Sorrow only lasts from Friday to Sunday

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Jubilate – Easter 3

1 Peter 2:11-20  +  John 16:16-23

We’ve been celebrating Easter now for several weeks. But as you know, the Church has actually been celebrating Easter every Sunday for nearly 2,000 years. We’ve never known a world without Easter. We’ve never lived in a time when Jesus, the Son of God, was dead. So it’s hard for us to imagine the depth of sorrow, of grief, of despair that Jesus’ disciples must have experienced between Good Friday and Jesus’ first appearance to them on Easter Sunday evening, hard to imagine a world in which God Himself was dead, even if it was only for two days.

What’s not hard to imagine is a world in which we can’t see Jesus, a world in which sorrow and grief abound, a world in which the world rejoices to see wickedness prosper and the Word of Christ silenced and Christians dragged back into the filth of sin and self-centeredness and unrighteousness and false belief. That’s the world we live in, the only world we know.

But Jesus taught His disciples one final lesson on the night before He died to prepare them for what was to come, a lesson that helps us, too, a timely lesson about sorrow and joy—that sorrow and grief will certainly come upon those who love Jesus in this world, because He won’t always be visible to us in this world. But that sorrow and grief last only a little while and will be followed by joy that lasts forever when we see Christ again. The sorrow only lasts from Friday to Sunday.

A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.

Of course, Jesus was talking, first, about the little while before His death—less than a day—and the little while until His resurrection appearance to His disciples two days later. “I go to the Father” is a reference to His ascension forty days after that. The events of the coming days were set in stone. They would happen, just as Jesus said they would.

The disciples were still confused on Thursday. They wanted to ask Jesus what He meant, but they were like students in a classroom who don’t understand the teacher’s words, and yet don’t want to look foolish by asking a question to which they should really already know the answer.

Jesus doesn’t give them the answer now. The events of that night and the next day had to play themselves out, and He couldn’t be too specific with them. What He could do was to teach them how to handle things from Friday to Sunday.

I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful. But your sorrow will be turned into joy. He says that their sorrow would be like that of a woman in childbirth—real, painful, seemingly unbearable. That’s what it will be like from Friday to Sunday, when Jesus is dead, buried, and out of sight. And yet, like a woman who finally gives birth to the child, there would be an end to the sorrow and a joy so great and so enduring that the sorrow is all but forgotten in the end. That would be the joy of Easter, the joy of knowing that Jesus paid for sin and conquered death and now lives and reigns forever and ever.

The apostles didn’t learn the lesson that night, but what they eventually learned from Friday to Sunday stayed with them forever. They would always remember that grief and sorrow when Jesus was crucified, dead and buried, and how the world rejoiced with spite and hatred while they grieved and lamented. They would remember how they felt on Saturday, like all hope was gone. But they would also always remember that their grief lasted only a little while, from Friday to Sunday. And then they knew joy again—a joy that would sustain them for the rest of their lives, a joy that would follow them when they were later whipped and beaten, persecuted and imprisoned, a joy that would follow them even to their martyr’s death. Jesus was only dead for two days, from Friday to Sunday, and now He is alive again.

That pattern of a little while of sorrow followed by endless joy isn’t restricted to Good Friday to Easter Sunday. That Friday to Sunday grief really symbolizes the Christian’s whole life on this earth, because now, for a “little while,” we don’t see Jesus.

And because we don’t see Jesus, we suffer all kinds of sorrow and grief. Imagine, if Jesus were standing here next to you, risen from the dead, and you could see Him, would it bother you that there are so (relatively) few people gathered here this morning? If Jesus were standing here next to you and you could see Him, would you still be worried about tomorrow, still grieve over any earthly hardship, still be bothered by how much the world hates Christianity, or how much the false prophets lie in Jesus’ name? Of course not! Seeing Him here beside you would reassure you that He’s real, that He’s in control, that everything will be all right. But from Friday to Sunday, for this little while before He comes back from the Father, He remains unseen.

And He remains unseen, because this is the age of the Holy Spirit. This is the time when He must build His Church, not with His hands, but with His Word, even as He’s doing right now, in Word and Sacrament. He’s been building His Church invisibly for nearly 2,000 years, which seems like a very long time to us, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to eternity. Peter says that, with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. So, in the Lord’s reckoning, although nearly two thousand years have passed, it’s like nearly two days. From Friday to Sunday! Hmm. It looks like we’re nearly there!

