Easter Joy

Easter Joy

Psalm 30

Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Let us begin by my asking you a question. What brings you the most joy in your life? (Pause) That does not seem on the surface to be a difficult question, or is it? You may have many joys in your life that may immediately come to mind. Perhaps it was your wedding day, children's birthday, and let us not forget grandchildren's visitation day, if you have grandchildren. Think about that list for a moment. How many of you had Christ's Resurrection on your list?

Psalm 30, written by King David, extols his joy in the LORD because the LORD had helped him escape a dangerous situation. David escaped near death, and his first response was to sing a psalm of joy to the LORD. Now think about how Jesus' disciples felt when they learned that He had risen from the grave on Easter morning just like He said he would. After a horrifying week, which started with rejoicing, ended in death, the first thing the followers of Jesus did on that first Easter morning was to express their joy that the Master was alive and well.

How many of you have Christ's Resurrection on their joys list? Should not the event of Jesus' Resurrection from the grave be number one on your joy list? In Matthew's Gospel chapter 28, verse 8, we discover that Mary Magdalene and Mary Jesus' mother felt great joy when they discovered the empty tomb and that Christ had risen. Easter joy was in their hearts. Jesus was alive, thus proving the truth of everything that He told them while He was with them. On Easter evening, He showed the nail holes in his hands and feet to His disciples, and their joy overwhelmed them.

In John's Gospel, chapter 16, verse 20, we read that sorrow was turned into joy. John compares sorrow to joy as a woman giving birth. You moms know how much pain and concern there is when you are giving birth. There are so many things that could go wrong during childbirth. The pain of contractions is a distractor from what was biologically happening. When the baby is born and cries for the first time, think about the joy in your heart that you just birthed a new human being. When that new baby is handed to you the pain is forgotten and is replaced by your love for that baby. You know that you will love that child for the rest of your days and beyond.

That kind of joy was experienced by the disciples and followers of Jesus on the first Easter. The men and women who know Jesus and those who traveled with him experienced the great deliverance of the LORD's promises on the Resurrection morning. The prophets had told the people for centuries that a day would come when the Messiah of the world would sacrifice Himself for them. The sign of the promise was not fully understood or fully known at that moment. They discovered that the first Easter morning what everything Jesus told them meant. The years of Jesus' teaching and the events of Passion week started to make some sense. They rejoiced and were glad in the event of that first Easter. Jesus had transformed their heaviness of sackcloth and mourning into an incredible, almost indescribable joy. The world had not seen a great joy like this since the beginning of time when the LORD placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It could be called a divine joy. That is how intense that first Easter Joy was.

How about the joy Jesus must have felt that morning. He triumphed over Satan. He brought us the message of how to prepare ourselves for entrance into Heaven. Through His willingness to obey the Father's commandment, He saved us from eternity to Satan. We can be accepted into the LORD's Heaven because of the Resurrection. Jesus received His throne in Heaven, and that had to be an incredibly joyous event.

Twenty centuries have passed since Jesus' Resurrection. Every year in the spring, we come together as His church and celebrate His Resurrection. We come together to remember the events that led to the Resurrection. Some of the events fill us with emotions of sadness. The climax of the week is Easter morning, when we are filled with Easter Joy. Honestly speaking, Easter joy has been diminishing over the past two and probably more decades. Two decades ago, the church was so filled; how filled was it? (Pause) We had to put folding chairs in the aisle ways in the sanctuary. Today's Easter is not a good one to look at for attendance. Actually, 2020 was also poor. In 2019 Easter worship attendance was not as good as it was in the late 20th century, the 1990s. What happened? It is difficult to pass down Easter Joy's feelings to the next generation with low attendance and membership. Easter chocolate is a beautiful thing, but it is not a substitute for Easter joy because the LORD raised Christ from the dead.