EASTER MONDAY (1)
Text: Romans 4:25.
Source from Back to Luther with German archive reference. Back to Walther's Epistle Sermons.
Lord Jesus Christ, you were dead and behold, you are alive forevermore. You were sacrificed for our sins and raised again for our justification. To pay for our guilt you let yourself be tormented; in order to clothe us in innocence you let yourself be taken from prison and from judgment. To free us from slavery you have let yourself be bound by our foes; to set us eternally free you have burst all the bonds of our foe, destroyed their power, and triumphed over them. To atone for our disgraceful apostasy you let yourself be covered with disgrace, ridicule, and mockery but you were crowned with glory and honor in order to lead us, your redeemed people, with you into glory.
Oh, how gloriously you have carried out the work of our redemption! How perfectly you atoned for our sins ! How mightily you vanquished death and hell! How great is the grace which you have won for us sinners! How glorious the prospect for all eternity which you have opened to us!
Therefore we today appear here to praise you and worship at your feet. Have mercy upon us and during these days show in our hearts that you are not dead but that you live and rule at God's right hand; prove it by awakening our souls from death, strengthening our faith, and reviving our hope. Lord, we beseech you, place a lasting blessing upon the preaching of the Word of your resurrection today and use it to work a general resurrection of us all from the grave of sin, unbelief, and sorrow to walk in a new, divine life until, oh heavenly Easter Sun, you will arise completely over us on the morning of the great resurrection of all the dead and shine forever upon our heads in your Father's kingdom. Amen.
My dear happy hearers.
By God's grace we yesterday began the celebration of the Christian's most joyful festival. As after the severest storm the sun often quickly scatters the thunderclouds and smiles again upon mountain and valley, so the resurrection jubilation of the Easter festival breaks the sorrowful, tearful Lenten season in a lovely sudden change and turns our churches into houses of joy.
From the most ancient times the Easter festival has been celebrated as a festival of joy and jubilation. For a long time it was celebrated as the believer's new year festival. On this day Christian emperors freed prisoners as a witness of their joy; if there were penitents, who because of a great sin were excommunicated by the Christian congregation and sought reconciliation, they were preferably received again into the church on Easter. As humble as the external bearing of the first Christians were in their services, the rule was that on the Easter festival no one dared kneel or lie on his face; standing, with head lifted high, they must pray and sing joyful songs of praise to the honor of Jesus Christ, who on this day was raised from the dust of death and said to Mary who cast herself at his feet: "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God." Jn 20,17. The holy pleasures of the first Christians on the Easter festival was so great that as they met each other for the first time they embrace with the words: "The Lord is risen!" which Easter greeting was answered with: "The Lord is risen indeed!"
Would that during our Easter celebration the hearts of all of us would thus burn in love to Christ and one another! Would that one could say
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during these days of our homes as well: The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous; the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly." Ps 118,15.16.
Let us now as we today continue our Easter devotions once more call upon the Resurrected in silent prayer.
Quote the text here: Romans 4, 25.
The most important thing to know about Christ’s resurrection is its purpose and its fruit. The Apostle Paul indicates that in our text: " Christ was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." Our justification is the main purpose and fruit of our Lord's resurrection. This truth it is to which our today's consideration directs us. Hear now:
CHRIST VINDICATED THROUGH HIS RESURRECTION
1. It Gloriously Reveals Christ's Innocence,
2. It Forcibly Proves His Divinity.
I.
God's Son became incarnate that fallen man should again be justified before God through him. That is the real goal of the entire work which he began and completed on earth. Christ's aim was that all who believe in him should be justified, that is, God should declare him righteous, holy, well-pleasing to him, and finally be taken into heaven.
If this was to take place, Christ himself would naturally have to be vindicated first before God and the whole world. How could a person rely on Christ if the least hint of guilt, the least shadow of suspicion rested upon him? If there was the least doubt of Christ's purity, if there was any basis for the slightest misgiving that Christ himself was not completely innocent, who would be so insane as to want to be righteous through him? If Christ's innocence could not be proven beyond the shadow of doubt, there would be no more unfortunate, miserable people than the Christians, no faith would rest on more shaky, miserable, delusive basis as does the Christian faith.
Who was more harshly accused than Christ? He was accused of being a glutton and a winebibber; they called him a friend of publicans and sinners; they maintained that he did his miracles with the help of Beelzebub, the chief of the devils; they accused him of being a rebel and a blasphemer: yes, the court which examined his case declared that he was guilty of death because of his blasphemy. And what happened ?
