Pious Lutheran

The Resurrection, Francesco Buoneri, 1619 Jesus Rose, Hence God is Real Why were the first witnesses of the resurrection afraid and astonished? Because God is real, and Jesus is God. Jesus rose, and therefore sin, death, and hell are real, but so is our rescue from those things. Let us then celebrate the resurrection without the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! How do you feel right now? Are you afraid? Has trembling and astonishment seized you? I’m guessing probably not. Today Easter has an ambiance of spring time happiness, with bright pastel colors and smiles galore! So the response of the women on the first Easter maybe strikes you as a bit bizarre: “ And 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. ” Why in the world would they be trembling and filled with fear? Shouldn’t they be jum...

Women at the Empty Tomb , Fra Angelico, 1439 Do not be Alarmed for He has Risen Christians feel very defeated these days The Crucified One is risen 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 t...

The Resurrection, Caravaggio,   1619 The Resurrection Jesus rose 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 resurre...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! “ When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” ” You would’ve thought that before buying and preparing spices for Jesus’ burial they would’ve first figured out who was going to roll away the 3,000 pound rock from the entrance of the tomb, but they didn’t. So here are these three ladies walking to the tomb wondering how they’re going to get it open. But upon their arrival they saw that the very large stone had already been rolled back! With an earthquake, an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled back the stone and sat on it and terrified the guards. It turns out the women didn’t really have to worry about rolling back the stone, nor for ...

  Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! “Where is Jesus?” Presumably this was a question racing through the women’s and Peter’s and John’s minds when they raced to the tomb that Easter morning, only to discover it empty. Mary, Mary, and Salome went to the tomb, not expecting to see Jesus alive, but dead. They had purchased burial spices, meant to have preserved the body of Jesus they assumed was decaying.  But upon reaching the tomb they discovered the stone rolled away and Jesus not there. Where was Jesus? Instead of Jesus they were greeted by a young man, a messenger, dressed in white telling them: “ 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. ”  When the women told the apostles that Jesus wasn’t in the tomb and that He’d risen, the apostles didn’t believe it. It was a story, a fable, a fairytale! Yet, Peter and John couldn’t help it, they ran to the tomb without st...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! “ And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “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. ” What a beautiful sight and a wonderful message! The women who went early that morning on which our Lord rose from the dead witnessed such a spectacular sight and heard the most precious news! Christ victoriously triumphed over death, through death, to bring us life. “ Death is swallowed up in victory! ” “ He has swallowed up death forever! ” Our death is swallowed up by Jesus’s death so that the sting of death would be lost forever!  Now all that remains for Christians is life. This fantastic news is well symbolized by the angel’s calming presence. Throughout the Old Testament, angels are beings of great and magnificent power, warriors that ...