In Jesus Holy Name March 27, 2016
Easter Sunday Redeemer
Text: Matthew 28:1,5-6
“Our Enemy – Death- Defeated”
He is risen! He is risen indeed!
Easter is the ultimate test of faith. The one great watershed that ultimately divides believers from unbelievers
is the resurrection of Jesus from death.
St. Paul confirmed this reality when he wrote in I Cor. 15:14 “If Christ has not been raise, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”
You can’t have it both ways: Either Jesus actually rose from the grave or he did not. There is no middle ground. You cannot say he rose in spirit but not body, although some try.
Even after 2000 years the event of the Easter resurrection of Jesus brings joy to broken hearts, confidence to souls worried about their eternal destiny.
Why? The physical resurrection of the body of Jesus from death has shattered the grip of fear that confronts every living human being. People want to know what happens when our heart stops beating. Is there hope? Is there nothing? Is there Valhalla? Is their “reincarnation”? What is waiting on the “other side”?
It is Satan who holds people in this slavery to the “fear of death”. It is the resurrection of Jesus that shatters Satan’s grip and frees heart and mind from worry about our eternal destiny.
Philip Yancy wrote: “Christianity has two great symbols to offer the world, a cross and an empty tomb. An empty tomb without a cross would miss the central message of the gospel…”
The gospel of Matthew tells that in the very moment that Jesus died on the cross…”the curtain in the Jewish temple that kept people separated from the Holy Presence of God, was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook. The rocks split. The tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs. After the resurrection of Jesus they went into the city of Jerusalem and appeared to many people.”
Other religions have values for behavior. They have their leaders and religious teachers. There is one big difference. The graves of their religious founders are still occupied. Christianity has an empty grave because Jesus lives. He is risen!
Early in the morning. In the dim first light of dawn. Trudging feet. Drooping shoulders of sadness. With tear filled eyes, several women were walking to the garden where the body of Jesus had been placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. All the tombs were in the shadows. Mary saw well enough to discern a disaster. The stone had been rolled away from the entrance of Jesus’ tomb.
For Mary it was a sure sign that someone had tampered with the tomb, emptying it of all contents. Even without the presence of jewels or decorations it was not unusual for thieves to take the fine linen clothes that were filled with expensive spices.
The body of Jesus was gone! A shattered Mary ran off to tell the disciples. Soon Peter and John raced to the tomb to see for themselves. The women had told the truth. Jesus’ body was gone.
So powerful is the celebration of Easter -- so overwhelming has the resurrection of Christ proven to be, that even secular institutions have had no choice but to stand up and take note.
For example, several years ago the secular journal, Newsweek, in a lead story focusing on Easter, gave an almost unbelievable salute to the historical resurrection of Jesus. This is what Newsweek said, "This is the week that Christians around the world gather to remember the passion and the death of Jesus on a criminal's cross. Once again, the familiar story will be relived in liturgy, sermon, and song. The soberness of Good Friday, the tomb like solemnity of Holy Saturday, is followed by the radiance of Easter Sunday -- a proclamation of Christ's resurrection: New life by the power of God."
Newsweek then continues to say, "[It is indeed] as the apostle Paul insisted, the risen Christ is the center of the Christian faith, the mystery without which there would be no church, no hope of eternal life, no living Christ to encounter in Eucharistic bread and wine." "By any measure," Newsweek states, "the resurrection of Jesus is the most radical of Christian doctrines. Christ's teachings, His compassion for others, and even His death will find parallels in other stories and other religious traditions. However, for no other historical figure has the claim been made consistently that God raised Jesus from the dead."
Then Newsweek continues to salute the historical Easter resurrection by saying: "It was the appearances of Christ after His resurrection that lit the flame that fired a motley band of fearful disciples to proclaim the risen Christ, throughout the Greco-Roman empire."
The article goes on, "According to the late German Marxist Earnest Block, 'It wasn't the morality of Christ's Sermon on the Mount which enabled Christianity to conquer Roman paganism. Rather, the impetus that drove the early Christians was the belief that Jesus had indeed been raised from death back to life!'"