Christ's own disciples fled and denied him; the whole nation with the chief priests and the elders cried; "Crucify him, crucify him!" He was scourged; he was led to the judgment hall; he was nailed to the cross; they laughed at and ridiculed him and said; "If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him." Mt 27, 42.43.
And God performed no miracle to vindicate Christ beyond all doubt? He did not command him to descend from the cross and close, the mouths of his accusers? No; apparently helpless he remained hanging on the cross, cried aloud; "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Mt 27,46. Finally he left this world
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with a loud cry; his accusers and judge triumphed.
W i th what an impenetrable shadow Christ's innocence was covered! if he were not completely vindicated, who would believe in him, the accused, sentenced, and executed?
As essential, as indispensable as Christ's vindication was so that we could root our faith firmly in him, so gloriously was that vindication produced. The sun becoming dark at his crucifixion, the earthquake at the moment of his death, the rocks splitting, the graves opening, the veil in the temple tearing, all these were preludes. So is Christ's honorable burial, for as soon as his holy corpse was taken from the cross, no sacrilegious hands were ever again laid on him; he had endured unto the end; against all expectation God ended all disgrace and placed his precious body in the hands of friends who buried it with dignity.
But Christ's complete vindication did not come until the third day. As we heard in yesterday's Gospel, three women who had followed Christ hurried to his grave, It was still dark when they left; but as they entered the garden the sun rose over the horizon. These honest people were convinced of Christ's innocence, for they had seen his works and heard his words; they just believed that they had deceived themselves and misunderstood him as far as the sweet hope that he was the Messiah was concerned. They intended to pay Christ's body the last honor by anointing it; they did not know that he needed no sweet smelling ointment to ward off decay, that his death was a sweeter incense on God's altar and his corpse the body of life.
In their zeal these pious women had not remembered that a great stone had been rolled in front of the grave and a strong watch of soldiers placed on guard. As they neared the burial place this worry entered their hearts. But as they continued to be concerned about who would roll the stone away, and as they in the meanwhile had come closer to the grave, they noticed to their great joy that the soldiers were gone and the grave was opened. Hurriedly they entered in and behold, an angel in the form of a young man, bright as a flash of lightning, clothed in a long dazzling white garment sat there and said to the frightened women: "Be not affrighted; ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified; he is risen; he is not here; behold the place where they laid him." Mt 16,6.
Christ had already arisen; invisibly he had at the rays of the morning light left the grave and passed through the stone with his glorified body, as the angel of the Lord came from heaven, and by means of the earthquake rolled away the stone from the door of the grave. With fear and trembling the watchers saw this, were first knocked out like dead men, and when they awoke to see the grave empty, fled and quickly brought the frightful news to the Sanhedrin.
Here my friends, you have the glorious revelation of Christ's innocence. How would the most eloquent, fiery oration defending Christ's innocence compare with the proof that the heavenly Father awakened that slandered, accused, and executed Jesus from the grave? How could his shame and disgrace have been more gloriously erased and his honor better rescued? How did Christ's foes want to cast a shadow upon his innocence, when he burst forth from the realm of the dead and thus by merely rising drove away all shadow? To what avail were now all the lies and slander against Christ? They are dull arrows which one ridicules because of Christ's resurrection. All of his accusers stand naked.
Can he be a deceiver or one deceived who lets himself be killed like a dumb lamb by his raging foes, but predicts that he would return three days after his death? Would God crown a deceiver with praise and honor? F ar be it!
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Of what value is man's sentence of death against Christ since the Most High, the All Knowing Judge in heaven not only absolved him but also exalted him in the highest possible way?
Oh, how confident we who believe in Jesus can be; we can consider the whole world a liar than distrust his words! Let us remain in this faith; the story of today's festival is surety for the fact that we are not deceiving ourselves. Though the world may always slander Christ, he needs no human vindication; through his resurrection he was so gloriously, yes, divinely vindicated that it is foolish, yes, laughable to investigate his innocence further. Of a truth, we have no reason to be ashamed of our Savior; Christ's resurrection turns our faith in him into the highest possible honor and gives us the greatest reason to boast joyfully before the whole world.
II.
Through his resurrection Christ's innocence is not only gloriously revealed, but in the second place his divinity is also forcibly proven. St. Paul testifies to this when he says: "Christ was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Rom 1,3.4, He speaks of the same thing to Timothy in the words: "Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit." 1 Tim 3,16.
