For the Series C readings of Easter, there are the following readings: Isaiah 65:17-24; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26 and Luke 24:1-12. The text for the Easter sermon is 1 Corinthians 15:2, “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.”
After more than 38 years in the ministry, it is difficult to come up with a new twist to the Easter festival of Christ’s resurrection. Upon reflection, however, is not every Sunday an Easter celebration as it is impossible to exhaust from a human point of view the application of the Easter event in our lives? During Law and Gospel radio broadcasts Monday through Friday at www.lawgospel.com and click RADIO, I often encourage the laity to bring a blank piece of paper to church and then during the sermon write down anything that they had never heard before. For the sermon task is not simply a reminder of catechetical instruction but an attempt to dig deeper into the insights of the text so that true comfort from the Gospel becomes a brilliant light in our world of darkness.
I would venture to say that most laity would not know how to interpret and apply Paul’s words that by man came death but by another Man came the resurrection of the dead. They might venture to say that the verse refers to the physical death we will endure because of our sin but we need not fear because Jesus will raise our bodies from the ground to be fashioned like unto His glorious body.
The sticking point is what Paul–and therefore what the Holy Spirit–means by “death.” It is not what we often think of that the physical body dies because of disease, old age, an accident and so forth. No, this death took place immediately when Eve and Adam sinned. In fact, their death took place while they were still alive. For the death spoken of here is the separation between man and God. Recall how the two fallen creatures attempted to hide where God was!
The Bible often speaks of the walking dead; namely, those unbelievers who appeaer to be alive but who from God’s point of view are dead in tresspasses and sin. The Easter event celebrates the victory of the Good Friday crucfixion which did not take away sins in the sense that Christians no longer sin. Instead, what was taken away was the punishment each of us deserve before a just God. Praise the Lord that the true God is instead merciful and gracious, not holding us accountable for our sins and providing us with heaven as our home even though we confess we do not deserve it.
This new eternal life begins for the believer not after Judgment Day but at the point of our converstion through the waters of baptism as an infant or through hearing the pure and profitable Word of God reaching our ears. Easter is not just a foretaste of the heaven we will enter after Judgment Day; it is the entrance into the heaven on earth referred to by God as the one and holy Christian Church made up of believers from around the world as part of the body of Christ. Easter, more than any other festival worship service, brings home to us that He died so that we will never really die and He lives so that we will live also. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Name:Tom Baker