Sermon - Easter Day 2023 - Mark 16:1-8

The Resurrection, Caravaggio, 1619

The Resurrection

1. Jesus rose

2. We will rise

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Today is the holy day among us christians. Certainly other festivals matter too, like Christmas or the Ascension or Epiphany, but Easter is the big one.  Jesus rose “very early on the first day of the week.” That’s Sunday. In the earliest days of the church Christians gathered weekly on Sunday, the day Jesus rose from the dead, in order to celebrate the resurrection. Every Sunday was Easter, so to speak. Within a few decades the Christian church decided to have a particular festival once a year to celebrate the resurrection, coinciding with the date of Passover when Jesus was crucified, which changes yearly depending on the lunar cycle. I’ve heard some people say that Easter is a pagan holiday that Christians co-opted, but that’s simply not true.

The reason that today is the holy day among us christians is because today is about the resurrection. Jesus rose from the dead! The angel said to the women: “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.” Jesus had been crucified and died, He had been laid into this tomb, but now has risen! He who was dead is now alive!

Our Christian faith hinges upon Jesus’ resurrection. “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” 

Understand this, if Jesus had only died and not risen from the dead, then you would still die eternally. But because Jesus rose from the dead, that means that His sacrifice was sufficient to forgive your sins and spare you from the eternal punishment of sin. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we too shall rise from the dead through faith in Him. Thus, the celebration of Easter is that those who die in the faith shall rise from the dead and live eternally.

Let’s be clear: our hope is not just in our soul going to heaven. Our hope is in the resurrection on the last day, when Jesus shall return and raise our bodies from the dead. Jesus rose bodily from the grave. “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” Job’s hope is that “after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” The Christian hope is in the bodily resurrection!

The body matters to Jesus because Jesus’ body matters. What were the women going to the tomb to do on that Sunday morning? “They bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him.” Where? In a tomb hewn out of a rock for the purpose of holding Jesus’ body. Jesus bodily rose from the dead because the body matters, and He bodily ascended into heaven.

So worship in the church today is bodily. Here in God’s house we sit, stand, kneel, bow, make the sign of the cross. We entered in through baptism. We smell the Easter lilies. We share handshakes and hugs, laughter and tears. We sing with our voices. We taste and we eat the body and blood of Jesus. We see with our eyes the cross and each other. We hear with our ears the pastor and our collective voices. This all isn’t just spiritual but it’s physical and bodily. On the last day when Christ returns you shall be raised bodily and ascend to paradise and live with God forever in your resurrected body.

In fact, the resurrection of Jesus transcends your bodily existence to a higher level of living right now. Because of Jesus’ resurrection we don’t just live for today. But since we’re immortal through Jesus, we live for more than just temporary pleasures. That’s why you’re in church right now. Sure, maybe today you’re gonna have a big Easter feast and enjoy some good food and friendship, but through Jesus’ resurrection your life is more than that. Not just when you die, but right now and everyday, since in Jesus you are a new creation. The fruits of the resurrection are yours already.

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” Christ has defeated the grave, not just any grave, but your grave. The sting of death is sin. But God gives you the victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has won. Jesus is King. Death is defeated. Satan has been made your footstool. 

Through the resurrection Jesus is kind of like a plunderer or an arsonist. He has plundered us from the domain of darkness and burned down the devil's palace. Our minds are now captive to Christ. All of the fleeting pleasures of this life are revealed as the vanities which they truly are. We have a new perspective on life, suffering, and death through Jesus’ resurrection. What matters to us the most now is Christ’s victory over the grave and the imperishable life He’s given to us. 

When you look at your life now, Jesus’ resurrection cuts through all of the clutter, and you can see what ultimately matters, namely: your resurrection from your grave. The big money, the good jobs, the nice house or car, the vacations, the games, the toys and gadgets, popularity, leisure, all of it becomes insignificant in light of eternity. So may the resurrection of Christ plunder you from the deceit of riches, and instill in your heart a fervent faith which awaits your resurrection with ardent joy and hope. 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!