The Christian’s sorrow and the world’s rejoicing last a little while

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Jubilate – Fourth Sunday of Easter

John 16:16-22  +  Isaiah 40:25-31  +  1 Peter 2:11-20

A little while. A little while. A little while. A little while. A little while. A little while. A little while. Seven times in just four verses of today’s Gospel the Holy Spirit repeats it, drives it home and drums it into our heads so that we can’t forget.  One word in the Greek, “Mikron.”  A micron.  A little while.  What is it that lasts only a little while?  The Christian’s time of sorrow, and the world’s rejoicing.

“A little while, and you will see me no longer;

Today’s Gospel, and the Gospels for the next four Sundays after today, are all taken from St. John, chapters 14-16, all from Jesus’ words to his disciples on Maundy Thursday evening, after Judas had left to go betray Jesus. Three years Jesus had been with these eleven disciples. Now the little while ends up being just a matter of hours before Judas catches up with them in the Garden of Gethsemane with the guard of armed soldiers to have Jesus arrested.  Just a little while of having Jesus with them, and then he would be arrested, tortured, tried and crucified.  He would be buried. And they would see him no longer.

and again a little while, and you will see me.”

Just a little while.  That “little while” ended up being just three days.  Just until the third day – or for Thomas, one week after that. But Jesus doesn’t say that here.  He doesn’t spell it out for his disciples or for us or give us a countdown.  “This many days or that many hours until you will see me again and rejoice.” He just calls it “a little while.” And that’s all you need to know.

But the disciples couldn’t understand even that yet.  They were too sad, too sorrowful, too wrapped up in their dashed hopes and dreams for earthly happiness, with Jesus sitting on his throne in Jerusalem and making everything OK on this earth.  According to Jesus words, that was not going to be the case, like they thought it would.  Not yet.  Not for a little while.

What does he mean, “a little while this, a little while that”?  What does he mean “because I am going to the Father”?  “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t know what he’s talking about.”

Do you know what he’s talking about?  Do you want to ask him?  That’s OK.  This isn’t just a private conversation between Jesus and the Eleven.  This is inspired Holy Scripture recorded for our learning, too.  Jesus’ words are meant for you, too.

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

The disciples did weep and lament when Jesus was taken from them for a little while.  And the world rejoiced that Jesus was dead.  But it was only for a little while, and then the disciples saw him again and rejoiced.

Of course, the world still rejoices, because the world still thinks Jesus is dead.  The world can’t tolerate Jesus, because Jesus lumps all the works of the world together and calls them all wicked.  He condemns the wickedness of man – all of it.  The false religion.  The hypocrisy. The gossip and the hatred and the staying home from church, as if God had never commanded sinners to hear and honor his Word.  He condemns the good works of men who offer their goodness to God in exchange for his favor and grace.  Jesus insists on being the only way to God, the only righteousness for mankind, the only goodness that counts before God.

So the world rejoices now, for a little while, while Christ is hidden from view. And Christians mourn now, for a little while, when times of suffering and tribulation come and Christ moves away for a little while so that you don’t feel his comfort or notice his presence.  He allows you to be sorrowful and to mourn—for a little while.

Why?  In order to devastate the free will that we wrongly imagine that we have; in order to pull the rug out from under human powers and good works, so that we place no confidence in them, so that we realize again that we are powerless to comfort ourselves, powerless to face life in this godless world where the prince of demons is still the prince.

It’s part of the Lord’s discipline.  And the point isn’t for you to ask, What did I do wrong? How can I fix this sorrow and get it taken away?  No, no, no.  It’s not about you and your works or about fixing yourself or your life.  You’re hopelessly broken.  That’s the point.  You’re a hopeless victim against the devil and sin and the world.  Without Christ you are nothing.  And so he uses affliction to drive us again to Christ, to show that all is worthless and hopeless and lost without him. Only with him is there joy and comfort and safety.

But the promise of Christ is that the sorrow caused by his absence will only last for a little while.  That’s a promise you can cling to.  Your sorrow doesn’t mean he loves you less or that he has somehow gone from being risen again to being dead again.  His death on the cross paid for your sins, even if that fact doesn’t comfort you at the moment.  Jesus rose from the dead and lives, whether you feel it or not.  Even when you don’t feel the tiniest bit of divine comfort, even when the fact of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead doesn’t seem to matter, you have this word and promise of Jesus that it will last only a little while.

