Bible Passage: Luke 24:5b-8
Pastor: Michael Willitz
Sermon Date: April 17, 2022

Bulletin Easter 2022

Luke 24:5b-8

The men said to them, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here, but has been raised! Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee ⁷that the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?” ⁸Then they remembered his words.

Resurrection Clarity

1. At the tomb, we do not find what we expected.
2. At the tomb, we learn to see by the light of Jesus’ words.

The light was just beginning to dawn. It was very early in the morning. The darkness of night was just beginning to give way to the burgeoning light in the east when the women set out on the way to the tomb. They walked along the road, carrying the spices they had prepared, and all the while light increased, bringing the whole world around them into ever-increasing clarity.

That day was to be an enlightening day for those women, and this day is an enlightening day for us, too. But the most illuminating light today does not shine from the sun on the eastern horizon. The most illuminating light is shining from the Scriptures. As it says in Psalm 119, “the unfolding of your words gives light,” [130]. This Easter, as on that very first Easter, it is the words of Jesus that enlighten us. It is the words of Jesus that bring the world into Resurrection Clarity.

There was so much that was unclear to those women when they arrived at the tomb on that Sunday morning. By the growing light of the morning sun, they found a scene at that tomb they did not expect to find. The tomb was open; the tomb was empty. Where they expected to see a stone, blocking the entrance, there was not a stone. Where they expected to find a body, lying on a slab, there was not a body. The stone they could see, it was rolled away from the tomb. But the body – well, evidently, something had happened to it. Their early errand to anoint Jesus’ body would certainly prove difficult if they could not find where His body was. Yet it was a very good thing, was it not, that they did not find their Lord’s body. It was a very good thing that the Savior was not lying dead in the tomb.

There are times when it is very good to find what you’re looking for. Kids, maybe this morning you went through the house turning on every light in every room, and you scoured every cupboard and every corner to find an Easter basket. It’s good to find what you’re looking for when it comes to Easter baskets. But there are also times in life when it is very good to not find what you’re looking for. It’s very good to not find what you’re looking for when you hear a noise late at night, and you rise from your bed, and you go through the house turning on every light in every room, hoping that you will not find an intruder in your home. It’s very good to not find what you’re looking for when you go to the doctor for a special appointment, and he takes the x-ray, and he holds it up to the light, and he scours every inch of it looking for any trace of cancer.

It is a very good thing that on that first Easter Sunday the women did not find what they were looking for. Whether they realized it or not, they were looking for the big, red self-destruct button that would have blown up the Christian faith if they had found it. You see, if the lifeless body of Jesus of Nazareth is discovered decaying in a tomb, then all this Christianity stuff is empty. That’s what the Apostle Paul says when he writes to the Christians in the city of Corinth. He writes, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is pointless, and your faith is pointless too,” [1 Corinthians 15:14]. Then he writes just a few verses later, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins,” [17].

What the women had not grasped and what the men had not grasped either was that Jesus had intended to die and then to rise from the dead on the third day. That was His plan, which He had announced on several occasions throughout His ministry. That was His mission which the Old Testament Scriptures had proclaimed in the Law of Moses, in the Psalms, and in the Prophets. The Christ had to suffer, He had to be crucified as the penalty for the sins of all the world. Those six hours of agony on a cross on that Friday were not some fluke. That was the LORD laying on His Servant the iniquity of us all. And that death that Jesus died was not some regrettable accident. That was Jesus accepting death as the wages for our sins. What the Son of God suffered on Good Friday was the fulfillment of the Father’s plan for your salvation and mine. What awaited was His vindication and His exaltation, which the Scriptures also foretold.

Without a resurrection for Jesus the Old Testament Scriptures would be proven untrue. Without a resurrection for Jesus, His own promises would be revealed as lies, and He would be revealed as a false prophet. Without the raising to life of Jesus, His mission would have been a failure; our sins would still be with us, and we would have to dread of the fearful wrath of a holy God. Without a resurrection for Jesus, death would still be reigning supreme over mankind.

