Easter Sunday Sermon 2021
Easter Sunday – Mark 16:1-8
St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Laramie, WY
4 April A+D 2021 – Pr. Mark Preus
And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away…”
The women had good intentions. They loved Jesus. They wanted to do something for Him that was precious. They had heard of the woman who broke the alabaster flask and poured precious oil on Jesus’ body. Jesus said, that she had anointed His body for burial. Jesus approved of this service, so they thought they should do it again. Nicodemus had already wrapped Jesus in 100 pounds of spices, but they still wanted to give Him more. By now, they thought, after three days, the body would stink. Let’s keep it smelling sweat for a little while.
They loved Jesus, but their faith was still weak. They forgot Jesus’ words. He told them that the Son of Man would be handed over to sinners, and suffer and die, and on the third day rise. They didn’t think about that. They thought about their own thoughts and feelings. And so their own thoughts and feelings led them to wonder, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” It was a very large stone.
The stone had already been rolled away. Now, there is a very important point that the four Evangelists make clear. Jesus did not have to wait for the stone to be rolled away to leave the tomb. Matthew says there was an earthquake, and an angel came and rolled the stone away and sat on it. Jesus wasn’t in there. The stone being rolled away did not free Jesus from the grave. The stone being rolled away told the women and John and Peter that Jesus was not there. As the angel in Luke’s Gospel says,
Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’
He was already risen. The women were worried about a stone that prevented them from going in to see a very dead Jesus. But they did not roll the stone away. An angel of the Lord did. A messenger did, who told them,
Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.
The stone is rolled away so that they might hear the good news that Jesus was risen from the dead. The stone was not rolled away so that Jesus could rise from the dead or leave the grave. Why is this an important point?
Because our faith rests on a fact, a truth, an event and a reality that happened almost 2,000 years ago today. The truth is that the only begotten Son of God, who took on our humanity, and faced the devil and loved His neighbor, and obeyed His Father in our place, and was treated with shame and contempt, and suffered not just the bruises of men, but the wrath of God against all sinners, this Jesus of Nazareth, rose from the dead by His own power. It happened. He didn’t need a stone rolled away. He is God. He is declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection from the dead. No one takes His life from Him. He lays it down of His own accord, and He has the power to take it up again. Do you think that Jesus rose from the dead, and then stood there in the tomb twiddling His thumbs until the angel of the Lord rolled the stone back? That’s nonsense!
Just later that day, when His disciples were locked in their house for fear of the Jews, Jesus suddenly appeared among them. The walls didn’t stop Him. So also the walls of the tomb could not hold Jesus in. He rose from the grave and stood on top of the tomb the Conqueror of Death.
Do you know that there are many who deny that Jesus simply appeared among them? They think He went through a window or something. They teach that Jesus had to wait until the angel rolled the stone back. Why is this such a problem, besides it being ridiculous?
Because it denies who Jesus is and what He has done. Those who teach that Jesus had to wait until the angel rolled the stone back say that in order for Jesus humanity to remain human, he has to be confined by the things that confine humans, otherwise He would not be true man. But this is preposterous. Jesus does not destroy His humanity by rising from the dead! It’s the exact opposite! He raises our humanity from the dead! How was He able to do that? Because He is true God! Human beings can’t raise themselves from the dead. But this one did! Because He is true God.
No, the teaching that Jesus had to climb through a window to get to His disciples or wait patiently for an angel to roll away the stone makes Jesus into a dead Jesus again. “Who will roll away the stone for us!” the women wondered. Jesus didn’t wonder. He was already risen.
You see, we look for life and comfort in the wrong places. The women came expecting a dead Jesus, and because they expected a dead, only human Jesus, they were very concerned about something that they should never have been concerned about.
Who will roll away the stone for us, so that we might find a dead Savior? What good is a dead Savior? We are left only with our grief. We are left relying on works that don’t mean anything, because there is no dead Jesus to anoint with spices. We fret and we worry as if Jesus were dead because we forget what Jesus tells us. He is risen. He said He would do it, and He did it. His teaching is true.
When we pray with doubting, we act as if the stone still needs to be rolled away, and for what? To weep and mourn a little with no hope, because Jesus can’t help? When we fall into sin, and we feel that sin is too powerful for us, and so we conclude that we might as well just give into it, aren’t we wondering who will roll the stone away? We can’t. We may have good intentions, but for what? To find a dead Jesus? To forget about life for a while and cling to a dead body? To live in dead works that have no purpose?
When we endeavor to take upon ourselves something important, like loving God, and loving our neighbor, and we aren’t sure if we can even do what we want to do, because evil is present with us, but we can’t feel and see the truth that even the evil inside of us has been conquered, has been done away with, has been openly mocked before the devil and hell, then we are wondering who will roll the stone away for us. It’s too heavy. Jesus is stuck in there. I have to do something to get to Him. I have to remove what is hiding Him from me. I have to trust in what I feel and in what I understand, instead of a reality greater than what my poor heart can figure out.
But the earth shakes, and the soldiers are stunned, and the angel of the Lord descends and rolls away the stone from the door and sits on it, probably crosses his legs and whistles a tune, because there is no one in that tomb when he rolls the stone away! Come and look and see the place where He lay! He is not here! He is not among the dead. He is living! Jesus even folded His burial garments nice and neat for everyone to see.