Unfortunately, after all these glowing comments about the historic resurrection of Jesus, Newsweek magazine then sadly returns to the typical approach which secular journalism often uses when it speaks about Christ and the Christian faith. After giving a solid salute to the historic facts of the resurrection, Newsweek then says, "Every generation reinterprets for itself the meaning of Jesus." This implies that the historic account of Christ's resurrection may not be considered all that reliable or useful for the strengthening of faith. Finally, according to Newsweek, "It then all depends not on the solid rock facts of history, but rather on how you feel about the historic resurrection."
Mary Magdalene looked into the tomb. In the exact place where the disciples saw discarded linen grave wrappings. Mary saw angels. At first she did not get it. The angels asked: “Woman, why are you weeping.” These messengers from heaven were not asking why she was so overwhelmed with emotion. They were asking why tears?
Why sorrow on such a joyful, miraculous day? Yes, Jesus was absent, not because some thief stole his body…. No. “Jesus is not here, for He has risen from the dead.”
For the Christian, death is just a transfer. This is what Easter is all about. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life and he who believes in me shall never die.”
The Apostle Paul writes: “…I do not want you to be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we know that when Jesus returns God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.”
I like the way Eugene Peterson writes these words of Paul: “…regarding the question, that has come up about what happens to those already dead and buried, we don’t want you to be in the dark any longer. First off, you must not (grieve over) them like people who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word. (It is not!) Since Jesus died and (shattered the chains of the grave (and death), God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus.”
You don’t have to understand it,you just have to accept it.
The bible tells us that by one man sin entered into the world, and death is the result of sin; so death passed to all human beings. All people are doomed to die, infants, teenagers, old people, moral people, religious people, everyone. However on earth, 2,000 years ago lived a Man who went about doing good. He healed the blind, enabled the deaf to hear, the lame to walk. And He raised people from death.
His name was Jesus. He was arrested, condemned to death. His followers watched him die on a Roman cross. He died on Friday. One of his followers took his body down and placed him in a grave. But this was not the end of the story. If it were… we would be hopeless, wanderers, searching for peace of mind and soul. Nor would we be here singing songs of joy.
“The cross on which Jesus died was the only footbridge that could get sinners across the chasm of sin, to the true Promised Land.” That is the perfume that kept Jesus on the cross, even as Satan continued to tempt him to come down.
You see…. Satan knew who Jesus was. When Jesus commanded the demons to come out of those possessed. (Mark 1:21; Luke 8) The demons shouted….”Jesus of Nazareth… we know who you are… you are the holy One of God… have you come to destroy us?”
The battle was engaged. It raged in the wilderness temptations. (Luke 4:13) It raged when Jesus raised the widow’s son from death in Nain, and again at the tomb of Lazarus. At the cross “It is not hard to recognize the voice of Satan through the Pharisees who begged. Who pleaded. Who taunted Jesus. “If you are the Son of God…come down from the cross and we will believe”. No it could not be. “For without the shedding of the perfect blood of the Lamb of God there is no forgiveness.”
On the cross Jesus took upon Himself every sin, every broken commandment and left them there. (Heb. 9:27-28 Col. 2:14) Philip Yancy was correct. You cannot separate the cross from the empty tomb.
“A rarely mentioned fact is that Resurrection Sunday marks the greatest battle in human history. It was the outcome of the battle we celebrate on Easter. The battle between Satan, who “holds the power of death” and the God the Father raged in the darkness of the tomb. God the Father defeated our greatest enemy, death, by raising Jesus from the tomb of death.
On that day the earth shook. The heavens shook. And the body of Jesus of Nazareth came to life. And death… the chief foe of the Almighty was defeated! Death. The archenemy of God looked as though it had won with the body of Jesus, God’s son, lying in a tomb. For moment “death” seemed victorious. But the fight was not over. Three days later God the Father stepped in. Death could not hold the Son of God in its endless domain. Jesus Christ rose victorious from the grave, victorious over death.
He offers that same victory to every person who will surrender their heart and knee to His authority.
You matter to God. He loves you so much that Jesus came to die and rise from the grave so that you and I can be assured of peace with God. “the last enemy of humanity has been defeated in the resurrection of Jesus. He is risen!