So wait patiently for him.  He will return with his comfort and joy.  He will sustain you and hold you up with his Word of forgiveness and with his body and blood, even when you don’t see him or feel him doing it, and after a little while, you will see him again – you will experience his comfort and his joy in the Gospel.  Only don’t lose hope.  Don’t run away from the very Word and Sacrament that are his only tools for sustaining you in times of sorrow.  And don’t doubt him.  See, he tells you ahead of time how it’s going to be.

He tells you it’s going to be just like a woman giving birth.

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

The pain has to come before the childbirth.  The sorrow has to come before the joy.  The cross has to come before the comfort.  That’s the way it is.  And aren’t you glad it’s that way, and not the other way around?  Aren’t you glad that the sorrow is for a little while for the Christian while the joy is eternal?

Is Jesus talking about the here and now or is he talking about when he comes again in glory and we see him face to face?  The answer is Yes.  The answer is both.  The Christian life is full of sorrow that won’t be completely erased until Christ is revealed at the end, and then there will be nothing to take your joy away from you.  But even now the risen Christ comes to you in his Word and promises to help you here and now, to help you even by allowing times of sorrow and mourning to come into your life, so that he can come, after a little while, with his comfort and joy. And you will see him and understand better than before that Jesus is a faithful and loving Savior, and that his resurrection from the dead really is the truth that gets you through today and tomorrow, so that, even if you don’t have a smile on your face, there can always be joy in your heart.  Amen.

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The Good Shepherd is the bloody Shepherd

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Misericordias Domini – Easter 3

John 10:11-16  +  Ezekiel 34:11-16  +  1 Peter 2:21-25

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. There are so many shepherd images of God in the Bible.  The shepherd walking through green meadows with his sheep walking close behind him, leading them through green pastures, guiding them up to a gently flowing stream where they can drink and quench their thirst.  There’s the shepherd image of Jesus feeding his little lambs.  There’s the image of the shepherd comforting his sheep, carrying the little ones in his arms.  There’s the image of the shepherd leaving behind the ninety-nine to go out searching for the one that strayed, searching until he finds it and puts it up on his shoulders and brings it home.

But no shepherd image is as striking as the one before us in our Gospel—the image of bloody shepherd.  The shepherd who places himself between the sheep and the wolf.  The shepherd who takes his stand, even as all the hired hands see the wolf coming and run away to save themselves, leaving the sheep to be attacked and slaughtered.  The Good Shepherd doesn’t run away.  He stays.  He confronts the wolf.  But he doesn’t fight it off.  Instead, he opens his arms and makes himself the wolf’s target.  The wolf pounces on him, and he embraces it. He allows the wolf to injure him, to gore him, to eat him alive.  And there’s blood everywhere.  He lays down his life for the sheep.  And then, after the shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, he stands up again.  That’s what the word “resurrection” means – to stand up again.  He stands up again, still bloody, but no longer bleeding.  Still scarred, but no longer injured.  Having died, but no longer dead.  The wolf is still there, threatening the sheep until the very last day of planet earth’s existence.  But the Good Shepherd is still there, too, between the sheep and the wolf.  Always.

This is the image that saves, the Good Shepherd as the bloody Shepherd.  This is the image that comforts the sheep more than any other.  This is the image that creates faith in the Shepherd and brings the sheep into his flock, the image that creates Christians.

Without this image of the bloody shepherd, the words of Psalm 23 ring hollow.  All the people in the world who love the 23rd Psalm, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want,” without believing in Jesus as the bloody shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep—they’re all fooling themselves. The Lord isn’t their Shepherd. If you don’t want the bloody shepherd, Jesus, for your shepherd, if the blood on his clothes, if the scars on his hands and side are repulsive to you, then the LORD is not your shepherd.  Because the bloody shepherd is the LORD Jesus. The Good Shepherd is the bloody shepherd.

Who or what is the wolf?  What threatens you?  What seeks to devour you?  There are many wolves out there.  The devil himself is one of them.  What pleasure, what comfort, what blessing can he dangle before your sheep-eyes to get you to look away from your shepherd and wander off?  What tragedy, what evil, what suffering can he send your way to turn your love for Jesus into hatred and bitterness?  What fault or sin of your neighbor’s can he hold before your eyes so that you’re so consumed with anger or apathy toward your neighbor that your shepherd is no longer in view?

