The Resurrection of Our Lord + Mark 16:1-8 + April 1, 2018

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed. Alleluia!

Christ is risen from the dead. It was impossible for death to hold him because death had no real claim on Him. We die because we sin. This is the order established in Paradise when the Lord told Adam concerning the tree, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). By his disobedience Adam brought death upon himself and his entire race. “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men” (Romans 5:12). The Lord says in Ezekiel 18:20, “the soul who sins shall die.” St. Paul tells us in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.” It is only because we are sinners that death has become part of this life. Death has a claim on us because we are born of sinful stock and our sinful nature spends a lifetime bringing forth its wicked fruit of actual sins in our thoughts, our words, and our deeds.

But death has no claim on Christ for two reasons. First, as a man He had no sin. He asks the Pharisees to point out the sin for which they would condemn Him in John 8:46, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” Hebrews 4:15 says that He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” St. Peter, describing Christ’s conduct while He was being false accused and crucified, as the one  "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” (1 Peter 2:22-23). Christ was crucified and killed in the most shameful way imaginable, but not because of any sin of His own. He was crucified because God the Father “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He didn’t die because of His own transgressions against the Law, “but He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, for the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6). He dies because He is our willing substitute who takes the place of all humanity under the full measure of God’s wrath against sin. Death has no claim on Him because Jesus dies not for any sins of His own, but for my sins, for your sins, for the sins of everyone from Adam to last child born on the Last Day. The grave has no hold over Him because the grave is only for sinners.

The second reason death has no claim on Him is because He is fully God. Christ is the Word of God, the Son of God the Father, “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person,” (Hebrews 1:3). St. John says that “in Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Christ is the eternal Son of God, the Word of God who was with God in the beginning. He is not a mere man nor is He a creature created by God. John testifies that “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). He is the author of life by whom all things were created. He is the Word of God, of the same substance with the Father, so it is impossible for death to have any claim over Him, for God cannot die. Yet the eternal Son of God the Father assumes human flesh to that He might suffer and die according to the flesh, so that His merits and the sacrifice of His death might far outweigh the sins of the world. Since He is the God-Man, God the Son in human flesh, He cannot remain dead so on the third day, on this day, He burst forth from death’s prison, fully alive, never to die again. Lazarus was raised from death after four days and He died again because he was a sinful man. The same is true of all those whom Christ and the apostles raised. But this is not true of Christ Himself, for He is God in human flesh, without sin, who has died to make satisfaction for our sins, so He must rise to life.

Because death has no hold and claim on Christ, death now has no claim on those who are in Christ by faith. Death is the result of sin. But Christ has died to atone for the sins of the world. St. Paul says in Romans 4:25 that Christ “was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” He died for our offenses as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). When we feel our sins, when the heavy burden of guilt weighs upon our conscience, and when the Holy Spirit shows us our sins, Christ invites us to flee to Him. He invites us to seek refuge in His righteousness and merits, in His sufferings and death for our sins. He has died for our offenses. He is raised so that He might justify sinners by giving them the benefits of His cross when they believe the Gospel. He takes our sins and removes them from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). He promises to “cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19) when we flee to Him for mercy. He lives to forgive our sins by applying His atonement to us in the Gospel and by declaring us to be truly righteous in God’s sight with His perfect righteousness which He earned when He lived our life perfectly in the flesh. He is raised to life to give the benefits of His death to all who repent of sin and believe His gospel.

By taking away our sins, by absolving us, by applying the cleansing blood of Jesus, death has no claim on us any longer. You will still die at the end of your life, unless the Lord returns in glory before that day, of course. For Christ your Lord says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25). With these words Jesus promises that those who are justified by faith in Christ, “he who believes in me,” will die physically, but yet that one shall live even though he die. Because Christ is risen from the dead, all who are in Christ by faith have the promise of the resurrection of their bodies on the Last Day when Christ returns in glory to judge the living and death. St. Paul tells us that “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.’” (1 Corinthians 15:52-54). All who believe in Christ Jesus, the Eternal Son of God in human flesh, crucified for our sins and raised to justify us by faith, will be raised from the dead on that day to new and glorious life, even as Christ today is raised to new and glorious life, never to die again.

This is a glorious day with a message we should never tire of hearing. Christ is raised from the dead. In doing this, God the Father had vindicated His Son, showing that He was sinless and His sacrifice for our sins is acceptable in God’s sight. Christ is raised from the dead, the Father demonstrating to us that He wants all men to repent of their sins and flee to Christ in true faith, so that they might receive the forgiveness of all of their sins which He earned by His bitter, innocent suffering and death. Christ is raised from the dead to give us hope and fill us with joy, knowing that though we die, we already have the life of Christ, and that all who are in Him by a true and lively faith will rise to new life on the Last Day. Go in peace. Your Jesus, who is true God and true man, who died for your sins, is alive to to declare you righteous as often as you repent and believe the gospel, to preserve you in this faith against all the assaults and attacks of the devil, and to raise you to new, glorious life on the Last Day even as He is raised from the dead.

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed. Alleluia!