Easter Sunday

Matthew 27:51-54 - The Resurrection of Our Lord - April 20, 2014
Good Friday’s Easter Sunday

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

That portion of Scripture which we consider this Easter morning the Holy Spirit caused to be recorded in the twenty-seventh chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, starting at the fifty-fourth verse, which we read as follows in Jesus’ name: 

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.  So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

These are your words, holy Father; sanctify us in the truth; your word is truth.  Amen. 

There is no resurrection without the crucifixion.  And so there’s no such thing as celebrating Easter morning if we do not celebrate Good Friday.  Now, obviously this means that we should come to church and hear the word of God on Good Friday.  After all, what more fitting time to mediate on what our Lord Jesus has done for us than on the day when he did it?  And how else are we poor sinners supposed to learn to properly meditate on Christ’s suffering at all other than by gathering as his lambs to hear his holy word?  But more importantly than just being here and doing that on this day or another, the fact that there is no Easter apart from Good Friday means that we should believe the gospel and see the connection between these two events.  To this end, this morning on this indescribably wonderful festival of Christ’s resurrection, we consider also the death that Jesus rose from. 

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We should prepare for the celebration of Alleluia joy by recognizing the cause and termination of Christ’s gruesome death.  We should repent of our sins and truly consider the pain and heartache that it causes everyone around us on one hand, and on the other hand, how much it offends God who made us. 

We see the true measure of our sin in the death of Jesus. 

There we see how much pain our selfish desires and pride cause others as we see our Brother Jesus suffer because of it.  We think our secret sins are harmless.  We figure we still fulfill our duties.  No one gets hurt.  It’s not like I act on the thoughts I entertain.  But on the cross of Jesus we see that such lame excuses are lies designed to make us think lightly about our need for Jesus.  Nothing is harmless.  The poison of sin that the devil injected into our first parents is never benign.  This poison continues to rush through ever pulse that keeps us alive.  It influences every decision we make – not only in how to treat others, but in how we think of them.  Our sin influences what we will talk about, what we will watch on TV, whether we will defend someone, if we will listen to sincere admonishment, or just complain in our minds about how it was said instead of taking criticism to heart.  Or do we just make sure that no one is immediately put out to determine whether it’s OK to proceed with our private thoughts?  Even if we don’t readily see the harm that our secret sins cause other people, in Christ’s suffering we are taught to see it clearly.  It hurt him a lot. 

There we also see how angry our sin makes God.  Consider for a moment the magnitude and severity of God’s wrath that he would actually behave in such a way against his own eternal Son – a relationship so bound by love that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are mysteriously united in one divine essence although three distinct persons.  What compelled him to behave toward his Son in such a hateful way?    It is because his Son bore your sin.  He became sin, as the Apostle says – but not sin in the abstract – a mere idea that miffs God.  No, he became your sin – sin in the concrete.  He became your bad habits, your slowness to believe, your impatience with your spouse, your judging your neighbor, your coveting for what God gave that guy and withheld from you, lost temper, your vanity, your laziness, your lack of spiritual devotion.   

These are our sins.  We do not think of them on our own.  But we must learn to, as Jesus said from the cross, “If they do this to the green wood, what will be done to the dry?” (Luke 23:31).  There is no life apart from repentance.   There is no faith apart from dying to the world and crucifying the flesh with its evil desires.  There is no Easter without Good Friday.  Only in the death of Christ do we truly see how angry our sin makes God. 

And yet, dear Christians, you who came here for an uplifting Easter sermon, lift up your hearts.  For there in the death of Christ we also see the greatest love one Man has shown to others.  There on the cross of Jesus we see the magnitude and sincerity of God’s love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8), that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Greater love no man has known (John 15:13).  And we know it.  Because he who laid down his life for us calls us his friends.  We see the life and faith we need, because there on the cross of Good Friday, we even see a bit of Easter.  This is where our reading begins. 

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Just as there is no Easter apart from Good Friday, so there is no Good Friday apart from Easter Sunday.  There is no death of Christ apart from the Father accepting his sacrifice and raising him to life.  The Father required atonement for our sins.  He sent his Son to make atonement by shedding his blood.  He did.  He shed his blood for the sins of the world and for yours.  God accepted his sacrifice.  Jesus knew he would.  The Bible said so.  In fact, his was the only sacrifice God ever truly accepted.  All Old Testament offerings of blood borrowed their value from this one event upon which all history hinges.  And God proved it when Jesus died: “behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” 

The Temple was where the sacrifices were made.  But it wasn’t out in the open.  There were layers to the Temple, and the deeper you got going in the stricter the access was.  In the center was the Holy Place.  There the priests would fulfill their daily duties of offering sacrifices.  But even deeper in was the Holy of Holies.  This room was only entered once a year on the Day of Atonement by the high priest.  Only the high priest entered to stand in the presence of God and sprinkle upon the Mercy Seat the blood of a bull, for himself, and of a goat for the people.  What separated this sacred room from the rest of the Temple was a veil, or a curtain.  It wasn’t sheer or delicate like our curtains tend to be.  It was heavy, like a wall – literally inches thick of strong, expensive, beautiful fabric.  It was a real barrier. 

The moment Jesus died, it tore from top to bottom.  This means God did it.  This means the wall of separation was destroyed by God.  This means that no more sacrifices were needed.  No more death was required.  God was satisfied with the death of Jesus.  This means that God is satisfied with us.  No longer does anyone’s sin render him unclean to enter God’s presence.  Access is now granted to us who claim nothing more than the blood of Jesus. 