As we read in the Gospels Christ had countless times declared that he was the Son of God, not a child of God as every believer is by grace, but the only begotten Son of God, beside whom there is none other, lie declared that he is one with the Father, that whoever sees him sees the Father, and that all must honor him as they honor the Father.
During his days in the flesh Christ veiled this divine glory; only once in awhile he used it and then just a few rays could be seen. He lived so humbly that he could be not merely an ordinary man but more insignificant than the most insignificant person. Out of love to us Christ did that, for if he had used his complete divinity he could not have suffered and died to redeem us.
The more deeply Christ humbled himself the more necessary it was for him to show beyond all doubt that he was a person worthy of such high, holy, divine worship. Had Christ done only miracles, he would have proven no more than that he was a prophet just like Moses, Elijah, and others. Even if he had performed an uncountable number of miracles than all the other prophets, it would not absolutely prove his divinity.
Whenever Christ publicly declared that he was God's Son, the Jews always demanded even greater miracles, especially a sign from heaven. What did Christ say to that? He said: "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall not sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas; for as Jonas w as three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Mt 12,39.40. You see, Christ indicates that his resurrection on the third day would be the true incontestable proof of his divinity. Christ did that, when he said to the Jews: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up....He spake," says John, "of the temple of his body." Jn 2,19.21.
To what extent does Christ's resurrection vindicate his divinity? To this extent, my dear friends: Christ declared that he is like God; had Christ
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claimed this and not spoken the truth, had he been merely a man, that would have been a fearful blasphemy on which account God would have had to punish him for time and eternity. But as we have heard, Christ says that he wanted to prove the truth of this testimony of his person by restoring his life three days after his death and rising glorified from his grave.
Since this was fulfilled letter for letter, he incontestably vindicated himself as the Son of the living God. For bear in mind that no one can rise from the dead by an optical illusion; all human power ends in death; man's ability to deceive then ends; the return to life can take place only through God's omnipotence who alone is Lord of life and death. Had Christ falsely pretended to be God's Son, what would have happened to him when he finally died on the cross? His body would have been eaten by worms and his soul would have fallen into God's avenging hands. Would God have awakened him from the dead and let him enter into glory?. Since he claimed to be God's Son, would Christ have been able to seal that claim? Never !
Now since Christ was actually awakened, from the dead, God the Father confirmed that he was his Son. By this deed God before all the world for all time crowned him with the crown of the Lord of glory; he proclaimed him as the true Lord of life, placed him on the throne of divine majesty, and testified that all creatures should swear allegiance to Christ as the King of kings who has the keys of death and hell. And with his resurrection Christ himself laid aside the form of a servant. He furnished the irrefutable proof that he could not only awaken others from the dead as other prophets could but that he has life in himself; that he has the power to lay down his life, and has the power to take it again; that he is mightier than death, the grave and hell; in other words, that he is the true God and eternal life.
If there is an unbeliever among us who does not believe in Christ's divinity, I invite him to ponder upon the proof of Christ's divinity furnished by his resurrection with attentive heart and to consider well how he can disprove it. Yes, you unfortunate, I invite you to look into Christ's empty grave today and learn with the soldiers to tremble at his majesty whom no grave could keep and who tore the bands of death with an almighty hand. Oh, learn to tremble at Christ's open tomb, fall down with Thomas before the Resurrected Lord, and humbly exclaim: "My Lord and my God!" Do it now while there is still grace for you, that the terror of Christ's majesty with which he will appear as the Judge in the clouds of heaven will not hurl you into the abyss of damnation. I ask you, I beg you by the glorified wounds of Christ, ponder this matter, give up your unbelief, in faith turn to your glorified Savior so that you may some day enter with him into the kingdom of his glory with eternal rejoicing.
And you, my friends, who already worship Christ as your God and eternal Lord, strengthen your faith today by pondering his glorious vindication which took place through his resurrection. Banish all doubt of Christ's majesty for where doubt rules, there is apostasy from God. Let your heart be filled with awe at the exalted Son of God who entered his glory. Let confessing Christ to the world be your honor and comfort and be afraid of denying him before scoffers by only a look.
Pray to him! Praise and exalt his name which is above every name. In spirit join the ranks of the angels and archangels who stand before Christ's throne and extol him forever with heavenly songs of praise. If you remain faithful to him, the God of all gods, until death you will also in eternity share in his triumph and be eternal blessed in seeing his glory. May the Resurrected Lord help us all reach that goal. Amen. Amen.