“Remember Easter”
Luke 24:1-12
Christ is Risen! (He is risen indeed.
Alelluia!)
A blessed and joyous Easter Sunday to
you, as we celebrate and remember the resurrection of our Lord Jesus
Christ! It is the high holy day of the Christian church. It is our
day of victory. It is the return of the Alelluias. For Christ has
crushed the head of the serpent. He has danced on the grave of
death. He lives, never to die again, forever and ever amen!
I remember Easter Sundays as a child.
Mom made you get all dressed up. That was the bad part. We went to
church, of course. And then when we got home – the egg hunt, the
candy, the chocolate, and hopefully a hollow bunny so you could break
off its ears.
Maybe you'll be making some easter
memories today. But it is good to be here, in God's house, to
remember what Easter is truly about. For just as Christmas has a
“reason for the season” and that reason is Christ.... so also
Easter is about remembering Christ, who rose from the dead. Easter
is a day to remember. So, our theme today, “Remember Easter”
The women came to the tomb of Jesus.
They meant to finish up after his rushed burial on Friday. Saturday
was the Sabbath – a day of rest in which no work was to be done.
It also served as a day for Christ to rest in the tomb. They came to
the place they saw him buried, and saw the large stone that sealed
his grave had been rolled away. And while standing there perplexed
by this, and wondering where Jesus' body was, the angels appeared and
announced his resurrection. The whole event must have been one they
remembered their whole lives. And since Luke has it recorded in his
Gospel, we too, can remember the details of this first Easter.
The original Greek is also helpful here
in upacking the meaning. The word for tomb is “mneme” from which
we get the English, “monument”. And a monument is place of
remembrance. We have the Washington Monument, or the Lincoln
Memorial Monument to remember our founding fathers. The Old
Testament people like Abraham and Jacob set up monuments in various
places, to remember God's good works of deliverance.
And fitting, isn't it, that a grave or
a tomb is a place of remembrance. Peter mentions, in Acts, that
David's tomb was still there in those days. It was a way they
remembered him. We go to the cemetery, even today, to visit, and
remember our loved ones long gone. We may see fancy monuments, set
up in memory of this or that person, and I always wonder how much the
family spent on this statue or that tall headstone – to be sure the
person would be remembered.
But that's the problem with death. It
is the great leveler. It wipes out your life, and leaves behind only
fading memories. The wages of our sin, what we all deserve, to be
sure. A problem we all share. Somewhere, out there in the future,
is a monument or a headstone with your name on it. Somewhere,
lurking ahead of you, is death. And when death comes, you will be
only a memory.
That is, without Easter. The whole
point of Easter is that Jesus takes the sting out of death for us.
He conquers the grave, draws the poison out of death, and makes it,
for us, merely the gate to eternal life.
So, the Resurrection of Jesus. That's
what we are remembering today. That Jesus actually died, and
actually rose, and truly lives even today and will never die again.
It is the greatest miracle of history.
It's what the angel at the tomb told
the women to do, too. Remember. Remember what Jesus told you!?
Remember how he
told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the
third day rise.” And they remembered his words...
Jesus rising from the dead – great as
it is – is even more amazing when you remember that he spoke
plainly about it ahead of time. Take Mark 8, for instance:
And he began to
teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be
rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be
killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly.
They came, in part, to remember a dear
loved one who had died. It is only when faced with the shock of his
resurrection and the awe of angelic messengers that they finally
begin to remember what Jesus had spoken about so plainly. The words
were all there. They heard them loud and clear. But they didn't
appreciate them. Or they didn't regard them. Or they didn't believe
them.
What words of Jesus do you remember?
Do you remember only those words that are convenient for you at the
time, like, “judge not lest ye be judged”? The words that make
you feel good about yourself? The words that perhaps set you at
ease, like “I am with you always”, or “Love one another”.
But maybe you don't like to remember some other words of Jesus, like,
“take up your cross and follow me”, or “Repent! The kingdom of
heaven is near” or “The last will be first and the first, last”.
In fact Jesus said so many things that it's hard to remember what he
said if we are not diligent in study and worship, eagerly hearing
again and again what he said. For we tend to remember what we hear
and see again and again – and we tend to forget what we don't.
The words of the angel at Easter are
worth remembering this day. “Why do you seek the living among the
dead? He is risen. He is not here.” These words are worthy of
being inscribed in stone, and made into a monument. They are words
to remember, even words to live by. Christ is risen! He is risen
indeed, Alelluia!
They are words to remember especially
in the hour of grief. When life's troubles come crashing down on you
like a stone . When the sorrow of death and loss bring tears to your
eyes. When you are perplexed by the nonsense and insanity of life in
this fallen world. Remember. Remember that Christ is risen!
Remember that Jesus lived and died and lives again. And because he
lives, you live. Because he reigns, you reign. Because he has gone
to His Father, your destiny there is also secure.
So don't seek the living among the
dead. Jesus isn't a footnote of history, lost to the grave like all
the other men we build monuments to remember. He is alive! And in
his living word, even today, he is present and active. We do much
more than remember him when we remember his words. We receive him.
And so we gather, every Sunday. Every Sunday is a “little Easter”
in which the church gathers to remember Jesus, what he did, what he
said. But not just in the historical, past-tense sense. But also
for our very present blessing.
And for his part – what does he,
Jesus, remember? Isaiah hints at it:
“For behold, I
create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former
things shall not be remembered
or come into
mind.”
The Resurrection of Christ is the
beginning of the new creation – the new and restored world order –
and the death knell of the old. The former things – wars,
disasters, griefs and troubles of all kind – violence and discord,
terror and fear – thorns and thistles, pains of labor, disease,
death, decay – all the former things that have to do with sin and
death and destruction – all will melt away, pass away, give way to
the new creation that Christ ushers in beginning with this, his
resurrection. That it happens on a Sunday has even led some to
consider Easter the 8th day of creation – the day of the
New Creation in Christ.
And the old things will be remembered
no more. Not by God, and not by us. He will not hold the sins of
our past against us. He simply doesn't remember them. They died
with Christ on the cross. And now, in the glory of the resurrection,
they aren't even a distant memory.
And remember this: that Christ's
resurrection means you, too, get a resurrection. That we are buried
with Christ in baptism, and raised with him to new life. But more
than just spiritually or figuratively. For Christ is the firstborn
of the dead, and that means his brothers and sisters will follow.
Jesus Christ conquers death, not only for himself, but for you. So
that at the last trumpet call of God, the dead in Christ will rise,
and we shall see him as he is, for we shall be like him. We'll see
him, in our new, resurrected bodies, with our own two eyes. Remember
what Job once wrote, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in
the end he shall stand upon the earth. And though my skin has been
destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.”
Jesus even promises a place for us, and
to come back and take us to be with him in his Father's house. And
when Jesus makes a promise, he always remembers.
So I wish you a blessed and memorable
Easter. I hope you enjoy family and friends, and celebrate with joy.
But above all, remember Easter. Remember Christ, who suffered and
died, now lives. Remember everything that he said. And know that in
Christ, God remembers your sin no more. But he will always remember
his promises to you – including a resurrection of your own.
Remember Easter. For Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.
Alelluia. Amen.
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