It is beyond what we can understand, but it still happened. What we understand doesn’t determine reality! The reality is that this Man, Jesus Christ, is the only true God, the only begotten Son of the Father, who only three days ago was bearing the sin of the world and being killed for it, being destroyed, like a flower wilting in the heat of the sun, and drooping its head down, but now the dew of life has again renewed this lily, and His head is raised up above all of His enemies, above all of my enemies and your enemies; above the sin He bore, because it is no more; above the death He died, because it no longer has dominion over Him; He has dominion over death; over the devil who lied to us and deceived us, but Jesus lives and so proves what He really said, that He would be crucified and buried and on the third day rise.
The word teaches us the reality. The stone was rolled away simply to show the women that Jesus wasn’t there where they sought Him. He is in His Word. He is in the Gospel. He brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. And the Gospel that we preach, and that we believe this morning, is that your sin which your Savior bore on the cross is gone. If it were still there, then Jesus would still be dead, because the wages of sin is death. But He is not among the dead. He is living. Therefore there is no sin left in all the world. He has removed them from you as far as the east is from the west. He rose. Behold the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. This is the reality. It is true before you see it. It is true before you believe it. It is true when you don’t feel it. It is the truth that is above the feelings of a few well-intentioned women, and above our feelings of doubt and perplexity.
And this is the truth that rolls the stone away from our hearts, when we feel nothing but sin and death inside of us. We have an answer to the question, Who will roll the stone away? But the stone that needs to be rolled away is not from the tomb of Christ. He is already risen and alive. The stone that needs to be rolled away, is the doubt and unbelief and worry that blocks our hearts from seeing that Christ is truly risen, and that the sin that conquered us He has conquered; that the death that claims us, He claims as His servant to do His bidding; that the countless times we have strayed like sheep have not prevented the Shepherd from finding us and rejoicing over us and lifting us up out from among the dead and raising us to life again by faith in the truth that the angels so calmly and confidently affirm to us even today, that He is risen. My soul, believe, and doubt it not.
It is frightening truth. Mark presents the women to us as without any joy and unwilling to say anything for a while. The joy comes, of course. But I don’t think we are much different. To hear that what is so familiar to us, our sin, death, the end of our lives, the loss of those we love – that this reality that meets our eyes is not reality at all! The reality is that wherever I go, Jesus, my Lord and my God, is there! If I ascend into Heaven, He is there! If I make my bed in the grave and hell, I find Him Lord even there, the Man, the Crucified, the Risen One – such knowledge is too wonderful for me! I t is high, I cannot attain unto it. But Christ attains me. He comes to me and finds me worrying about sin and death, and He tells me to look at Him to see that what I feel isn’t real. Who He is, is real.
Therefore let anyone living in sin, turn from His evil thoughts and listen to the angels show you that Jesus is not among the dead, but is the living one, who gives life to you in the forgiveness of your sins. Therefore let anyone overwhelmed by his sins and remorseful for them, know that Jesus doesn’t need to roll the stone away for Himself, but that He will show Himself to you when He calls you by name, when you don’t even recognize Him, as Mary Magdalene didn’t in the Garden, but He comes to each and every one of you burden by your flesh and the world and regret, and He says, “Mary!” And you say, “Teacher.” He teaches you. He rolls the stone away. He teaches you that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He teaches you that your only God is this Man who conquered sin and death. He teaches you not to grab Him with your hands, but with your heart, because He has rolled the stone away from there with the Gospel that brings life and immortality to light.
An evil angel met the woman in the Garden and she was deceived. Good angels meet the women in another Garden, and they learn the truth. Adam was the gardener in Eden, and he corrupted us all. Jesus is the new Adam and the New Gardener, who walks in the dawn of the day to greet you, who don’t know what to believe, and He says to you, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in Me, though He die, yet shall He live; and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die!”
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, but it is mine, and it is yours. If you feel the stone in your heart, and can’t join in on this Easter joy because life is hard, and you feel what is wrong, then do not despair. Only wait for the Lord, because He is risen, and your sin is conquered, and your death is destroyed. The water that flowed from His side has washed you, and the Word in that water will revive you. Be amazed. Wonder. But do not despair. The joy always comes. It is the joy of knowing that the God who made you has made you anew in the person of His Son. It is the joy of knowing that where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, because Jesus lives to forgive you and lead you to fountains of living waters, where the weeping that endured for the night is replaced with the joy that comes from the morning of Christ’s resurrection.
He can walk through a tomb alive from the dead. He can enter the hardest heart and melt it, as it is written, He uttered His voice; the earth melted. The stone is rolled away for you to see that He is not where your thoughts and feelings place Him, secluded and away from you. He is with you in the Gospel and sacraments, to anoint your body and soul with the Holy Spirit, to cover you with His righteousness, with that sweet smelling aroma that is pleasing to God. He has laid His hand on you, and holds you even now in the grace of God.
And so His praise is yours. The reason the Church takes away the praise of God from our lips and brings it all back on Easter, is so that we recognize that the highest praise of God is faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins; it is so that we recognize that our joy is in Christ raised from the dead for our justification, to be our righteousness and life forever; it is so that we rejoice in the promise that as Christ is risen from the dead, so we His members will rise too.
After my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.