Who or what is the wolf that threatens?  It’s the world with its empty morality and hollow philosophy.  It’s the world that hates the light of the truth, because its own deeds are evil, and so it threatens your family, threatens your career, it laughs at you and rejects you for being a Christian, for following Jesus.

Who or what is the wolf that threatens the sheep?  It’s false teachers who darken the Shepherd’s words with their lies that sound so sweet.  It’s temptation.  It’s sin.  It’s death.  And while you’re busy looking around and focusing on all those wolves, what you don’t realize is, that the wolf is also you.  You – your sinful nature is your own worst enemy. It’s what separated you from God in the first place and made you an object of God’s wrath.  And it’s still always there, always dragging you away from God, dragging you off to serve yourself, to live for yourself, to love only those who love you and care only for those who care for you as you want to be cared for.  It’s your sinful nature that can turn you into a wolf toward your fellow Christian, to treat them so poorly, to injure them so badly that they never want to know another Christian or step foot in another Christian church as long as they live.

How many wolves are gathering, circling?  You can’t even see them.  But your Shepherd can.  And who has let you down?  A parent?  A relative?  A teacher?  A pastor?  The Good shepherd isn’t like any of them.  Even if all of your protectors and guardians run away, the Good Shepherd never will.  He puts himself in the way and shields you with his arms, with his body, with his blood.  All of your enemies, everything that threatened you, including the wrath of God itself, all of it fell on your Good Shepherd.  He intervened between you and the wolf, opened his arms on the cross, and he laid down his life for you.  The bloody image of Jesus dying on a cross is your shield and protection from any and every wolf, from sin and death and the devil, from fear and depression, from everything that seeks to harm you.

The bloody Good Shepherd lays down his life but then stands up again on the third day and keeps fighting, and this time, he can’t ever die again.  He comes back to life to keep on shepherding his sheep forever.

The Good Shepherd has brought you here today. He has gathered you around himself in order to place himself between you and the wolf.  Because he is here in this Gospel, warning the impenitent so that they do not die eternally.  He is here in this Gospel, forgiving the sorrowful, comforting the sad, carrying the weak.  Jesus calls his sheep together to be served by him, the good shepherd: to hear his Words, to be led by his teachings, to be fed by his life, by his body and blood.

Jesus knows how hard, how scary it is to face the wolf.  But see, the sheep aren’t the ones who have to face the wolf.  They wouldn’t stand a chance.  The sheep aren’t the ones who have to be brave against sin and death and the devil.  Sheep are too dumb to even see the wolf coming until it’s too late.  No, the Shepherd is the brave one. He’s the one who does the fighting.  And his blood-stained body proves that he will fight for you and never give up.  He knows his sheep.  He knows where they’re vulnerable, and he knows how to protect them.  So don’t pretend that you’re strong or that you need to be strong enough to stand against the wolf.  Your Shepherd does that for you.  Trust in your Shepherd.

He won’t leave you vulnerable, even when he goes out looking for his lost sheep.  There are still lost sheep in the world that he has to find with his Word and call into his flock.  Some of them are Christians who have strayed away from his Word, and therefore, away from his kingdom.  Others have never yet heard the Shepherd’s voice.  But they will.  They still don’t know the image of the Shepherd who bloodied himself in order to protect his sheep from the wolf.  But when they hear it, they will believe.  Not all will believe, but some will, and it won’t take any gimmicks or tricks or seduction to bring them into Jesus’ flock.  Just the message about the bloody Shepherd – that’s all it ever takes.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  The Lord isn’t your shepherd unless the Lord you mean, the Lord you believe in, the Lord you follow in faith, is the bloody Lord Jesus who laid down his life for the sheep and took it up again.  If he is the Lord whom you call your shepherd, then you shall not want for anything. You don’t have a healthy body?  You lack nothing.  You don’t have a happy marriage?  Friends?  Money? Security?  You lack nothing.  He gives you all you need.  He knows what you need before the thought enters your mind.  He has given you good things – even his own body thrown between the wolf and you, even his own flesh as food and his blood as drink.  He is a good shepherd.  He is THE good shepherd, stained in his own blood, but victorious.  Those who trust in him have nothing to fear from any wolf.  Amen.

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Life is given through the Word of Christ

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Easter 2 – Quasimodo Geniti

Ezekiel 37:1-14  +  1 John 5:4-12  +  John 20:19-31

It was from death to life last Sunday on Easter.  It goes from death to life again today.

