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

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Jesus had died the shameful death of the cross on Friday afternoon. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took His body, hastily prepared it for burial, and interred him. Then there was nothing to do but wait because the Sabbath began and no work could be done on the Sabbath. The only thing they could do was mourn. There was plenty of that, in spite of how many times Jesus had taught His disciples that it was necessary for Him to die and rise three days later. Once the Sabbath is over, very early on the first day of the week, this day, the woman venture to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body again. But they soon see that the stone which blocked the entrance to the tomb had been rolled away and the seal with which the Jews had secured the stone was broken. The woman enter the tomb to find the exact opposite of what they expect to find. Instead of the lifeless corpse of Jesus they see “a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side,” who is an angel, very much alive. They’re alarmed. Who wouldn’t be? But then they hear the first Easter sermon ever preached. “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.”

Jesus is risen from the dead. Christ is victorious over death. Christ, the one who was crucified for the sins of the world, is now alive, raised to life because as the Son of God, death could not hold Him. Raised to life, His atoning sacrifice accepted by God the Father. Resurrected to new life, never to die again, for the work which He set out to accomplish, earning forgiveness of sins, is finished. The angel points to the place where Jesus had been laid and it’s empty. He offers them more proof. “But go, tell His disciples – and Peter – that he is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.” Jesus didn’t rise, never to be seen again. He promised to meet with His disciples after His resurrection in Galilee. St. Paul tells us, “He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:5-7). Hundreds of eyewitnesses to this immutable fact: Christ is risen from dead, very much alive, having conquered death.

St. Paul says that “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” Death is most certainly our enemy. Everyone knows that and it’s the enemy that everyone will go to great lengths to evade. People are told, and believe, that with a healthy diet and enough exercise, they can forestall death and push back their expiration date by years. There’s nothing wrong with a good diet and exercise. Those are some of the ways we take of our bodies, given to us by God, so that we can serve our neighbors in love. But it’s foolish to imagine that we have any control over our death. Solomon wisely writes in Ecclesiastes 8:8, “No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, And no one has power in the day of death.” But turning themselves from their Creator, many strive to retain the spirit and have power in the day of death. Several months ago I read an article online about a ranch called Timeship down the road in Comfort, TX. Timeship is a fortress south of Comfort where the Stasis organization plans to cryogenically freeze people’s brains, heads, and bodies for the future, so when technology catches up with human hubris, people can be reanimated in repaired or “new, age-resistant” bodies. It’s something straight out of science fiction that’s almost within humanity’s grasp. It’s goal? “To conquer aging and eventually death.” This is an impossible goal, and those who pursue such things worship a god that can’t save them from death.

Conquering death by science is impossible because the problem of death isn’t a problem of biology. It’s the consequence of sin. St. Paul says, “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12). All men die because all men are sinners. All men are sinners because all men are born of Adam, whose disobedience plunged his entire race into sin and death. That’s why we die. That’s why our bodies break down. That’s why we deteriorate as we age. It’s inevitable, which is why we call it the debt of nature, specifically the sinful nature that adheres in all of us. Rejecting its creator, rejecting the reality of sin, and willfully ignoring the resurrection of Christ, the world must try to conquer death itself. And no matter its advances it will fail because it doesn’t deal the cause of death in all of us.

Contrast this attempt to the angel’s message the women, and you, hear today. Christ has conquered death, not by avoiding it, forestalling it, or pushing it off to a later date, but by dying as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He bears our sins in His body on the cross. His death atones for the sins of the world and earns the forgiveness of sins for every sin ever committed. Condemnation came through Adam and spread to all His race because all are “in Adam” because we’re born of Adam’s line. But Christ earns the forgiveness of sins and a perfect righteousness so that all who “in Christ” by faith, that is, all who believe the Gospel and trust the redemption Christ earned, receive the forgiveness of sins. All who flee to Christ for mercy are clothed with Christ’s perfect righteousness so that in spite of their sins, God declares them righteous by faith for Christ’s sake. Christ dies to earn the forgiveness of your sins. He lives in order to give you what He earned. That’s how sin in conquered in you, by repenting of it and believing the Gospel that Christ has died to take away your sins; that He lives to gives you all He earned in His innocent life and death.

Christ conquers death because He had no sin. He was vindicated by God the Father, the resurrection proving that Christ was perfectly righteousness, the only man who didn’t deserve death because He had no sin. But Christ’s resurrection shows us that God the Father accepted the sacrifice of His only-begotten Son for the sins of the world. That victory over death is His and He promises His victory to all who believe the gospel as well. You will still die,unless the Lord returns in glory before that day. But death can’t be avoided, forestalled, or pushed off indefinitely, because our natures are still sinful, though God doesn’t count sins against us for Christ’s sake. Die you must. But death is not permanent for those who believe Christ. He promises in John 11:25-26, “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” Though you die, you will live because Christ will raise you on the last day along with all believers. The life to which you will be raised will be a life which is like Christ’s resurrected life, for death won’t exist anymore. Whoever lives and believes in Him shall not die the second death of everlasting condemnation, but will live forever in paradise with Him.

Try as the world may to conquer death, it is all in vain, for one has already conquered death and destroyed the power of sin. He lives to justify all who believe in Him so that though you taste death, you will not die eternally, but live. Don’t be alarmed. Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. But He is risen from the grave, so all who are united to Christ by faith and baptism will live as well. He has conquered death so that by faith in Him, you may have the forgiveness of your sins and conquer death, not by science, not by any human effort, but by faith alone in Christ. Amen.

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!