He is risen. And what an important phrase that
is. I know we sometimes push through that, indeed.
But what an amazing thing to be able to say.
This is not supposed to be normal. This is not
something that we are supposed to look at and
say, oh, it's just another religious phrase.
This is the thing that is meant to stand apart
from everything else. Nothing else about anything
we do as the Christian church means anything
without Jesus coming back to life. This is the
moment that the entire story has been pointing
toward. All year long, every reading, every hymn,
every reflection, everything in the rhythm of
our church calendar has led us here. Even the
events of Christmas. are meant for this moment.
We begin by remembering the prophets, the proclamations
of what it is that God desired, that He wanted
His people to follow Him, and that over and over,
the people constantly fell short. And over time,
to begin to almost give up, is there anything,
is there any hope other than failure and wondering
if God could ever love us? how often it is to
hear the very people saying, can you be merciful
to me, a poor sinful being? And God says yes.
Because we arrive at the Christ. We see His birth.
We see His life. We see Him begin to change everything.
To speak about the Kingdom of God. To show us
the radical teaching. God might someday be with
us if we could somehow get everything in our
act together. But rather that He has chosen to
be with us because He loves us. To restore everything
that we have broken by His love, by His grace,
by His life, by His light. And with that... we
begin to see that we are no longer bound to the
old expectations, the old pressures, the old
systems, the old ways of trying to measure up
to something that we were never going to fulfill.
Jesus didn't come to add more rules to make us
feel like we could never measure up. He came
to show that the old system is gone. But then...
Those who wanted to hold on to the old way take
him to the cross to be done with this crazy fanatic
who was trying to relieve people of the pressure
of never feeling like they could ever add up
and It looks like that is the end as they have
put him on that cross and he has died Right in
front of them. There is no doubt that his life
is gone as the spear has plunged inside of him.
But what do we see? As he is saying, it is finished,
complete, done. This does not mean the end of
the story. Because death, it would not hold him.
And now He has risen and everything after this,
everything we do as the church, everything is
about what that means instead of running from
God. And you know how many of you have been running
from God. And I know so have I. We are drawn
back to Him with forgiveness, with grace, with
life renewed. with the open arms of the Father
to the prodigal. It is all here. And yet, even
knowing this, even when we hear it, how often
is there still that moment for so many of us
when we listen and we say, wait, what? Where
did that come from? He already said it was finished
when he died. Wasn't the sacrifice the whole
point? Isn't that supposed to be it? The resurrection,
it can still surprise us. We've heard the stories.
We've read the prophecies. We've been going through
this for months at a time. But in the moment,
it's almost unbelievable. See, sometimes it feels
like the story took a turn that we did not expect.
And here's the thing. Sometimes, stories end
in ways that may make us think that that came
out of nowhere. How many of you? Raise your hand.
How many of you watched Happy Days back in the
day? And you're wondering year after year, where
is this even going to go? Fonzie with his leather
jacket standing at the jukebox, hitting it and
making sure the song plays and flirting with
some girl nearby? And then all of a sudden, you
see him on water skis literally jumping a shark.
Because the writers have no idea what to do with
the next part of the story. And yes, that is
exactly where the phrase comes from. And if we're
not careful, that's what many people may think
the resurrection is in the Christian story. Some
last minute twist to try to avoid feeling defeated.
after the religious leaders had gotten Jesus
killed. Like adding a final section to the Gospel
of Mark and thinking it was added just because
they wanted some better story. Because they didn't
like the way that it was ending. But no, that
is not what this is. Because the story is going
exactly where it was always supposed to go. From
the very beginning. It's not going off. the rails.
It's more like how I met your mother. And spending
nine years wondering why it seems to be all about
Robin instead of the mother. And finally, the
conclusion comes and it all finally makes sense.
