and not just for him but for you too. And that changes how you live, because you’re not just living for this life. You’re living for heaven. You’re living for the Savior who took your sins and paid their price and rose to live forever. You don’t need to be afraid. You don’t need to tremble. Where he is there you will be. That true life which is a heavenly life and a glorified life is the life you will live with him.
What joy is ours this day! Jesus lives. Our sin is paid for. Satan is defeated. Death has lost its sting. And you know how it ends.
Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed.
Alleluia!
Amen.