Sermon - Easter Day 2024

Women at the Empty Tomb, Fra Angelico, 1439

Do not be Alarmed for He has Risen

1. Christians feel very defeated these days

2. The Crucified One is risen

3. Instead of being defeated, we Christians are in fact victorious

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

Oh rejoice ye Christians loudly! Christ has risen from the dead! Let the bells ring and the organ pipes sing with jubilation! Let our voices be raised with loud shouts of Hallelujah! This is the day for celebration and jubilation, since today is the heart of Christianity, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! This is the highest feast and holiday, outshining all the others. This feast is so great it’s the basis for why we gather every Sunday, since every Sunday we are celebrating the resurrection. Every Sunday is, in a sense, Easter! The whole year therefore is crowned with the joy of Easter.

Yet the typical mindset of a Christian these days is very similar to the mindset prevalent among the women who first reached the tomb. “And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed… 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.” Yet the angel said to them: “Do not be alarmed… He has risen.” 

The women did not remain in their stupor, they soon thereafter recovered their senses and announced this wonderful news to Jesus’ apostles. But it wasn’t just the women whose first response was fear, since before Jesus appeared to the apostles they were cowering in a house behind locked doors. They felt defeated, or at least it appeared that way.

Afterall, the women had gone to the market the evening before to purchase spices so that they might awaken very early on Sunday to go to the tomb and anoint the body of Jesus, preparing Him for burial. They didn’t have funeral directors in those days, the family and friends were responsible for taking care of the body after death. Although the women went with haste to the tomb, it was a somber task, they only hurried because His body would’ve started to decay by this point and they didn’t want it to get too far gone before performing this final act of love.

Imagine, if you will, that Jesus had not been raised from the dead. Upon opening the tomb they would’ve been greeted by the aroma and sight of death. The apostles would’ve remained in their fear. This life would be one of pointlessness for all mankind, since it would end in hell for all without any hope. There would be no Christian church, no Christian civilization, no hospitals, no saints, no missionaries, no Christian homes, no Christian death-beds. The whole world would be a tomb, sealed by the stone in impenetrable gloom.

But praise be to God that the Father has risen the Son from the tomb, so that it all turned out wondrously! Instead of the sight of death, the women saw an angel. The tomb wasn’t empty, for in the place where Jesus’ body had been laid, the linen wrappings were left in their place just as they had been wound around the body of Jesus, only now the body of Jesus was gone and so the wrappings had collapsed and were lying flat!

The women and the apostles did not remain in their fear, instead they traveled throughout the world to proclaim the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. There is now a Christian church, Christian civilization, hospitals, saints, missionaries, Christian homes, and Christian death-beds. This world is no hopeless tomb, since Christ has made death a portal that leads to life immortal. Gone is the gloom and despair, for we have Christian hope and joy in the resurrection! Our end isn’t hell, instead it is paradise.

But in spite of that glorious truth of Christ’s resurrection, so many Christians live as though Christ had not been raised from the dead. Many Christians live as though they’re defeated, with little hope for the future. We’re afraid of what others might think about us, we’re scared our churches are going to close, we’re nervous to express our faith in front of others, we’re worried we might say or do the wrong thing and be perceived as weird or judgmental. Like the women and the apostles we have been seized by fear.

Yet the angel announces to you: Do not be alarmed for He has risen! You know what this means for you, don’t you! The Crucified One, He who bore your sins on the cross, who was sacrificed in your place, has been risen from the grave. That means that His sacrifice was accepted, the price He paid for you is enough, and therefore you are saved from death. “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Death has no power over you because you are immortal now. You’re not just gonna live for about a hundred years, or probably less, and then turn to worm food; you’re immortal, and you will live forever, because Jesus rose from the dead.

You get it, don’t you, because this changes everything! “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Christians are never defeated! Christians never lose! Christians are victorious! Sure, life’s not easy, I get it, it wasn’t easy for Jesus either and He’s God. But you’re not defeated. You don’t lose. You’re victorious because Jesus rose.

Job gets it! I love the book of Job. He loses every worldly pleasure, his faith does waver a bit, but still the man isn’t defeated. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And 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.” Job is victorious! For all he knows the rest of his life is going to entail nothing but misery, but since he’s immortal and has victory through the risen Redeemer, he has hope in the future. Job is victorious in the midst of tragedy because his Redeemer lives.

You understand that, don’t you. This is why you come to church on Sunday and celebrate Easter. Jesus rose, and He’s not in the grave, but He is here. Jesus’ glorified body didn’t wait for the stone to be removed from the tomb, the stone was rolled away for our sake not for His. His risen body walked right through the stone, just like it walked through the locked door to get to His disciples. He doesn’t have a ghost body, He has a real body, flesh and blood, but it’s a risen, victorious, glorified body. In the same way that He walked through and out of a stone tomb, Jesus is also here in His real body in the Sacrament. Jesus lives and death cannot hold Him! Jesus lives and death cannot hold you either!

Dear Christians, do not be alarmed for He has risen. When anxious thoughts overtake you, or fears overwhelm you, or death looms near, listen to the angel’s voice and remember that Jesus has risen. He is victorious, and so are you. Death cannot stop you. Your enemies are powerless. You are immortal. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!