Then Christ will come. Then comes the resurrection. Then we will see Him as He is. And then will come a joy that we only know now by faith and in hope, the joy of every hardship overcome, every temptation defeated, every weakness made strong, every wrong made right. The truth will prosper. Justice and righteousness will prevail. And life will no longer be interrupted by death.

For now, we do well to pay attention to St. Peter’s words in 1 Peter chapter 1: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

Let this joy inexpressible fill your hearts today. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Friday and Saturday are passed. Sunday morning has already dawned. In a little while you will see Him. It’s just a matter of time! Amen.

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The Shepherd with His cross

Posted on April 15, 2018 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Misericordias Domini – Easter 2

1 Peter 2:21-25  +  John 10:11-16

Psalm 23: The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

That’s a favorite Psalm of many. It was read just last week at Art’s funeral, as it is at many funerals. Why is it so beloved? Because it emphasizes the care and concern of the LORD for His sheep, His providence, His comfort for us in the valley of the shadow of death, the final victory over our enemies, and the eternal banquet at the Lord’s table, in the Lord’s house. All beautiful thoughts!

Unfortunately, for some it’s a beloved Psalm and a beloved image because of what it doesn’t discuss. It doesn’t get into the unpleasant problem of sin on the part of the sheep. And while the whole Psalm is really pointing to the Lord Jesus as the LORD and the Shepherd of God’s people, as an Old Testament Psalm it doesn’t come right out and name Christ Jesus as the Lord—Christ who took up the cross and laid down His life for the sins of the sheep. So people can and do rip the Psalm out of its context, avoiding the reality of sin and the offense of the cross.

But the sinless have no need of a shepherd. And a shepherd who fled from the cross wouldn’t be a very good shepherd at all. The Shepherd-Lord and the cross on which He paid for the sins of the sheep are inseparable.

I am the good Shepherd, Jesus says. The good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

You notice that, when Jesus claims to be the good Shepherd, this is the very first reason He gives, the overarching thing that makes Him good. His goodness is tied to His cross. Why? Because His death was the only thing that could accomplish the main purpose for which He came.

Just before He said these words, Jesus said: I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Jesus came, not to give people a better earthly life, but to open heaven to all believers. He came to save us from sin, death, and the power of the devil. He came to give us life and a place in the house of the Creator of the universe. He came to restore us to sonship and to life, because our sin—both our inborn sin and our actual sin—had separated us from God and had doomed us to death, both temporal and eternal.

That’s what the devil wanted for us—death, separation from God. But he masks it so that it doesn’t look so bad. He hides it under promises of happiness and fulfillment and even God’s approval somewhere other than in Christ and His Word. The world, too—the unbelieving world—wants you to believe that true happiness is found in earthly success, earthly comfort, earthly praise, earthly pleasure. But the devil and the world will destroy you if you follow them. If the Christian faith is true, then there is only one Door to life, and that Door is Jesus Himself.

But the only way for Him to be that Door, to save you from your sin, to open heaven to you, the only way for Him to give you life—was for Him to give His life, to suffer the cross, to lie down in the valley of the shadow of death, so that, having risen from the dead, He could be there with you with His rod and His staff, to walk through the valley with you and to bring you safely to the other side.

So always keep the cross in view when you think of Jesus as Shepherd. It’s fine to picture Him as the gentle Shepherd, carrying a little lamb on His shoulders. It’s fine to picture Him calmly walking side by side with His sheep in green pastures. But in those images, you should always include the nail prints in His hands. He’s the Shepherd who saw the wolf coming and threw Himself at the wolf in order to spare the sheep. That’s the main reason you should call Him ‘Good.’

Keep the cross in view also when you hear the good Shepherd say: I know My sheep and am known by My own. Because He had the cross in view when He said it! He knows those who belong to Him, because He purchased them with His blood. He knows those who belong to Him, because He has cleansed them by His blood in the washing of water with the Word, in Holy Baptism. He knows those who belong to Him because He gives them His body and blood to eat and to drink—His body given into death, His blood shed for them for the forgiveness of sins. This is how the Shepherd is known by His own.