Christ is the true High Priest.  He offers himself.  He is spotless and pure.  He has obtained eternal redemption.  His blood cleanses our consciences from all sins so that we can stand before the living God and not die (Hebrews 9:11-14). 

Now what does this have to do with Easter on Good Friday?  Everything!  Jesus is the living God.  His resurrection was the public declaration that the Father is pleased with what he offered on the cross.  But he did not take three days to make up his mind.  He was satisfied the moment Jesus died.  It truly was finished, as Jesus said.  And in the tearing of the veil, God gave a taste of Easter.  He gave, for anyone who was paying attention, the proof that Jesus would not stay dead.  There is no Good Friday without Easter. 

Easter was on his mind.  Easter was his hope even when he died, because knowledge of salvation and peace with God and eternal life in heaven for us poor sinners occupied his every thought.  Indeed it was what sustained him in his agony, and what allowed him to rest in hope while his body lay buried in death.  It was the life that he was winning for us.  Easter was on his mind. 

There is no Good Friday without Easter.  It is not God’s desire to kill the sinner that makes Good Friday so good.  It is his desire to give us life.  Consider these words from the hymn:

O wondrous Love, what hast Thou done!
The Father offers up His Son!
The Son, content, descendeth!
O Love, how strong Thou art to save!
Thou beddest Him within the grave
Whose word the mountains rendeth.

This is a clever line.  The One who dies, the One who pays our price, and who swallows into himself all the wrath of God against our sin is bedded in the grave as One who has succumbed to the curse of Adam.  But he did not succumb in defeat.  He consented willingly so that he might share his victory with us.  In his death, the mountains were rent, torn apart, by the power of his love for us: “the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened,” as St. Matthew reports. 

The One who dies, by dying, opens our graves.  A little Easter on Good Friday.  See?  There is no Good Friday without Easter.  When Jesus gave his life, he wasn't only paying for sin that kept us out of heaven; he was procuring the blessing that welcomed us in.  He wasn’t just satiating God’s wrath.  He was gaining his favor.  He was opening our graves.  He was obtaining life for death. 

People mock the biblical doctrine of the Atonement by saying that it depicts God as angry.  “He looks vengeful, like he’s just got retribution on his mind. Isn’t God a loving God?”  Yes.  But God teaches us what love is.  It’s true that God’s wrath is real.  We need to know that.  But Jesus bore it all.  And we see in the moment of his death what was really on God’s mind the whole time.  We see the strength of God’s wondrous love toward sinners.  He wants to give us life.  He spares no time.  In the tearing of the curtain and in the opening of graves, we see the strength of his love, because we see a foretaste of Easter.  God can’t keep silent about the fact that Jesus’ death brings us life.  Heaven is opened, says the torn veil; so sin cannot keep us from God.  Graves are opened, says the split rocks; so death cannot keep us from God.  All barriers destroyed.  This is what Good Friday teaches us about Easter! 

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But it’s Easter today.  And we’re here today to celebrate what happened after Jesus died, after he rested in the grave that was ours, and thus fulfilled the Sabbath that had been holy since God first finished his work of creation.  But he is not resting anymore.  It’s Easter.  Christ is risen!  And so today is not the new Sabbath.  It is a new creation.  The law is fulfilled.  It cannot condemn you.  All barriers are torn down.  But today is holy.  It’s holier than the Sabbath ever could have been because it is the day when our Savior destroyed the power of sin, death, and hell by rising from the grave. 

We commemorate this day every Sunday, or Lord’s Day, not because it is a new law, but precisely the opposite – because it is such good news.  He left our sin in the grave so that we might rest from our labors.  His labors were pleasing to God.  And his resurrection proves it. God doesn’t raise sinners.  Sinners stay dead.  But if Jesus carried all our sin, and yet he rose, that means that all our sin is gone.  There is nothing that needs to be done by us. 

Looking for sin … Looking for death … He isn’t here.  He is risen.  So we come here to find Jesus.  He speaks his living word.  He gives us his living body and blood. 

We don’t measure how pleased God is by how well we serve him or by how well we keep our Lenten fast of repentance.  We don’t dwell on our broken promises and cruel thoughts and words that burden our conscience and that have hurt others.  We confess them instead and see in the death of Jesus that God will never throw them in our face.  He can’t.  Christ bore them.  He made them his – so completely his that he died for them.  And he rose without them.  That means our sins are gone.  In the resurrection of Jesus we see the fruit of God’s forgiveness.  By raising him who died for all sin, the Father has bound himself to give us life as well.  Because by raising Jesus, he has declared us righteous. 

And so this Easter proclamation defines everything we preach when we preach Christ crucified.  And through it, God breaks down one more barrier.  He breaks down the wall of unbelief, doubt, fear, regret, and even sadness in our hearts so that we might declare with the centurion who saw him die, “Truly this was the Son of God! — Truly this was a righteous man.”   He was right.   And God said the exact same thing when he made Jesus rise again.  This is my Son.  He is righteous.  And so he says it about us.  We are sons of God by our Baptism, which joins us to Christ’s death and resurrection.  We are righteous by faith.  We are holy in his sight.  And just as “many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and came out of their graves after Jesus’ resurrection, and went into the holy city, appearing to many,” so we too shall follow Christ from our own graves to appear with one another, with all loved ones who died in this faith, before God in righteousness and purity forever.  

In Jesus’ name, Amen.