First it was the dead, dry bones that God showed to Ezekiel in that famous valley. Those bones didn’t just represent death.  They represented fear, despair and hopelessness on the part of Israel.  Israel was destroyed. Judah was in exile. And there was no possible way they could come out of it – no solution, no plan of action.  And they despaired.  And that was wrong.  They had a faithful God who had never lied to them. But the devil got them to forget all about God’s faithfulness and kindness and turn inward on themselves, on how bad things looked for them.  Humanly speaking, there was no hope for them.  No human solution could save them.  They were dead.

But where there’s death, that’s where the Spirit of God goes to work.  See, the Spirit of God doesn’t like to help people along, to cooperate with them and work together with them.  No, the Spirit of God likes to take dead things, hopeless things that can’t move a muscle to help themselves and do all the work himself. A valley full of dead, dried up bones?  Perfect!  Prophesy, son of man!  Prophesy to the breath – to the spirit! And by the simple words spoken by God’s called spokesman and prophet, Ezekiel, the dead, dry bones – those hopeless, fearful Israelites came to life.  There was death in that valley.  But then, there was life.

There was death in the upper room on Easter Sunday evening.  There was dead, dried up faith on the part of Jesus’ ten apostles who were there. There was fear and despair and unbelief – they go together.  They despaired.  And that was wrong.  They had a faithful God who had never lied to them. But the devil got them to forget all about God’s faithfulness and kindness and turn inward on themselves, on how bad things looked for them – and for Jesus.  As far as they were concerned, their God was dead.

But then he wasn’t.  He wasn’t dead anymore, as of that Easter morning.  The women had seen him.  John saw the empty tomb and believed, but remained silent.  Peter sometime that day saw Jesus. Other reports were coming in – two disciples from the road to Emmaus had returned to Jerusalem and reported the news to Jesus’ disciples.  He isn’t dead anymore.  He’s alive!

In that upper room of death, there was life breaking in by the word of Jesus’ resurrection.  And then life stepped into the room. Right through the locked doors.  Nothing can hinder this Person, this life-bringer.  He spoke words of life, “Peace be with you.”  The Son of Man was crucified but now is risen.  Peace be with you.  You all doubted me and replaced the faith I gave you with fear and despair.  But now, peace be with you.

That’s a powerful word when it’s spoken by the very Son of God, the crucified and living one.  Wouldn’t you like to hear it from his lips?  But that’s just the thing.  If you want to believe in Jesus at all, then you have to take him at his word. And what does his word say?  As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.  He breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgiven anyone his sins, they are forgiven him.  If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 

How could Ezekiel bring dead bones to life?  Because God commanded him to.  Because God put his words into Ezekiel’s mouth, so that when Ezekiel spoke life into those bones, it was really God speaking.

In the same way, Jesus wants to come to you today, not with a personal, visible appearance, but in the words of those whom he has sent.  It’s the same life, the same power, the same forgiveness.  He gives authority on earth to declare peace to repentant sinners, to wipe away sins and to bring the dead to life with a word.

There is great peace and comfort here.  There is literally death all around us, and fear and despair and hopelessness.  But here is life stepping into the room – to be handed out in words.  Jesus lives.  Peace be with you.

And those who believe are comforted.  And whoever does not believe will be condemned – unless the Lord of life brings life to the unbelieving before it’s too late, as he did with Thomas.

Stubborn Thomas.  Whose fault was it that he didn’t believe all the eyewitness reports he heard?  Whose fault was it that he didn’t believe Jesus’ own words promising his resurrection?  None but Thomas was to blame.  Stubborn and unbelieving.  Stubborn and needing to be convinced by reason, by science.  I won’t believe unless I see and touch and handle.  That’s death.  That’s hopelessness and despair.  Because that is unbelief.

Now, maybe you’ve disbelieved and lashed out like Thomas, too.  Even lifelong Christians can fall into the grievous sin of despair.  But your despair or your disbelief doesn’t change the truth.  Jesus was crucified, whether you believe it or not. He died and paid for all sins, including your sin of despair.  He was buried.  He rose from the dead, whether you believe it or not.  He lives. He reigns. He keeps his promises.  He loves his saints – and by saints, I mean, you sinners and sinful doubters who look up to him again for mercy.

So you might as well believe it. 