Keep the cross in view also when you hear the good Shepherd say: And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Jesus knows and must bring the rest of His sheep into His flock—those who will yet believe in Him before He comes again. But how? By sending out His voice so that they may hear it, by sending out His Gospel into the world. And as you know, the Gospel is not, “Come to church, because it’s so much fun and it’ll make you feel good!” No, the voice of the Shepherd goes out, as St. Paul wrote, We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Finally, keep the cross in view also when you consider to what kind of life the Shepherd has called you. To this you were called, St. Peter wrote in today’s Epistle. To what? To “do good and suffer patiently.” This is your calling as sheep, as those who have heard the voice of the good Shepherd and have trusted in Him for the forgiveness of sins. This is your calling: to do good. To love God and your neighbor according to the commandments of God. To be devoted to hearing and learning God’s Word and to serving others. And then also to be prepared to suffer for it willingly, patiently, without hating in return, without complaint. Why? Because this is the way of the Shepherd with His cross. Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness.

The gift of eternal life was purchased by the Shepherd with His cross. The giving of that gift of life comes through the preaching of the Shepherd with His cross. And the life that the sheep are now to lead is exemplified by the Shepherd with His cross.

Know the Lord Jesus as your Shepherd. But know the Shepherd through His cross. The Word of His cross—and the Word of His Easter victory over death—is the green pastures in which He makes you to lie down, the still waters beside which He leads you. The Word of the cross is how He restores your soul with the continual forgiveness of sins, and how He leads you in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. The Word of the cross is how He comforts you in times of sorrow, and even in the face of death, so that you don’t despair, so that you fear no evil. The Word of the cross is how He makes you victorious over your enemies—sin, death and the devil—how He fills your cup with gladness, how He pursues you with His goodness and mercy all the days of your life, and how He preserves you even to the end, that you may dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Cling to the Shepherd’s cross and hold it ever before your eyes! And remember that this is why you call Him ‘Good.’ Amen.

 

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The blessedness of believing the witnesses

Posted on April 8, 2018 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Quasimodogeniti – Easter 1

1 John 5:4-10  +  John 20:19-31

St. Paul writes, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” This is the Gospel. On this you can rely. On this you can stand. On this you can rest your faith in the face of death: That Jesus Christ truly died for our sins and truly rose from the dead and appeared to His apostles. He spoke peace to them. He showed them His hands and His side that had been pierced on the cross when He made Himself a sacrifice for sin, once for all. And He commissioned them to speak for Him in forgiving and retaining sins. This is most certainly true.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is about certainty—certainty that comes, not from your personal experience, but from the testimony of the Holy Spirit, through the testimony of the apostles. The irony of that is that those very apostles, of whom you heard in our Gospel today, started out as anything but certain.

The personal experience of Jesus’ eleven disciples had taught them one thing for certain. Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried. It had only been two days. And even though the faithful women had come and told them the tomb was empty, even though some of them said they had seen Jesus alive, none of it mattered to the fearful disciples. Their personal experience on Good Friday trumped the testimony of the women. Their personal experience had already caused them to forget Jesus’ Word, Jesus’ power, and Jesus’ promise that He would rise on the third day.

Then, as they were gathered in fear, with the doors locked, Jesus appeared in the midst of them, not as a memory, not as a ghost, but as a living and breathing Man. “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

What peace is this that brings such joy to the hearts of these men who were so fearful and afraid only moments ago? This is the peace that only comes from Jesus, the peace that doesn’t take away any of your earthly problems right away, and yet this peace makes everything OK in the midst of your earthly problems. Because Jesus is risen from the dead. He took your sin to the cross and suffered for it in your place. Now He’s alive and He says to you, not, “Burn in hell, you rotten sinner!”, but, “Peace be with you.” He shows them the marks of His suffering—the nail prints in His hands, the spear print in His side. But now the suffering is over and done. Death is destroyed. The Conqueror of sin, death, and the devil has just entered the room and His words are pure comfort, “Peace be with you.”

That’s where the certainty lies, for the ten disciples who were gathered on that first Easter evening, and also for us, because of the next words Jesus said on that night. Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Here is the certainty of the resurrection for us who live 2000 years after it took place. The risen Lord Jesus sent His apostles into the world, as He had been sent by His Father into the world. Whoever saw Jesus, whoever heard Jesus, was hearing and seeing God. Well, now Jesus has sent the apostles and their successors into the world. There’s a difference, of course. Jesus represented God perfectly, because He was the very Son of God, and sinless. The apostles and their successors—those who have been called by God through the Church into the office of the ministry—are mere human beings, mortals, and sinners. But Jesus knew that. And still, He sent them, as He had been sent. He placed His Holy Spirit on them. He authorized them to speak for Him, specifically, to forgive sins to the penitent and to retain the sins of the impenitent.