The resurrection was not some last minute improvisation
to try to save the story. It's the fulfillment
of God's plan. The angel doesn't say, hey, I've
got a new story for you. He says remember how
He told you. We see it in all of the prophets
that had come for centuries. God had left these
breadcrumbs for us in Scripture. Psalm 16, you
will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your
Holy One see corruption. God's Holy One would
not stay dead long enough to decay. Or Isaiah
53 describing the suffering servant. After he
has suffered, he will see the light of life,
because death is not the final word. Or Hosea
6 -2. After two days, he will revive us, and
on the third day, he will raise us up. Jonah's
three days in the belly of the fish became a
sign of Christ's own time in the tomb. The descent,
the confinement, the return to life. And Psalm
22. which begins with despair and ends with vindication
for the suffering servant. The story of suffering
becomes a story of hope and proclamation. Even
for those who are standing at the cross though,
all of this was hard to see. Could we blame them?
Life. Life is overwhelming. We struggle to see
the forest for the trees. What is right in front
of us oftentimes makes us forget what is happening
in the larger picture. How could they remember
every prophecy, every word, every sign, every
teaching that pointed to a resurrection? They
had just lost someone they loved. And when we
lose someone we love, how often it is that everything
else just falls apart. They got busy. We need
to go to the tomb. We need to bring spices. We
need to stay in hiding since we might be next.
Life keeps moving even when everything feels
like it shouldn't. And sometimes we don't face
what we need to face because we just don't have
it in us. And then there is grief. There is fear.
There is stress. There are all the things that
take our minds off of the things that are larger
and more important. They weren't careless. They
were overwhelmed. And sometimes you're just too
close to it. They were in the crucifixion, not
reading it like a story in a book. They were
living inside of the story. You can't always
see clearly when you're that close to it. So
could we really blame them for not putting it
all together? for not seeing how every prophecy,
every teaching, every moment was pointing right
here. That He would suffer. That He would die.
And that He would rise on the third day. When
we think about it, aren't we the same? It's easy
for us to forget even the everyday things in
life, isn't it? In the midst of life, of our
routines. We forget the things that matter. The
friendships in the loved ones that drift away.
We forget to care for ourselves. The exercise
plans that we swore was going to work three months
ago. The sleep we're supposed to be getting.
Eating better. All the things. We forget our
patience. We forget our integrity. We forget
our character and even the moral compass that
we were raised with so often. We are so caught
up in other people's anger and issues, telling
us how we're supposed to constantly be not only
angry and mortified and completely frustrated
with our neighbor, but also telling us which
people are our enemies and that we should turn
on them and constantly look for battles to fight
that are not actually there, forgetting the very
character that Christ Himself displayed. As believers
in Christ, we still end up forgetting what matters
the most. The resurrection. The new life. The
old being buried. The new coming back again.
Fulfilled. Restored. Whether we were baptized
as an adult and said, hey, this is the beginning
of my new life, and then we slowly start to forget
it. Or maybe we were baptized as a child and
never had the memory of it, and it doesn't stand
out the same way when we confirm our faith up
here. Whichever it may be, it's not that there
is no sincerity there. But it's not active the
same way it once was. We don't remember what
type of people to be ourselves when life gets
loud, when life gets busy, when life gets heavy.
Yet even when we forget what matters most, when
we forget God's will, God does not forget us.
God's plan unfolded exactly as He had promised.
Even when the people were too close to see it,
God had been writing the plan all along. This
was not an afterthought. This was not an oops,
this went the wrong way. Let's fix it. The cross
was never meant to be the final chapter. It was
always meant to be the one that came before the
resurrection, because the tomb was never the
last page. Jesus did not pause until everyone
understood though. He didn't delay until everybody
could finally be ready. He went to the cross
and fulfilled what He had promised to do for
us, resurrection and life. And if this had been
about proving a point, It could have looked so
very different. He did not die just to guilt
us into obeying better. You didn't obey enough,
so I will allow myself to die, and now you're
going to feel bad enough that you're going to
do it. He didn't die to show off how righteous
He was so that we would have to prove ourselves.
The Gospel is not, look how righteous Jesus was
and He got punished. Now feel bad and try to
live up to Him. And it's not even Jesus died
for you. The least you can do is live for Him.
Sounds great, right? But that was the old religious
system that Jesus came to challenge and to destroy.
Everything they tried, mocking Him, shaming Him,
killing Him, could not stop God's plan. Evil
could not, would not have the last word. The
Gospel is about life. Life that triumphs over
death. Life that defeats sin. He died to defeat
death, to destroy sin, and to bring everlasting
life to all who trust in Him. Life that is given
to us freely. Because God said, I will conquer
evil with good. I will end death with life everlasting.
