1 Easter Year C 4/20/2025
Isaiah 65:17-25; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26; John 20:1-18
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Happy Easter.
Today is the day that marks Earth’s calendar.
Today is the day that changed the world forever.
Today is the day that Jesus rose from the grave so many centuries ago.
After coming to earth in miraculous fashion through the virgin birth…
Christ grew up in an obscure town called Nazareth.
At about the age of 30 he was baptized by the prophet John in the river Jordan.
He proclaimed the Kingdom of God to Jewish people and broke barriers speaking with Gentiles.
He taught God’s law…
God’s grace…
And God’s love.
He proclaimed good news to the poor.
He proclaimed freedom for prisoners…
He recovered the sight for the blind,
He set the oppressed free,
And He proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4.18-19)
Jesus followed the law of Moses.
Although fully human…
He never sinned.
And yet he spoke with human emotion…
And also, the veracity of the very voice of God.
And yet his own people did not recognize him…
They did not know him.
And they rejected him.
They arrested him in a garden.
The one who created humankind, both male and female and placed them in a garden was now shackled and led out of a garden.
He was brought before a makeshift court…
And before a foreign leader…
Whipped and beaten…
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53.7)
Jesus was led to a place just outside the city walls…
To a place called Golgotha…
Where he was nailed to a cross.
It was here that…
he was pierced for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53.5)
His work on the cross…
The perfect for the imperfect…
The righteous for the unrighteous…
Is the work of forgiveness…
It is on the cross that we lay down our sins.
He was laid in a tomb on that Friday afternoon…
The sky grew dark…
While his followers scattered…
His disciples hid…
He conquered death, sin, and the grave…
Because early on that Sunday morning…
Jesus rose from the grave.
Changing the world forever.
Ever since that Sunday…
There has never been a Sunday in the history of the world since…
Where Christians have not gathered together to worship on the Lord’s Day of the resurrection.
Each Sunday we gather together to proclaim the bodily resurrection of our Lord.
The resurrection is our victory.
The resurrection is our hope.
The resurrection is our song of love.
So let the songs sing out…
As the one we sang this morning…
The words being sung from the 14th century…
All the way to today…
600 years of singing:
Jesus Christ is risen today,
Our triumphant holy day,
Who did once upon the cross,
Suffer to redeem our loss.
The death and resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, is the climax of human history.
It’s the climax of the story of God.
The climax of a novel is usually about three quarters through the book.
Everything builds up to that moment.
All the details of the story work their way…
Weave there way…
To the climax…
Where the plot is uncovered…
And the Aha! Moment is revealed.
After the climax of the book…
The remaining details are summarized.
Which is why the cliché ending is: And they lived happily ever after.
That would be the end of God’s story too.
When Christ returns, we could say: And they lived happily ever after.
But the focal point of our story…
Our story in God…
is the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
Part of the reason we find such a disconnect in this world as Christians is due to the fact that we find such significance in the resurrection of Jesus.
Our cultural story is much different…
Our cultural story is that we are getting better and better…
At least attempting to…
We just have to keep going forward and eventually we will find a sort of nirvana, some kind of utopia, …
an ultimate human flourishing experience.
In other words, the climax hasn’t come yet.
This is why in our society progress and technology rule the day.
These are the tools to help human progression.
These are the current trends that humans place their hope in.
That one day humanity will figure it out.
As followers of Jesus, we look back and say Christ is risen.
And we view the world from this historical fact.
The culture looks forward and says the truth is yet to come…
Discounting what is old as worn and outdated.
But without Christ’s resurrection there is no hope.
There is no eternal life.
Sin, death, and the grave have not been defeated.
But the good news of the Gospel is that they are defeated.
Which is why St. Paul proclaimed along with the prophets Isaiah and Hosea…
He writes in 1 Corinthians 15:
Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God!
He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Corinthians 15.54-57)
That is why we have hope in this world.
Because Jesus Christ came, died, and rose from the grave.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is what makes Christianity different than any other religion.
It’s what makes Jesus different than any other leader.
Jesus is the one that changes everything…
It is Jesus the Messiah that we follow.
The French Emperor of the early 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte, recognized the greatness of Jesus.
He wrote:
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself have founded great empires, but on what did those creations of our genius rest?
Upon force.
But Jesus founded his on love.
This very day millions would die for him.
I have inspired multitudes with enthusiastic devotion: they would die for me.
But to do it, I had to be present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, my voice.
When I saw men and spoke to them, I lit up the flame of devotion in their hearts.
But Jesus Christ by some mysterious influence,
even through the lapse of eighteen centuries,
so draws the hearts of men towards him that thousands at a word would rush through fire and flood for him,
not counting their lives dear to themselves. [1]
Many have tried to squash the name of Jesus…
such as communist countries,
but the good news of Jesus goes forth…
even under the radar.
Many have tried to minimize the name of Jesus…
such as in the secular West,
but the good news of Jesus finds resurgence.
Many have tried to use the influence of Jesus for their own purposes… such as the political left and the political right…
but the good news of Jesus…
the love, grace, and hope will not be maimed by those trying to abuse it.
The resurrection of our Lord is the beauty of our belief.
It is the goal and the hope.
It is the light that shines in the world.
The first service…
The first worship of Easter in our Church Calendar is the Easter Vigil.
It is usually after sunset on Holy Saturday or early in the dark on Easter morning… Ours was last night.
In that service the ancient words of the Exsultet are proclaimed by a deacon.
The words are enchanting…
Mystical…
Beautiful…
At the end of the Exsultet the words are declared:
For Christ the morning star has risen in glory;
Christ is risen from the dead and his flame of love still burns within us!
Christ sheds his peaceful light on all the world!
Christ lives and reigns for ever and ever!
This is the good news in Christ Jesus.
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
This is the good news that we proclaim in this world.
This is the hope for all humanity.
This is the love of God that speaks into our existence…
Our purpose…
The very nature of who we are.
May we tell this good news in the world.
As the wonderful hymn sings out:
He is risen, he is risen!
Tell it out with joyful voice:
He has burst his three days prison;
Let the whole wide earth rejoice:
Death is conquered, we are free,
Christ has won the victory.
Amen.
The Lord is risen!
He is risen indeed.
Amen.
[1] Napoleon Bonaparte Quote from Michael Green, But Don’t All Religions Lead to God? (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002), 28-29.
