Tag Archives: Grave

Living Redeemer – Sermon on Job 19:23-27 & Mark 16:1-8 for the Resurrection of Our Lord

Job 19:23-27 & Mark 16:1-8 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Imagine someone plopped a thousand piece puzzle in front of you – not the box with the picture of the final product, just the thousand pieces. Those pieces sit in front of you, and the person says, “Put it together.” Sure, it would be daunting at first, but you’d start using your brain and logic. Maybe, you’d start searching for the corner and edge pieces. Once they’re sorted out, you start to fit all the boarder together. Then, you’d start looking at the colors. You continue to sort the pieces out, match the ones with the same color, find the right fits. You’d start to see that this matches with this and that matches with that. You’d see how this one piece has blue on one side and green on the other side and, yup, it fits with that one.

So long as you kept at it, there’s nothing that would stop you from eventually solving that puzzle. Sure, it might take really long time, but you’d figure it out. All puzzles are solvable when you have enough determination, information, and time.

Too often, we approach life as though it’s all a big puzzle to be solved, and we don’t have a picture of the final product. But we still think that if we can just figure out this then that will fall in place. We imagine that finishing this thing will make that portion easier. We try arranging the pieces of finances and family, school and career, the busy schedule and the need to rest. Sometimes, it feels like you make progress; sometimes, you’re completely stuck and confounded. A new problem pops up over here, and the pieces doesn’t seem to fit in quite the right way. 

That’s the wrong approach to life. Life is not a puzzle for you to figure out and solve with enough logic and time and effort. Instead, your life is a mystery. Mysteries are different from puzzles. Mysteries are things that you can’t figure out. It doesn’t matter how much information you have, how many details you know, or how much you piece together. Mysteries can’t be solved with logic. We can’t use our reason to get everything to fit nice and neat into a complete picture. With mysteries, you might get periodic glimpses of potential solutions, but final solution always seems to be just beyond your grasp.

When Job was suffering all the horrible things that did, he approached his life as a puzzle. He thought that if he could just get enough information that everything would make sense and fit together. But the information Job needed wasn’t available to him. It was hidden in what was taking place in the heavenly council (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6; Jer. 23:18-22).

When we read the book of Job, we get information that wasn’t available to Job. We have the 30,000 ft. overview of what is happening. We get to know what’s going on behind the curtain. We have a window into all the things that God is doing. The whole time of his suffering, we know why Job had all these crosses placed on him. But Job – he never knows. He never gets told. He just trudges through his pain and suffering. He is simply experiencing a life that is filled with trouble, and all Job can do is slog through it.

Even though we might not suffer the same things Job suffers or to the same degree or for the same reasons that Job suffers, we are like Job. We can only live our lives one moment at a time. You can only go through the experiences of this life by living in them. And you don’t always get to know why certain things happen. You don’t get to know why the one you love died. Why you lost our job. Why your kids are misbehaving. Why your parents are so unreasonable and unbending. You don’t get to know why everything happens. And the book of Job is a great reminder that God doesn’t owe us an answer to the why. God isn’t obligated to show us the picture on the box of a puzzle. He doesn’t need to precisely because He hasn’t given you the responsibility of piecing all the parts of your life neatly together. That’s nor your job. It’s not what God has called you to do.

Instead, God has given you something far, far better. God has given you the assurance that He’s given you a Redeemer, and not just any redeemer. God has given you a living Redeemer who can place all the jagged corners and complex pieces of your broken life into one big, grand masterpiece.

Dear saints, God has given you His promise that, at the last, you will stand upon the earth with your Living Redeemer, Jesus Christ, in the new heavens and earth. You will stand resurrected in the kingdom of God when all sorrow and sighing have been put away for eternity.

That’s God’s promise, and His promise is worth believing. Job had that faith as he was going through all the things that he suffered. God gave Job the faith to know and believe that his Redeemer lives.

Those verses you heard from Job’s lips today (Job 19:23-27) have become so connected to Jesus’ resurrection – probably because of the hymn. And, yes, we’ll sing it near the end of the service. But the fact that these words are so connected to Easter makes it easy to forget that Job spoke those words thousands of years before the eternal Son of God took on flesh.

Even then, Job knew that he had a Redeemer, and that faith was what carried Job through his horrible suffering. But what Job believed back then is even more true now than when Job confessed it.

You have a Redeemer who not only lives, but who died and now lives again and forevermore. You have a Redeemer who marched straight, right into the jaws of death and the grave. And He has come out on the other side alive. Your Living Redeemer is the same Redeemer that Job confessed. That Redeemer was living when Job confessed and trusted and He lives even more assuredly now.