Do you really want to experience the shame that Thomas must have felt when Jesus confronted him on the Sunday after Easter?  I won’t believe unless I see for myself the nail prints in his hands and feet and put my hand in his side.   And then life walks into the room again.  Peace be with you.  And then right to Thomas. OK, Thomas.  Put your finger here and here and here and here. Put your hand here.  Don’t be disbelieving, but believing.  And the only thing that kept Thomas from running out of the room in shame over his shameful despair and unbelief was the word of Jesus, “Peace be with you.  Believe.” And where there was unbelief, now there was faith.  Where there was death, now there was life – they go together.  And then Thomas did what faith does.  It confesses, “My Lord and my God.”

And then, it’s almost as if Jesus looked up from Thomas, across time and space and right into this room, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Those words are spoken for you, you who have not seen and yet have believed.  You are blessed.

And you need to hear those words over and over again, because you don’t get to see in this life.  You don’t get to see the resurrected Jesus.  You may see trouble and sickness and suffering.  You will see temptation and your own sinful nature pulling you back into yourself, dragging your eyes away from Jesus, so that you forget about God and his faithfulness and despair of his help.

 

But God has left us a witness on earth that’s just as good as seeing Jesus.  Really, honestly, just as good as seeing Jesus.  Actually, it’s even better.  How many people saw Jesus and still disbelieved?  But the Spirit of God testifies, and we talked about it already on Good Friday: The Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.  For there are three that testify:  the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. The Spirit of God always and only works through the Word of God, whether it was the word spoken by Ezekiel, or the word spoken by Jesus, or the word spoken by his apostles, which, today, means pastors.  What is the Spirit’s testimony?  And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Believe his testimony about the risen Lord Jesus and the life he gives and the forgiveness of sins he pronounces to you penitent sinners.  Believe his testimony in the water, that you have been washed in the blood of Jesus and clothed with him.  Believe his testimony in the blood of the Sacrament, that it was shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

If you won’t believe that, then you’re making God out to be a liar, and that would be foolish, so don’t do that. 

There’s plenty of death all around us, and there is not a lot of life.  Death is everywhere.  It spreads like gangrene.  But life – life is found, life exists, life is given only in a place.  Life is in Jesus alone.  And Jesus comes to you in his Word alone, and his Word is enough. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.  Amen.

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Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in the Gospel

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Easter Sunday

Mark 16:1-8  +  Psalm 16  +  Job 19:23-27  +  1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Brothers and sisters, fellow believers in Christ Jesus: Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed.  Alleluia! Jesus lives!

He really does, you know.  He lives – not in our hearts, not in our dreams or in our imagination.  The real Son of God, with his real flesh and blood, born of the virgin Mary, who truly suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried has really come back to life, stepped out of his tomb, and appeared to his disciples, who were all very surprised and overjoyed to see him alive again.

It really shouldn’t have surprised them quite as much as it did.  He told his disciples how he would be killed and rise on the third day, which was the very same thing that was prophesied about the Christ in the words of King David in Psalm 16 a thousand years before, “I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.  Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to the grave, or let your holy one see corruption.”

As the apostles pointed out to the Jewish crowds later on, King David, who wrote those words of the Psalm, most certainly died and most certainly decayed in his grave.  But the Holy One about whom he was writing, the Son, the offspring of David, the Christ – he was not abandoned to the grave or left in the tomb.  He was raised from the dead.

That’s what the angel announced to the faithful women who went to the tomb that first Easter morning to finish taking care of Jesus’ body, which, they assumed, was already beginning to be corrupted by decay.

How wrong they were!  Instead of the big stone blocking the entrance to the tomb, they saw it rolled away and an angel waiting there to give them the good news.  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.

Wouldn’t you like to have seen it, too?  The place where they laid him?  The stone rolled away, the empty tomb, the folded linens, the angel sitting where Jesus had been?  Or what if you had seen the empty tomb?  Then what?  Then you would have been just as alarmed, just as terrified as those women were.  Because an empty tomb, all by itself, isn’t good news.

The fact that Jesus’ tomb was empty, the fact that the offspring of David, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, rose from the dead is neither good news nor bad news.  It just is.  It’s a fact.  It happened.  But what does it mean? Is it a fact that saves or is it a fact that damns? The only way to know what it means is to hear what God reveals about it in the preaching of the gospel.

And what does God reveal in the gospel about the offspring of David, Jesus Christ, risen from the dead?

In the words of Psalm 2, Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. So those who take refuge in the risen Son of God are blessed! But those who do not seek refuge in him will perish.

