April 16, 2017 – Easter Text: Luke 24:4-8
Dear Friends in Christ,
Two summers ago we vacationed in North Carolina. We rented an SUV and they gave us a larger one than we had requested with all the bells and whistles, including a touch screen GPS. Now you need to understand I am a Rand McNally Atlas guy. It’s simple and it doesn’t talk back to you. On this trip we would occasionally use this new-fangled gizmo, but not well. It would have an image of our vehicle driving through the grass or right off an exit ramp. If we had followed this computer’s direction, we might not be here today. We would be among the dead and not the living.
This morning, in God’s Word, we see a group of women looking for Jesus in a cemetery and an angel asking this ironic question . . .
“WHY DO YOU LOOK FOR THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD?”
These women were not confused. They went to the last place anyone had seen Jesus, the tomb. When we hear the angel’s question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” the natural answer is “Where else would he be?”
These women had gotten up in love early that Sunday morning because they didn’t want to leave the body of Jesus in the tomb without proper burial preparations. There were no funeral directors back then. When they get there nothing is as they imagined. There is no large stone to move, no Roman guards present, burial clothes on the ground and no body. That is when two men in shining robes – two angels – appeared and said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!”
Do the words sound like a rebuke? The angel thought the women should have known better than to come to the tomb looking for a dead Jesus. Jesus had told his followers many times over and over that he was going to die and rise again. They failed to grasp what he was saying.
Isn’t that you and I as well? We’ve been wrong so many times in our lives, especially about spiritual things, that we can understand why the women didn’t grasp the promise. After all, who comes back from the dead? At this time in history, life was cheap. Almost half of all children died before adulthood. Sure they knew of Lazarus and others that Jesus had raised, but who would raise Jesus? The point of those miracles was that Jesus had power over life and death. They should have trusted the promise, but they didn’t.
Jesus says, “I will be with you always.” Do we take that to heart in our day-to-day struggles? Jesus says, “I will never give you more than you can handle.” Do we ever question his promise? Jesus tells us not to fear death. Do we live in anticipation of this reality? Do we look for the living among the dead?
What difference does it make if you look for a name on a mailbox or a tombstone? Well, you will probably find names in both places, but you can only visit a friend in one of those places. That is the point of the angels statement, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” Someone might ask, “What difference does it make?”
It makes all the difference. When our faith is weak and foolish, we look for Jesus in all the wrong places. Where do we find the Savior? We find him in the gospel. We find him in the Word that is taught and preached. We find him in our baptism, sins washed away. We find him in Communion, where we receive the actual body and blood of the Lord.
In our sermons for Lent/Easter the theme has been “Ironies of the Passion.” Things turning out differently than we would expect. One of the great ironies of my lifetime is the life of Norma McCorvey. She was Jane Roe of the famous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Do you know that her baby was never aborted? That baby lived. In the 1990’s Norma worked in an abortion clinic in Dallas. In that same building was a pro-life clinic helping young women. Norma met a young lady there who invited her to church and Norma became a Christian. She fought the rest of her life to overturn the decision that involved her.
Madalyn Murray O’Hair was a famous atheist who fought to get prayer out of schools and founded the American Atheists organization. Do you know that one her sons is a Christian? The world would call these two situations – ironic. I would call it the power of God as He works through His means.
That ultimate power is on display today – the tomb is empty! He is not here. He has risen just as he said he would. No atlas or GPS will find his grave because it doesn’t exist. Jesus is living and that means all our sins are wiped out and forgotten. Jesus is living and that promises that we will live with him forever. Jesus is living and we will see our loved ones who died in the faith again.
“Christ has triumphed, He is living!” Then they remembered his words. Blessed Easter!
Amen.