Easter Day Sermon

I preached at the National Lutheran Home on Easter. Below is my sermon. I will tell you that I did add to my sermon as I was preaching. You just had to be there.

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

Let us pray, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14”

Alleluia. Christ is Risen. He has risen indeed. Alleluia. Christ is Risen. He has risen indeed. Alleluia.

A Sunday School teacher asked her class on the Sunday before Easter if they knew what happened on Easter and why it was so important. One little girl spoke up saying: "Easter is when the whole family gets together, and you eat turkey and sing about the pilgrims and all that." "No, that's not it," said the teacher.

"I know what Easter is," a second student responded. "Easter is when you get a tree and decorate it and give gifts to everybody and sing lots of songs." "Nope, that's not it either," replied the teacher.

Finally a third student spoke up, "Easter is when Jesus was killed, and put in a tomb and left for three days." "Ah, thank goodness somebody knows" the teacher thought to herself.

But then the student went on: "Then everybody gathers at the tomb and waits to see if Jesus comes out, and if he sees his shadow he has to go back inside and we have six more weeks of winter."

After 46 days of wondering and waiting, we see the culmination of despair disappear by those three simple words disappear: Christ is Risen. Death did not win, Satan lost, and Jesus’ stands as a revelation of God’s coming Kingdom (and that is a crazy revelation) but why did this all have to take place?

I mean, think about it. Why did Jesus have to die? What does it mean that Jesus is the revelation of God’s coming Kingdom? Jesus--crucified, tortured, kill and risen--is the revelation of God’s coming kingdom? Could there have been a better way to do it?

When we think of God, we think of power, prestige, king of all kings, lord of all lords, knower of everything, maker of heaven and earth. But these past few days have not shown our traditional view of God. We have not see Jesus perched high his throne with a spear in one hand, a shield in the next, defeating Pilate and Herod, and becoming the ruler of the whole world. But that is not the case, Jesus was not that glorious hero but rather broken, scorned and killed. Pilate and Herod gained their power by defeating their enemies, Jesus received his power by wearing a crown of thorns and stretching out his arms to die.

But that isn’t the end of the story. Good Friday is good because not only what happened that day but what comes next. The disciples have just spent three long years walking with Jesus and heard Jesus say God’s kingdom is coming. But their kingdom and their king died or so they thought. There is a theme throughout the entire New Testament: God takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. God took a Cross and crown Jesus King on it; God took the grave and burst the bonds of death; God takes you and me and promises not to abandon us to the grave. "If we don't know WHAT is beyond the grave we do know WHO is beyond the grave.”

Today, this day, in the very words of this Holy and Blessed Gospel, we heard Death will never, never win because of this Resurrection. In Jesus’ resurrection, we find life, salvation, and a crucified, tortured, and risen Christ. But yet for so many of us, myself included, we still want to know how it all seemed to happen.

We live in an age when we want to explain everything but this cannot be explain with science but only with our faith. We do not know how or why all of this had to take place but do know that in the end, Christ is not dead in a tomb. Every other prophet lies dead in their graves but Jesus lives and we are all witnesses to this very fact. Jesus was not forsaken, denied, finished but rather is the beginning and risen--here with us.

Lent is time went we wondered and looked for what this all means. We wondered if our love was a hopeless march or if our alleluias were cold and broken. But today, today my brothers and sisters, our songs do not read, “Christ died” but “Christ our Lord is risen today!” We are not in despair, we are not forsaken, we are not abandoned at the foot of the cross but we live because Christ lives in us. We have been clothed in Christ through our baptism and we shall be reunited in a resurrection that we celebrate today. As that beautiful Easter Carol says:
“Christ is risen! Hence forth never death or hell shall us enthrall. We are Christ’s in him forever we have triumphed over all. All the doubting and dejection of our trembling hearts have ceased’ hail the day of resurrection! Let us rise and keep the feast. Christ is risen! Alleluia! Risen our victorious head! Sing his praises! Alleluia! Christ is risen from the dead!
That is our victory march--Today, Christ lives. Today Jesus is no longer ordinary but extraordinary. Today, HE LIVES! Amen.