Sermon for Easter Day: April 4, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝
Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Great love stories can often be sad stories. I’ll admit it. Back in the days of TV Guide and even more recently when you would scroll through the channels I tended to move right along if I had happened to catch a movie showing that had a sad, love story. Call them “chick flicks” if you want, and I’m not necessarily looking for sports or some other “guy” movie, it’s just that Hollywood seems to believe that utter pain and the finality of death is as deep as the emotion of love can ever go. You love someone with the ultimate love, then one or both lovers die, end scene, roll the credits, don’t forget to toss your empty soda cup and your wadded-up crying tissues into the trash on your way out. Shakespeare thought the same way in his tragedies—it’s no spoiler alert to tell you that, for most of them, Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, in the end, everybody’s dead.
Anyone who witnessed Jesus’ death on Good Friday, such as Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ mother Mary (now John’s mother Mary), or that awestruck centurion looking up with new eyes at God’s Son, that person would have supposed they had at that moment just seen the utmost demonstration of the Lord’s love. How could you not come to a conclusion like that? After all that the Jews did, then the Romans, then you and I, what we all did to the Messiah, one would think we have reached rock bottom of the greatest love that ever existed. In comparison to the great ocean of God’s love exhibited on Calvary’s cross, our greatest human love could only be a faint spark; or, in terms of the movies, the intensity of feeling you get from The Notebook, or Titanic, would be a mere paper cut on your finger.
You wouldn’t be too far off, of course. Yes, you would find the ultimate depths of God’s love for the world depicted in all the events that led up to, and included, Good Friday. All of Scripture, New Testament and Old, sets us up for that holy death to be it for our bondage to sin. Jesus Christ the Crucified paid the greatest price and set you free. By His stripes, you have been healed. Greater love has no one than this, that one lays down his life for his friends. Jesus did that. He had the greatest love for you; He redeemed you from the death that you and your sins had deserved. No other love story on earth can come close to excelling it.
Yet we dare not overlook one important detail: this greatest love story in world history is not finished there. Good Friday, great as it is, and full of forgiveness of your sins it most certainly is, cannot however, and must not be the event that ends the scene and rolls the credits and ends the movie, so to speak. There must be an Easter. St. Paul knew that and said as much. We don’t have an Easter just to make us feel better after the sad tragedy of Good Friday. We have an Easter because that’s what happened. All the memorable, longest-running love stories of the world end on the note of “…and they lived happily ever after,” precisely because they have borrowed something from the way God’s love story truly ends. For it’s not a made-up story, it’s what really happened, and that’s what makes it such a good story. The Son of God who loved you so much to die, in this story, in this movie, if you will, He doesn’t stay dead! We cannot help but rejoice! Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
The contrast, the emotional differences, cannot be more striking. Where the depths of love as pictured in death practically empty you out emotionally and even physically, the heights of elation over new life, of reconciliation, of unity achieved with God, of victory over death and Satan, both of whom, along with sin itself has been vanquished, that ecstasy cannot be copied. No drug or chemical, or vaccine can produce it. No amount of money can purchase it. No government can establish it in their unending quest for utopia. Only Jesus achieved it. Only the Risen Jesus hands it out, which He does with the words: Peace be with you.
We’ll talk about that in particular next Sunday—you wouldn’t want to miss it! What needs to be expanded upon here today is how do we deal with the one thing that can get in the way of believing that greatest love story ever. The one obstacle to you, the one thing keeping you from making the Easter story come true in your world, or in the world of someone you may know is, to sum it up in one word: fear. You may think that fear isn’t something that affects you day to day, but be aware that fear can take many forms, and at times, you won’t always feel afraid, and yet fear is still on the attack. Fear can describe any thought of doubt in our mind towards God. It can be simple as being occupied with what-ifs: What if my job won’t support me or my family? What if the bully online won’t quit harassing me? What if I am ridiculed as a hater and lose my business if I have to stand up for what I believe in? What if my doctor gives me bad news the next time I visit? President Franklin Roosevelt famously said we have nothing to fear but fear itself, but that leaves us with another question— where do we turn when fear itself becomes the problem?
We could hear the triumphant angel’s simple announcement: fear not! This heavenly being is pictured in the Gospel as a young man sitting down on the right side, dressed in a white robe. His mouth holds nothing else but what God the Father commanded him to say: “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified—get it, WAS crucified— He has risen, He is not here. Go to Galilee and you will see Him again.” The great love story has been completed. Fear is removed simply because the angel repeated his message.
The same message is meant for you today, as well. Those disciples were filled with fear at first, but perfect love casts out fear, even those different kinds of fear that afflict you today. Will the Christian faith become more and more illegal? Probably will. Will you continue to face illnesses, dangers and worries? Yes—but the fear that they try to produce in you will be swallowed up in the ocean of love that is Jesus’ death and resurrection. The forgiveness that was paid and signed in the Blood of Christ on Good Friday is this day showered generously on you with the fear-dispelling words of your called and ordained servants of the Word.
Believe it, and that perfect love of God for you will fill you up. Nothing more is needed to bring you life, peace, forgiveness of your sins. It’s all yours, instantly! It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, what your history has been, or even if your track record of faithfulness to Him and His Commandments has not been something to be proud of—fear not! Your Savior stood in for you, then you automatically stand in for Him everywhere you go, loving your neighbor in grateful praise, not expecting a single thing in return. Because of Jesus and all that He did and accomplished, your life is different. You were forgiven first, pronounced by God Himself free and clear, then you were changed and molded to what our Lord has created you to be. His love has set you free! The love story that cannot be outdone has entered your life and become your story of salvation.
And when the day comes when your heavenly Father has determined you are to be called home to Him, fear not! An angel will not sit down but will instead carry your soul away from this earth to be with Jesus. In blissful Paradise you will await that still more glorious day when your Easter will come to its full completion—that is, when like Jesus on that first Easter, your body will raise up from the tomb and you will be glorified beyond our current ability to comprehend. Like Job said long ago, though my body is destroyed, yet my own eyes will see My Redeemer, who lives! No one can take that wonderful future away from you. Not even fear itself has that power. That obstacle has been forever removed.
This is the love story that no movie or earthly storyteller can reproduce—nothing in this world will get anywhere close. This love story goes far beyond the depths of death. No grief or sadness can ever drown it out. What suffering you will have to go through till that time, can’t even compare to the joy that is already yours on this Blessed Easter festival, for the rest of your life, and into all eternity.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