So, when life seems like a puzzle, when it seems like you have to figure all sorts of things out and piece it all together in just the right way, forget about it. Instead, listen to what the angel says to the women on the morning of the resurrection. “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen” (Mk. 16:6). In other words, “Your Redeemer lives. He is not here. And your Living Redeemer is going before you” (Mk. 16:7). This is still true.

Your Living Redeemer has gone before you to death and the grave. He has also gone before you to the resurrection and life eternal. And your Living Redeemer continues to go before you each and every day of your life.

So, no matter what you go through, no matter what puzzling trials, tribulations, and sufferings you face, Jesus has already gone before you through all of them. Your living Redeemer is the first fruits of the resurrection (1 Co. 15:20). He stepped before you and did what was needed. He bore all of your sins upon His cross. He went to His grave to sanctify your grave. He walked out of that grave alive. And you will too.

Jesus has won and purchased your forgiveness. All your sins – all of your envy, malice, and laziness; all of your unwillingness to help others, all of your attempts to dodge responsibilities, and all of your attempts to make excuses for your failures and the pain you have caused others – all of it is forgiven. All of it can be blotted out.

None of that sin can stand next to your Living Redeemer, but you can. You can stand with Him because all of that sin has been dealt with and laid aside by His perfect forgiveness.

Faith in Jesus, your Living Redeemer doesn’t just give you the picture on the lid of a thousand piece puzzle so you can put it all together yourself. Instead, it makes you see further, beyond the puzzle.

The confusing, dark, and evil complexities of this life, they’re all fading away, because the light is coming. The sun of a new, eternal day is rising. Your Redeemer lives. And at the last, so will you. Amen.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Sabbath Rest – Sermon on Genesis 1:1-2:3 and Luke 23:50-24:7 for the Vigil of Easter

Genesis 1:1-2:3 & Luke 23:50-24:7

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

As we read through Genesis 1, there was a line that kept repeating. “And there was evening and morning the first day.” “And there was evening and morning the second day.” “And there was evening and morning the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth day.” But then, when we get to the account of the seventh day and expect to hear, “And there was evening and morning the seventh day,” we get nothing but crickets. Moses didn’t write that. But in and through that Holy Spirit inspired silence, there is an indication that the Sabbath day is incomplete. Yes, it was blessed with rest and holiness, but that day was still waiting for its completion and fulfillment.

That fulfillment came today, for us Westerners, or in the Jewish mind yesterday, Holy Saturday. The way days were reckoned in Jesus’ day, the new day began when the first two stars appeared in the sky. That’s why we start celebrating the Resurrection tonight, well before midnight. It’s why we celebrate Christ’s birth on the eve of His birth.

Jesus was crucified on Friday. In our Gospel lesson (Lk. 23:50-24:7), we heard how Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Joseph took Jesus down from the cross and wrapped Him in a linen shroud and laid him in a new tomb. But because the Sabbath about to begin, Joseph, Nicodemus (Jn. 19:39), and the women weren’t able to finish the burial of Jesus. The sun was setting, and they didn’t have time to get the job done. The last verse of Luke 23 says, “On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”

So, Joseph rested. The women rested. And, most importantly, Jesus rested, fulfilling the seventh day of creation.

Scripture says that after God finished creating everything on Friday, the sixth day, “God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). Then, God rested the following day, the seventh day, and made it holy.

On the Friday we call ‘good,’ the day of the re-creation and redemption of all things, Jesus saw everything He had done – His miracles, His teaching, His faithfulness to God and neighbor, how He perfectly obeyed God, how He had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and how He purchased and won us back – and behold, it was very good. That is why He could cry out, “It is finished,” before He breathed His last (Jn. 19:30).

Dear saints, Jesus, your slain Creator and Redeemer, endured the cross and labored in love for your peace and so you could have eternal rest. After completing His work, He entered His Sabbath rest as He lay there in the tomb.

Jesus’ task was done. Your sins were atoned for. He had finished His work that He had done, so He rested from all His work that He had done in creation. And now, Jesus has burst from the tomb, spitting in the face of death. The devil’s head has been crushed. Jesus has rested in the grave, and the Sabbath has been fulfilled so you can also enter into that perfect rest (Heb. 4:10).

And this has eternal significance for you. When you bury your loved ones, and when you yourself are buried, they and you follow Jesus into that rest. This is why Christian burial places are called ‘cemeteries.’ The word ‘cemetery’ comes from a Greek word koimeteria which means ‘sleeping place.’ We bury our brothers and sisters in Christ knowing that God isn’t done with them. We put them where they can rest and await the wake-up call that will be the trumpet blast on the Last Day when Jesus returns to raise them.

