We have just celebrated the fourth Sunday in the season of Lent and the fifth Wednesday evening Lenten service. It’s a season when we put away the Alleluias and the Hymns of Praise from our liturgy. We examine ourselves and confess before God that we are poor sinners, that we have turned our back on God and spurned him and his love. We walk the road with Jesus as he approaches Jerusalem and the events of Holy Week: His betrayal and arrest. His mock trial. The beatings with fists, the scourging with whips. The tortuous journey out of Jerusalem with his cross laid on his bleeding shoulders. The nails, the crucifixion, the sky turned black as the sun refuses to shine. His death. The spear thrust. The lifeless body laid in the tomb. The stone rolled into place.
Each year we go through this ritual season and rehearse these ugly events. Why? The death of the Son of God at the hands of sinful men is horrendous! Jesus was innocent of any wrongdoing, and yet we find him hanging on a cross, suffering and dying. Why would we remind ourselves of these events and teach them to our children?
The answer is that these terrible events are made wonderful when viewed through the lens of the empty tomb. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead turns all the darkness to light, all the sadness and ugliness to joy and beauty.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter makes all the difference. 1 Corinthians 15:21 says, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.” And 1 Peter 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” 1 Cor 15:14. Without the resurrection, Jesus’ suffering, his bleeding and his dying are all in vain. We are still in our sins and have no hope for the future.
But, Peter says, we have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. As God raised Jesus, so he will raise us. Jesus bore our sins on the cross. It was for us that he suffered and died. His death put our sins to death, removed our guilt from us, made us clean and pure and holy. And the fact that God raised him from the dead affirms that his sacrifice was sufficient to atone for the sins of mankind. Adam brought death to us, but Jesus has brought life!
This is why we rehearse the events of holy week and the suffering and death of our Lord, Jesus. This is why we examine ourselves and repent of our sins and confess them to our heavenly Father. This is why we have the season of Lent in our church year – because at the end of it all is the empty tomb and the resurrected Son of God, holding out his nail scarred hands to embrace us in the warmth of his love.
Our Lord has died for us. Our sins are forgiven. He has risen from the dead and we will rise, too. The dreadfulness of that Friday in Holy Week has been changed into wonder and amazement by the revealing light of the empty tomb.
God bless each of you as we rehearse once again the passion of our Lord and his glorious resurrection!
Christ has arisen, alleluia.
Rejoice and praise him, alleluia.
For our redeemer
burst from the tomb,
even from death,
dispelling its gloom.
Let us sing praise to him
with endless joy.
Death’s fearful sting
he has come to destroy.
Our sin forgiving, alleluia!
Jesus is living, alleluia!
Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia
LSB 466
- Pastor