All our hopes hang on this: that our Savior is not to be found among the dead. If He is dead, then everything is lost. But you can reverse that. If Jesus lives, then everything is gained. If Jesus lives, then our Scriptures are not fairy tales; they are proven true and reliable. If Jesus lives, then His words are not lies, and He has passed the test of a faithful prophet: the miraculous sign that He predicted has happened just as He said. If Jesus has been raised, then His mission was not a failure; He put your sins to death in His body and now those sins cannot be found. He drank the cup of God’s wrath against you, and now that cup is empty, just as empty as His empty tomb. If Jesus lives then the strong grip of death has been broken, and we will follow Him out of death like a flood of water bursting through a broken dam. Dear friends, I am about to say two words that mean certain victory for you both now and forever. Are you ready? Jesus lives. Jesus lives.

The task of those women on that Sunday morning was a task that was bound for failure. They were looking for the living one among the dead. We have to say that their failure was probably the happiest failure in all of human history, wasn’t it? They failed to find the dead body of Jesus. Yet all of this was still very unclear to the women. They clearly saw the absence of a body in the tomb. What remained unclear to them was the reason for that absence. But then the men in dazzling clothing spoke, and the women began to see the light. The angels said, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has been raised! Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?” [5-7]. The light was shining there. It had been shining the whole time. The light was shining from Jesus’ words, and in that light these women would begin to see the world in resurrection clarity. It is as if the sun is just rising for these women when it says in our text, “Then they remembered his words,” [8].

Now, maybe it seems a little anti-climactic that in our text today we don’t actually have an appearance of the resurrected Christ. Well if you haven’t read past this point in the Gospel – Spoiler Alert – Jesus’ disciples are going to see Him, and they are going to see Him alive. If you open your Bibles to Luke 24, and you read on a few paragraphs, you’ll find it.

Yet, you’ll also find that before Jesus shows Himself to His disciples, He first confronts them in their doubt and confusion with the illuminating clarity of His Word. Think about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Before Jesus opens their eyes to see Him, He walks with them on the road, explaining to them what was said about Him in all of the Scriptures. Then there’s the other disciples in Jerusalem hiding behind closed doors. Before Jesus appears to them, they first have to grapple with the report of the women and the report of those two disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. The Word is the light that provides Resurrection Clarity.

We can see by that light even now. You and I haven’t had the opportunity to see the resurrected Jesus with our eyes like the first disciples did. Spoiler Alert – at the end of this earthly story, you are going to see Him with your own eyes. That’s what ancient Job confessed when he said, “Even after my skin has been destroyed, nevertheless, in my own flesh I will see God. I myself will see him. My own eyes will see him,” [19:26,27]. You will see Jesus with your own eyes when you are raised from the dead at His return on the Last Day.

But even before that, even now, by the light of Jesus’ Word, you can see the world in Resurrection Clarity. By Jesus’ words you can see the truth that your eyes alone will not tell you. When the doctor looks at your x-ray and finds the very thing that you did not want him to find, you can see clearly that this news is not news of the end. Remember how Jesus told you, “Because I live, you also will live,” [John 14:19]. When you feel filthy because of your sins, and you wonder how God could possibly receive and forgive you, you can see clearly that the resurrected Jesus extends full forgiveness to you. Remember how Jesus told you, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in [Christ’s] name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem,” [Luke 24:47]. When wickedness seems to advance in this world and you are grieved by evil that appears unchecked and unstoppable, you can see clearly that your Lord has not consigned you to a hopeless end here in this world. Remember how Jesus told you, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am,” [John 14:3]. When you stand in a cemetery and you see the coffin holding a person you love and the pile of dirt that will cover it, and you wonder how the grass could be so green and how the sun could be so bright on a day like this, you can see clearly that this loved one is not dead, but sleeping. Remember how Jesus told you, “This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me, but raise them up on the Last Day,” [John 6:39].

Neither death nor sin nor the devil nor the world could keep your Savior from fulfilling His Word and coming out of that tomb alive. Nothing will keep Him from fulfilling every other word which He has spoken. His words are trustworthy. You can depend on them more than on your eyes or your feelings or your experiences or your fears. Christ is risen, He is risen indeed! See the world in Resurrection Clarity by the light of His Word.

Amen.

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