He is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) Friday we came and declared our God to be dead. This morning we come to declare that not even death could hold Him, for He has conquered death, He has risen and He lives and reigns to all eternity.
This morning we come early to the tomb with Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary came as soon as she could following the Sabbath, which actually ended at sunset on Saturday. She came as soon as the Sun began to rise. She came, but she could not find Jesus. She could not find Jesus’ physical body and she was upset, because she did not understand why she could not find His body. Mary had witnessed Jesus suffer and die on the cross. She had witnessed the body of Jesus being buried. She came to the place where He was buried and yet, she could not find Jesus. She could not find Jesus because she did not understand the Word. She did not understand that Jesus did what He said He would do, He rose from the dead.
The account of the resurrection is quite an historical account. It is an almost unbelievable account. Yet, it is a history of great joy. To the uninitiated it is an account of wonder. Many years ago, while serving in a congregation that had a day care facility, there was one little boy in the day care who heard what he thought was something unbelievable. Every week on a certain day, Wednesday I believe it was, the children would come into the church sanctuary for a short chapel service. We would sing some songs and the talk about Jesus. One such morning, following Easter, while we were talking about Jesus dying on the cross this little boy understood what it meant that Jesus died on the cross. But as I went on, and when I told him that Jesus rose from the dead his response was, “Nuh uh!” It seems as if he had never heard that great good news and he could not believe it. Well, he does believe it now. Thanks be to God.
According to our sinful human nature, we are like Mary, we cannot find Jesus. No matter how hard we look, we cannot find Jesus. Perhaps a part of our problem might be that we have a tendency to look in all the wrong places. Too often today we are encouraged to look inside ourselves. Too often we are told the answer is in us and we can do it. Unfortunately, because of our sinful nature, because we are conceived and born in sin, because every intention of our hearts is evil all the time, when we look inside ourselves we do not see Jesus, rather we see our sinful selves. Again, we look in all the wrong places. Thanks be to God, that instead of our looking for Jesus the fact is that Jesus is constantly seeking us and finding us. He is the one who comes to us. He is the one who gives us faith.
Getting back to our text, Jesus brings Mary to a right understanding of all the events that have taken place. Jesus opens Mary’s heart and mind through the Word, His Word. Jesus gives Mary the faith that she needs to understand and to believe.
In much the same way, Jesus opens our hearts to believe. He comes to us through the means of grace, through the Word and the Sacraments to bring us to faith, to strengthen our faith and to keep us in faith until He comes again. Jesus comes to us through water and the Word, His name at our Baptism. Jesus comes to us to forgive our sins as we make confession of our sins and hear His Word of Absolution through the Pastor’s mouth. Jesus gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith through our hearing of His Holy Word read and proclaimed. Jesus strengthens our faith as we eat His body and drink His blood in His Holy Supper. It is through these very means, these means of grace, these means of gift giving that Jesus gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith. And perhaps you may have noticed that the heart of these means, the power of the means is the very Word of God Himself.
Indeed, Jesus’ desire is that all people are saved. Jesus’ desire is that the message of salvation is proclaimed to all. He is the Savior of all people and as such He comes to all people to open their hearts so that all will believe.
Mary’s response to seeing Jesus alive was to go out and tell others. She could not keep the news to herself. Our text points out that Jesus tells her to go and tell the disciples, but I think she would have done that anyway.
Mary’s faith overflows with confession. It is as if she could not contain her words. The news, the great good news, the excitement, that her Lord was not dead, but was alive.
Likewise, we overflow with our confession as we are lead by the means of grace. As we make use of the means of grace, reading our Bible, remembering our Baptism, confessing our sins and hearing the most beautiful words of absolution, that our sins are forgiven, coming to the Lord’s Supper, as we make use of these means, the Holy Spirit works through these means to bring us to faith, to strengthen us in faith and to keep us in faith until Christ comes again to take us to heaven. Our confession overflows into our lives. People know that we have faith, they know our confession because of the way we live, what we think, what we say and what we do. We cannot hide our faith. Likewise, if people do not know our confession, is it really our confession?
What do we do? We believe as the Lord calls us to believe. I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, His Word, the means of grace, enlightened me with His gifts, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, more means of grace. He works in me, motivating me to do the good works which God has for me to do.
Thus, we share the good news as the Lord moves us. We cannot help but bubble over with the good news of salvation. I have used and will continue to use the illustration of the pitcher and the cup. As our cups are filled with God’s Word from His pitcher, the Bible, we get to the point where we overflow and spill that Word on to others, so that they too are brought to faith and are a part of God’s kingdom.
And we give glory to the Lord. We give glory to the Lord as we live our lives to His glory. We give glory to the Lord as we live in such a way that others see us and say, not, what a great person they are, but what a great God they have.
This morning we come to the tomb with Mary. We have been with Jesus through His long hours of suffering and death on the cross. We watched as He suffered the worst death of all, death on the cross and eternal death and hell. We have come early with Mary to watch as she came to complete the burial preparations and now we have seen, the body is not in the grave. We rejoice and celebrate because we know now that our God is not dead, but that He is risen. Indeed, we now rejoice because Jesus has defeated sin, death and the devil. He has won the victory. Our sins have been forgiven, the price being paid by Jesus. What a great God we have. What loving God we have. What a powerful God we have. Again, what a living God we have. We worship, not a dead God but a living God. And so we proclaim to all: He is risen! (He is risen indeed, Alleluia.) Amen.
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