He did this for the very reason that He would not continue for long in the world in a visible way, so that people could see Him and hear Him speak. No one on earth would have a “personal experience” of Jesus ever again, with one exception—the Apostle Paul who was called directly by Jesus to replace Judas the betrayer. It is God’s will that you not seek a personal experience with Jesus, but rather, that you seek Him in the ministry of His Word and Sacraments, in the Office of the Keys. As St. Paul says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us (that is, to the ministers of the Church) the word of reconciliation. Now then, we (the ministers of Christ) are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”

This is where you can have certainty. When I forgive you your sins in Jesus’ name, it’s not just your pastor making stuff up. It’s the voice of Jesus. And, in the same way, when I warn you about your sins in Jesus’ name or retain your sins in Jesus’ name, in accord with the Word of Christ, that’s not just your pastor making stuff up, either. It’s the voice of Jesus.

As St. John testified in today’s Epistle: And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. The Spirit that Jesus breathed on His disciples on that first Easter night, authorizing them to speak in His name. The water of Holy Baptism that has Jesus’ command and promise attached to it. And the blood of Christ that gives Baptism its cleansing power and is also given to us in the Sacrament of the Altar. Means of grace. Means by which the Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith. Means by which you can have certainty of the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, because God’s Spirit is in the Word and Sacraments to bring you to repentance and faith in Christ, and to forgive sins to all who believe.

Finally in our Gospel we have the comforting account of Thomas, which also adds to our own certainty of the resurrection, because we see what stubborn unbelief looks like, and we also see its cure.

Thomas refused to believe his brothers and sisters on Easter Sunday. Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe. Again, his personal experience had already convinced him that Jesus was dead. And now, he insisted, only personal experience could ever change his mind. I must have a personal experience with Jesus and see and touch His wounds before I will believe.

Jesus could have left Thomas in his unbelief. He should have known better. He was wrong to insist on a personal experience as the basis of his faith in Jesus. He was wrong to disbelieve the word of Jesus and the testimony of the other apostles. But Thomas did have to see the risen Lord Christ, if he was to be a witness to the world of Jesus’ resurrection. So Jesus gave him a week, and then returned when all the disciples were together, including Thomas. Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. Jesus rebuked Thomas for his unbelief. But His word also brought peace back to Thomas, and Thomas then confessed one of the boldest confessions ever made, “My Lord and my God!”

It was not an accident that Jesus first appeared to His disciples after Thomas had left. The curing of Thomas’ unbelief by the risen Christ now serves to cure you, too, when you start to waver, when you start to doubt, when you begin to live as if Jesus weren’t risen, as if Jesus weren’t real. His word of peace at once convicted Thomas and restored peace and joy to Thomas. And His Word still gives certainty to you today. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

How can you believe without seeing? Because the Word of Christ and the Sacraments of Christ are better and more powerful than sight. You don’t need any signs but these. You don’t need personal experience. You just need the Word of Christ, delivered to you by the witnesses whom Christ appointed. As St. John wrote, And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. Stand firmly on these things that are written. Cling to Holy Absolution. Rest in your Baptism. Rejoice in the Holy Sacrament. Here is your certainty, now and in the face of death. Amen.

 

 

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He told you Easter was coming

Posted on April 1, 2018 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord

1 Corinthians 5:6-8  +  Mark 16:1-8

Today we celebrate Easter, the Paschal Feast, the Christian Passover. Not as a day on the calendar, but as an event in history. An event that has shaped the last 2,000 years of world history. An event with eternal consequences for all people. An event that God has not only informed us about, but an event that God is using even now to call you to repentance and faith in the Crucified One who is no longer dead, and to preserve you in fellowship with Him, and to assure you that, in the end, after you’ve suffered for a while here, you who believe in the risen Lord Jesus will most certainly be given eternal life with Him. He’s told you about it ahead of time, and God cannot lie.

You want proof of it? He told you Easter was coming, didn’t He?

First, He told you the cross was coming; Jesus predicted all His sufferings. What’s more, the Old Testament predicted all His sufferings. God told the world that Good Friday was coming. But more than that, He told the world about the resurrection of the Christ. He told us Easter was coming!

Consider with me some of the Scriptures that spoke of Christ’s resurrection beforehand, so that our hearts may burn within us as did the hearts of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the afternoon of Easter Sunday as Jesus opened the Scriptures to them.