Dear saints, Christ has completely stripped death and the grave of its victory and sting (1 Cor. 15:55-56). Jesus lives, and so do you. And you have entered into His rest.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Easter Angel – Sermon on Matthew 28:1-7 for the Easter Vigil

Listen here.

Matthew 28:1-7

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The angel caused the earthquake that Easter morning. Our translation says, “there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven” (Mt. 28:2), but it should probably be, “becausean angel of the Lord descended.” The earth shook because the angel caused it to. And it isn’t the quake that moves the stone. The angel rolls it away after the quake then sits on it.

This angel is quite the character. We don’t know his name, but he certainly is a rabble rouser. He has the appearance of lightening and clothing white as snow.

This flashy, showy angel doesn’t sit on the stone because he is tired. Angels don’t get fatigued like we do. He sits there to mock the stone and the tomb that it had sealed. You could almost say that he’s dancing on the grave. But with a different meaning than we usually give to that phrase. He’s dancing on the grave of death.

It would have taken several strong, well-bodied people to roll that stone away. You’ll hear in tomorrow’s Gospel reading from Mark (16:3) that the women were concerned about who was going to move it for them when their plan is to return to the tomb and finish preserving Jesus’ body. Their plans had to change. But for this angel, that stone was puny and totally insignificant. The angel just tosses it aside. It wasn’t capable of keeping Jesus in the grave, and the angel sits on it to show how inconsequential the attempts were to keep Jesus dead.

The guards are terrified by all of this and rightly so. They trembled just like the ground. Their armor, swords, and training were nothing in the presence of this angel. They became like dead men. As they lay there on the ground, they were probably glad that this electrified angel hadn’t sat on them.

But then, Matthew mentions the women. They arrive to this dominant display of angelic power, and the angel tells them, “Do not be afraid,” even though there is no mention of them being fearful. The women had been scared previously. Scared to tears after the death of Jesus. But the time for weeping is over. Psalm 126:5 says, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.” For these women, and for all believers in Christ, the harvest has come.

Our time of sowing tears is finished. Jesus lives. It is time to gather in the crop of resurrection joy. Because Jesus is risen, our mouths are filled with laughter and our hearts with cheer. The angel sits on that stupid, weak, trivial stone because nothing can stop the victory parade of life.

Jesus had gone weak as a newborn lamb to the cross, but there He stripped the devil of all his strength. The trickster serpent has been tricked. On Good Friday, Satan was tempted just like Eve was in the Garden. The devil saw the forbidden fruit that hung on the tree of Calvary. He took it and ate. But now his belly bursts, and he is the one who has to hide.

He is done, finished, defeated. The devil has no accusations left. He threw all his accusations at Christ, and Jesus has answered for all of them. So now, when Satan tries to accuse you, all you have to do is point him to Christ, and his mouth is silenced. He has no allegations left for you because Jesus has died to take them all away, and Christ is risen to show they are nothing.

Did Satan think that a rock and some guards could keep Jesus dead? Maybe, but this resurrection angel, and all the angels, laugh at the thought. It would be easier to fit the oceans in a styrofoam cup or to ride a unicycle to Pluto than to keep God in the grave.

God wouldn’t let what is His be stolen. He takes it back. He takes back Adam and Eve. He delivers Noah and his family. He frees the whole people of Israel from slavery. He restores to Himself Ezekiel and that valley of dead, dry – very dry – bones. He restores the fortunes of Zion and exalts over them with loud singing. He pulls His people safely from the burning fiery furnace and walks with us in every trouble.

God does all of this because Christ has bought and paid for you on the cross. The devil has no claim – none whatsoever. Satan got what he thought he wanted. He took a bite out of God. The devil bruised His heel by putting Him to death. But Jesus has crushed his head. Jesus died, but He lives.

Every day of our lives now, let’s join this rambunctious angel in mocking sin, death, and the devil. Daily don the robes of righteousness that Christ has given you in your Baptism (Gal. 3:27). Daily let the God-given light of salvation shine through you (Mt. 5:14-16).

The grave is open. It couldn’t hold Jesus. It won’t hold your loved ones who have departed with the sign of faith. And It won’t hold you either.

We don’t know this rambunctious resurrection angel’s name. But one day, God be praised, we will. Amen.[1]

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] This sermon was adapted from Rev. David Petersen of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Ft. Wayne, ID.