I will begin with My Son whom you crucified,
and through Him you will have life too. And if
death does not get the last word over him, it
does not get the last word over you. This is
the start of everything new. Without the resurrection,
life would be simple. It'd be so ordinary. We
as Christians could just blend in. We could blend
in with all the other religions and say it's
just about being good people and follow the routines
and play it safe and be good people. and move
through the world just acting without thinking
about life beyond this very moment. Just focusing
on the here and now like everyone else. But the
resurrection says no. Our life is more than just
this life now. We have been given life everlasting.
This is the beginning. Even when we die, this
is still just the beginning. And even for those
of us who have lost loved ones so recently, it
is good to know that now is the beginning of
where new life begins. Because death is defeated.
Sin is forgiven. Hope is not fragile. This changes
everything. The sins that we have committed,
the mistakes that we will make, they do not define
us. God has already loved us enough to raise
His Son. He has already seen us at our worst
and loved us so much that when He brought His
Son back to life, that became the beginning of
life for us as well. Because if He could love
us that much when we are in the midst of killing
His own Son, how much more does He love us when
He has now brought His Son back to life and that
death no longer holds the last word. You have
now heard the truth. And there is nothing else
that I can share. Your life so often tries to
distract you from that. So often it is that there
are so many things that will try to pull you
down and away from that message, from that reality,
from that life. And that's why we're here today.
That's why we are here this morning. To bring
us back to what the Gospel truly is. Because
the Gospel is the resurrection. And it's not
just to prove that all things Jesus said was
right. It's not just to try to say, oh, see,
He won. No, it is to bring us into that life
ourselves. It's for us. It is to bring us not
into just the memory of what God has done, something
2 ,000 years ago, but to bring us into a story
of life everlasting today. Because even when
you failed, and even when you will fail again,
and even when you're not sure that you are ever
enough, God has already acted in love. He raised
His Son, proving that death does not have that
last word, and through that same Son, He offers
new life to you. The cross could have been the
end, but the resurrection is the beginning. Your
life now carries this promise. Everything is
new. Every day. Every choice. Every moment shaped
by the reality of Christ's victory. Every grief.
Every fear. Every doubt. Nothing can undo it.
Because you know, it's easy every day to forget
what really matters. It is easy to get caught
up in our work, our relationships, our anger.
our frustration, more than just whether we are
here on a Sunday morning, but even just in our
everyday life. We forget the people who matter,
even those in our own communities. We forget
to care even for ourselves. We forget our patience.
We forget our integrity. We forget what we believe
in. We forget sometimes whom we believe in. But
the resurrection bursts in anyway. It doesn't
wait for us to remember. It doesn't pause for
us to catch up. It is a reality we step into
whether we're ready or not. Because the disciples,
they were also confused, frightened, overwhelmed,
and still the resurrection came. The promises
of God were fulfilled right before their eyes.
We often need reminding just like they did. So
the reminder is this. Christ lives. And everything
is new. Even when we don't understand. Even when
life seems too hard. Jesus keeps His promise.
The good news of Easter is not that we fully
understand God. The good news is that even when
we forget, even when we struggle, even when life
is loud and confusing, And fear feels louder
than faith. Jesus keeps His Word. And He goes
to the cross. He rises again. The tomb is empty.
What looked like loss was actually a promise
unfolding all along. The resurrection reminds
us of God's promises. You belong to Him. You
are His child. And nothing, nothing can take
that away. We belong to Him. We are His children.
Sin does not define us. Death does not have that
final word. Hope is not fragile. Even grief,
even fear, even doubt cannot undo reality shaped
by resurrection and everything Christ has done.
So, let me end with this. I don't know what brought
you here today. It could have been that Easter
is one of those fancy holidays that Christians
do. Why not go check it out? It could be because
you would just love an opportunity to feel something
special today. Maybe the butterflies. Maybe the
children. Maybe whatever we might be thinking
might somehow inspire us. But right now, salvation
is for you. And if you want that salvation, it
is yours. If you trust Christ Jesus today, that
life everlasting is for you. Because He is risen!
Thanks be to God.