In the very beginning, God promised that the Christ, the Seed of the woman was supposed to bruise the devil’s head, while the devil would bruise His heel. But if the Christ remained dead, how was only His heel bruised?

God promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through his Seed, the Christ. But how could He be a blessing to all nations if He’s dead?

God promised David that his Son—his descendant—the Christ would reign over an eternal kingdom. But how does He reign forever if He’s dead?

The prophet Daniel, too, foresaw the eternal kingdom of the Son of Man: Behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. But how is His dominion everlasting if He’s dead?

Then we have the Psalms, where the Christ speaks so often about His final victory over His enemies, or where He prays confidently to His Father for deliverance from His enemies. Psalm 27: When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. Psalm 43: Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength. Psalm 86: Preserve my life, for I am holy; You are my God; save Your servant who trusts in You! How was Christ victorious over His enemies if they were able to destroy Him for good? How did God preserve His life, if His life ended in the grave?

Or there are the Psalms where the Father promises to exalt His Son: Psalm 2: Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed. But they didn’t plot in vain, if Christ remained dead. Or Psalm 110, where David speaks of his Son, the Christ: The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! But the LORD didn’t make Christ’s enemies His footstool, if His enemies were still triumphant on the third day.

Or there are the Psalms that specifically refer to Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Psalm 22, that great Psalm of David that details Christ’s crucifixion, goes on to proclaim His resurrection: But You, O LORD, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me! Deliver…My precious life…You have answered Me. I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. You who fear the LORD, praise Him!…For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard. Or Psalm 16: Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

And who can forget Isaiah 53, where the suffering of Christ is foretold, but also His resurrection? When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong.

As if that weren’t enough, Jesus Himself foretold His resurrection many times. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it again, referring to His body. When the Jews asked for a sign, He gave them the sign of Jonah: As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He also said, I am the Good Shepherd. I lay down My life, and I take it up again. And in the months before Holy Week, Jesus told His disciples that He would die and rise again on the third day.

That was also part of the angels’ message on Easter Sunday morning.

Mary Magdalene and the other faithful women got up early on that Sunday morning and hurried to the tomb, wanting to honor their Lord with a better burial, but not knowing how they would roll that big stone out of the way that blocked the entrance to the grave. They got there and found it already removed. An angel had done it. Jesus was already gone. And the angel preached the good news: He is risen, “as He said.” You will see Him in Galilee, as He said to you. Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ” He told you Easter was coming!

What else has He told you is coming? A Day of judgment; a Day of reckoning for all men. Difficult days on earth, even for His beloved Christian Church. But remember what else He’s told you is coming: Because I live, you also shall live. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!…But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?… For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

All this is coming, because Christ has risen from the dead. See, He has told you ahead of time! And if He kept His promises to die and rise again from the dead, then trust in Him to keep these promises, too. For God cannot lie. In the name of the risen Christ. Amen.

 

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A happy ending, guaranteed

Posted on March 31, 2018 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Easter Vigil

+  Matthew 28:1-8  +

After hearing the five lessons from the Old Testament tonight that told the 4000-year-long tale of human history, of creation, sin, slavery, pain, suffering, persecution, and the promise of a happy ending for those who believe in God’s Messiah; after reading through the four accounts of the Passion History this week that told the tale of the bitter suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, we finally, tonight, arrive at the promised happy ending: Christ is risen from the dead.

We knew it was coming. We’re Christians, after all. We confess with Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives!” We’ve been baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. We knew it would end this way, because He promised it would end this way. And we confess before the world that it did end this way on Easter Sunday, in the empty tomb, the stone rolled away, the angels and their happy announcement, “He is not here; for He is risen.”

In the same way, we know that, after this life of earthly toil and temptation, and affliction, and battling the sin around us and within us, after our time here of pain and disappointment and bearing the cross is through, there will be a happy ending for us, too, who hold to the faith of Jesus Christ and persevere in it till the end. We know it, because His resurrection is the guarantee of it. He is, as Paul writes, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Jesus’ life is our life. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. He gives us to feed on His life right here in the Gospel, right here in His true body and blood, even as He gave His life for us into death on Good Friday and took it up again on Easter Sunday. Things will turn out well for Christ’s holy Church. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. Rejoice in this blessed communion with Christ, our crucified and risen Savior. Amen.

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