Christ is Risen… [He is Risen. Indeed. Alleluia!]
The light is shed on this morning. It shines brightly as it illuminates what has happened. The light shines on this Holy Day with brilliance. Just as God said, “let there be light, and there was.” On Easter, God is doing a new thing.
It’s quite the contrast to what we had on Friday night where we contemplated death and its darkness. The very depths of our despair in light of our condition of sin. And how we do not have God who sits far off, But a Father in Heaven who loves us so dearly that He would send His one and only Son into this world, into the depths of our despair, into the depths of our sin, into the darkness. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5). But the light does not just shine this morning to brighten our moods. It shines to give us hope. It shines to grant us life in order to redeem us, where he gives us his righteousness in exchange for our sin.
From the moment the women saw their Lord taken down from the cross, limp, motionless, dead, they did what was natural. They wanted to honor his dead body in the tomb by bringing spices. They expected the darkness of death and they were confronted with the light. To their amazement, the light that shone into that tomb revealed no body at all. That light shone into that tomb, they expected to see a dead body, and their Lord is gone. But they didn’t understand these things. How could they? They were in the place of the dead. What do you expect to find in a graveyard? What do you expect to find in tombs? The dead!
The angels are dressed in lightning white clothing. Gleaming and dazzling white, reminiscent of Jesus’ own clothes at the Transfiguration. The women are confused. It is not until they hear the Word. Those angels ask them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead?” The living one. The one who though he dies, he lives. The one who faces death but he does not stay dead. The one who rises from the dead. They say to the women, “He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you how the Son of Man must be handed over into the hands of sinful men and on the third day rise?” Do you remember him saying these things? The angels point those women back to Jesus very words. And there! Right there, for the first time in Luke’s Gospel, people begin to remember Jesus words. People begin to believe the Gospel. It was not the sight alone of the empty tomb that instilled faith in those women. Rather it was the Word of God that opened their eyes to believe what they saw. The True light, is Jesus’ very Words. He himself is the light of the world. He himself, the Word of God is the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness was not able to overcome it.
The light shines into that tomb of darkness. That tomb where no living thing is found. The light shines into that tomb of death. And it reveals the astonishing. It’s Empty! Christ has gone to the depths of our despair in this life’s failings. The failings of life that we encounter on a daily basis and even death. Christ is with you even in death. But Christ does not say dead. The darkness cannot over come Him. Why do you seek the living one among the dead? Christ is risen…
But people say, “Dead men don’t rise from the dead.” Show me the proof. Indeed, the history is there. The Christian faith from the very beginning has been public. Jesus spoke and taught in public. Jesus was crucified before the public. Jesus arose and showed himself to more than one person. It’s always been public. It’s always been in the Light. Even people antagonistic to Christianity recognized the empty tomb. Do we need more evidence that Christ has risen from the dead? No. There is already enough evidence. More evidence than any other event in the first century, in fact.
But if one thing is clear, even during Christ’s ministry, the living one in the light, it’s not more evidence that we need, it’s new eyes. As this text this morning shows, the Words of Jesus give us new eyes. Those angels pointed these women who first saw the empty tomb to the words of Jesus. There is power in the Word. There is power in the Word, because the Word delivers the Holy Spirit. The Word changes the way that we see. It has always been the Word that is the light of life.
Paul says, “no one seeks God, no not one.” The reason? Naturally, we are blind to the things of God. We stumble through the darkness, not knowing where we are going, where dangers await us at every step. We find ourselves trapped in our own makings. Do one thing thinking it will make things better to find ourselves worse off than before. It’s kind of like a friend of mine who went hiking through the woods and as it go pitch black, he and his other friends decided to set up camp. Well the next morning, he found his camp set up right next to the edge of cliff. There are dangers of being in the dark. Because of our blindness we need the light. Because of our sin, we blind to the things of God from birth. Let me tell you, there are dangers in the dark.
God’s Word sheds light for us. God’s Word sheds light for you. First, it shows us our sin and out need as Psalm 90 states, “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.” God’s Word first shines to bring to light everything that we have done, have not done, and even how the good things that we have done, are still tainted with selfishness and corruption, and it deserves death. Yet, the light of the Word does not shine just is not just to give us a guilt trip. We need to see the problem before we can receive the solution.
God’s Word also shines to show us who He is in Christ. The Gospel shines to show us the incredible grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus. He is the light of the world. Christ shines to enlighten us that God brings us out of the pit and into the light of life. Psalm 119, His light shines as a lamp unto our feet, a light to our path to bring us out of darkness. Christ is our light. Christ is your light! He is grace for you! He came, died on a cross for you and your forgiveness, in your place. He was placed in a tomb, dead, for you.
Christ has entered into the darkness of death, but he doesn’t stay there. So, why do you seek the living one among the dead? Guess what, if you have been baptized into Christ, where He is, there you will be also. So that even though you die, you will not stay dead. Because you are joined to the living one. You have died with Him in Baptism and you are raised with Him to new life.
Then on that final day, you will hear, Ephesians 5, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” There in the new Creation, “the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”
Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Christ doesn’t stay dead. If you are Baptized into Him, neither do you.
Christ is Risen…