According to the gospel, then, the empty tomb of Jesus means that his enemies and all who hate him had better be very afraid.  The resurrection of Jesus is terrible news for the devil and his demons.  It’s terrible news for the one who wants to get to heaven by serving some other god, or by offering God his own merits. It’s also terrible news for all who refuse to repent of their sins. Because if Jesus is dead, then you get to decide what’s right and wrong for your life, and then when you’re dead, you’re dead. That’s it. But if Jesus is alive, then there will also be a resurrection of all the dead and a Judgment Day for all.  So for the impenitent and unbelieving, the empty tomb of Jesus is cause for fear.

But for those who want a sure refuge from God’s wrath, for those who want to be reconciled to God, for those who want Jesus for a Savior, the gospel reveals this truth: that Jesus was delivered up for our sins and raised to life for our justification. His death was sufficient payment for all sin, for every sin, for the worst sinner, for his most bitter enemy; and his resurrection means that all who hope in him, all who trust in him, all who look to him for forgiveness of their sins are absolved before God’s courtroom in heaven.  The empty tomb means the justification of all who believe in the risen One.

And with justification comes every gift and benefit of Christ: the adoption as God’s children, the full acceptance into eternal life, the daily forgiveness of sins in this Christian Church, and the promise of your own empty tomb when Jesus returns, for judgment against all who refused to repent, and with salvation for his believing people.

No, Jesus’ empty tomb all by itself is still a scary thing, and those faithful women who visited Jesus’ tomb on Easter Sunday remained afraid until, later that day, they saw Jesus for themselves and, more importantly, heard his gospel, his word of peace.  Then they rejoiced with a joy that even the bitterest persecution couldn’t take away.

You have to see Jesus for yourself, too.  But not with your eyes.  Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed, Jesus said.  Believed what?  Believed in the empty tomb?  No.  Believed in God’s promise of forgiveness in Christ.  Believed in his Gospel.  Believed in the word of God the Father who emptied Jesus’ tomb by raising his Son from the dead.  This word from God that he has commissioned me to preach to you today is better than seeing a thousand empty tombs.  Because here in the Word you don’t see the place where Jesus isn’t.  You actually get to see Jesus.  Because here in the Word of God, here in Sacrament of Jesus, the risen Lord Jesus comes to you today with a message intended for you:  “I was delivered up for your sins and raised to life for your justification. Repent and believe in the good news that He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.  And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

All week long in our Holy Week services, I’ve been giving you certain things to remember above all else. Today it’s very simple. Today I tell you, as I told our confirmand last Sunday, in the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.

Let his enemies remember and repent!  Let his people remember and rejoice! Amen.

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Remember this day that the Lord has made

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Easter Vigil

Welcome to this new day – the day of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead!   Jesus rose on the first day of the week, which began at sunset tonight.  And since then, every first day of the week has been blessed.  Since then, every first day of the week has become a celebration of Easter as the Church gathers around her risen Lord in Word and Sacrament until he comes again in glory to raise all the dead and to bring us into that great wedding banquet that has no end.

Today is also the Third Day – the Third Day of the Paschal Triduum, the blessed Third Day about which Jesus said, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Today has also been called “The Eighth Day” – the day of the new creation.  For God made all things in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. And Christ labored for the six days of Holy Week and on the seventh day his lifeless bones rested in the tomb.  But now he rests no more.  Now he is risen from the dead and that changes everything.  You can’t just start over again counting the days of the week as man has done since the beginning of creation, because this creation is waxing old, like a garment.  This creation is destined for fire, because the sin of man – the sin of us all – has ruined it.  We’ve ruined everything, and so everything must pass away; everything must be destroyed.  Everything – except for the living Lord Jesus.  He has already conquered sin and passed from death to immortality.  He is the beginning of the new creation, a perfect creation, and the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  He is our doorway out of this dying world and our entrance into the life of the next.

And we enter through that doorway through Holy Baptism.  It’s no accident that ancient baptismal fonts were octagonal – eight-sided – in shape.  Because the Church understood what was really going on in that Sacrament, what was really happening in the spiritual realm.  The baptized is being drawn out of this dying world and into the new creation of Christ, being clothed with Christ and with his resurrected life, the life that belongs to all of you who have been baptized and believe in the risen One.

So welcome to this day, fellow believers! Today is a new day with the dawning of new life and the beginning of the destruction of death. And whether we remember it as the first day, or the third day, or the eighth day, let us remember with the Psalmist that this is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps. 118:24)!  Amen.

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