John 20:1-18.                     He is Risen Indeed!!                                       5/4/15

¹ Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.² So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹² and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³ They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵ He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

¹⁷ Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Yes our Lord Jesus is risen from the dead. This is the most amazing news our world has ever heard and ever will hear.  Here we have a message and reality that turns life on its head and gives hope and confidence  for us to go forward with. Here in the midst of a life of troubles and death we have that which gives real life and certainty with which we can go forward with.

To keep the theme of the weekend going, here the great ‘I am’ continues to be present and active in our world. He didn’t walk away from us after the seeming defeat on the cross of Good Friday. Instead he now raises up his Son from the dead. He announces clearly and boldly that this Jesus who died on the cross, there won the victory over sin, death and the devil.

The great ‘I am’ – God almighty himself is still in control of the situation. This is all happening because he wanted it to happen so that we can have forgiveness of sins, hope and life in a hopeless, dying world. It is all happening so that we can look beyond the frustrations and futility of this life, to him who is the centre and source of life itself and then be able to truly live.

But the question for so many today is, as it was on that first Easter morning;  can this be for real? Surely this is all only a fairy story. People just don’t rise from the dead. There is so much ‘bull dust’ peddled around our world today, that you can’t believe anything anymore. Look most people around us today don’t believe this stuff anymore, so surely there must be something in that.

Look, even when the churches give their Easter messages to the media, there is no depth to the message of Easter. It is simply about encouragement to be more caring for the marginalized in our community; more accepting of one another; the churches need to be more open and honest; an example of sacrifice that we are to follow; and the list goes on.

Now these things are all good and right, but look we all know that, and try to do that. We don’t need a Jesus, and one who supposedly rose from the dead, to do that. We all know that it is important that we try to do the right thing. So if Easter is simply all about us and what we have to and must do as Christians and Easter is to be our impetus to try a bit harder, we don’t need this Jesus stuff. We don’t need to try to believe in some rising from the dead to do that.

Is it any wonder that fewer and fewer people believe these days? Is it any wonder that everyone is out for a long weekend away or have other things to do? Is it any wonder that the church is no longer relevant?

Where is the strong and confident message that Jesus has risen from the dead defeating the power of death. Where is the vital message that this Jesus, God’s very own Son, the great “I am,’ died taking the punishment for all of our sin so that God would not punish us as we deserve for failing to be the people that we are meant to be. Where is the proclamation of the certainty that just as Jesus was raised from the dead so also will we who believe in Jesus Christ and what he has done for us through his death and resurrection.

Where is the boldness of Peter today that proclaims the clear and powerful message of Easter; As we just heard in the reading from Acts chapter 10.

³⁹ “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, ⁴⁰ but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. ⁴¹ He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

This is what Easter is all about. This is why it is so important. This is what makes Easter the greatest event in all of history. This is why Christians across the centuries has stopped year after year, and taken the time to reflect on and give thanks to God for this truly momentous event. This is why they made time to worship at the three great Easter Services.

All so that God could continue to remind them of what he has done for them, in rescuing them from an eternity in hell and giving them the assurance of forgiveness and thereby salvation and eternal life with God in heaven. All so that he could encourage us in the face of the troubles and death of this life, that there is hope; that there is life in connection with Jesus. Also and particularly, so that we can face Judgment Day and the Judge with the confidence of knowing that Jesus has paid the price for our rebellion.

And Jesus has risen indeed, so that we can be sure of all of this. This is for real. Here remember there is ample evidence even today, that this is all so. A few years back an unbelieving lawyer set about looking at the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection and came to the conclusion that it did happen. In fact he said, that if it was brought before a court of Law today, two thousand years after the event, it would still be proven beyond doubt that it happened.

Also our readings here all remind us that despite their initial unbelief, all those early disciples saw and testify to the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead. In other readings we have Jesus showing them from the Old Testament Scriptures that all of this was to take place. There are many, many references to prophecies that were made hundreds of years before, that all of this would happen. The early disciples, after they saw Jesus after his resurrection and were reminded of all of this, they had no doubts that this was all for real.

Also we find that the very disciples who were hiding away for fear that they too would be killed, after they saw the risen Lord Jesus they were willing to tell everyone, including those who had Jesus put to death, that he was alive and that he had a message of forgiveness and hope for all. The result was and has continued on through the centuries to be that many, many people have come to believe this message and their lives have been transformed.

Yes Jesus has risen indeed. We too can be confident of this fact that Jesus, the great ‘I am’ did die on the cross, taking our punishment on himself so that we might be forgiven. This Jesus died to pay the price so that we can face Judgement Day with the assurance that we who believe in him will be declared righteous. This same Jesus was then raised to life three days later so that we can be sure that what he did for us on Good Friday was for real. But also so that we can be sure that he has won the victory over death. So all who are connected to him can know for sure that just as Jesus was raised from the dead so also will we.

This is the greatest news that we could ever know or be a part of. It is also so important that we will want to take it seriously, to the point we allow it influence everything else that we do. Jesus Christ will be our Lord – the one who controls everything that we are and do. It will also be the one message that we will want everyone else to know. We will stand by it, proclaiming the truth of it boldly and clearly.

Yes, our Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally. The great ‘I am’ has died and risen again for us and for our salvation. So to him then be all glory and honour now and always. Amen.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish