Easter Sunday

“HE IS NOT HERE. FOR HE HAS RISEN, JUST AS HE SAID…”

“…Come and see the place where He lay” (Matthew 28:6). The angel’s invitation to the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection—the women who had looked after Jesus until the end (Matthew 27:55-56) and continued even into His burial (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 23:55-24:1)—was a call not only to see, but to bear witness. “Then go quickly and tell His disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead…’” (Matthew 28:7). By virtue of their gender, these women were ineligible to testify in civil matters. By virtue of their faithfulness, they were commanded and commended to testify to the eternal resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The resurrection of Jesus is not the first Bible story of the dead coming back to life. In 2 Kings 4, we read the account of Elisha and the Shunamite woman’s son who was returned to her from death. In 2 Kings 13:20-21, a nameless man was raised from death to life simply because his dead body accidentally touched the buried bones of Elisha; “he revived and stood on his feet.” Jesus raised from death to life Jairus’s daughter from her sick bed (Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:22-43; Luke 8:41-56), the widow of Nain’s son from the bier carrying him to his grave (Luke 7:11-17), and Lazarus from the tomb he had occupied for four days; “Lord, by this time he stinketh,” Martha warned (John 11:1-57, KJV). If resurrection was nothing new, what makes the resurrection of Jesus worthy of annual commemoration? Why is this resurrection—one among many—perhaps the highest of all holy days?

 
 

“If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone. But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:19-22).

The Shunamite’s son was raised, yet he died again. The man thrown into Elisha’s grave was raised, yet he died again. Jairus’s daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, and even Lazarus of Bethany were all raised, yet all died again. But not so for Jesus!

…we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over Him. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life He lives, He lives to God” (Romans 6:9-10).

Jesus’ “resurrection marked the Father’s satisfaction with the Son’s completed work of salvation; nothing more remained to be accomplished” (Allison, 2018). The sinless Son of God lived a life of perfect obedience; He secured our blessing. The spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, bearing the wrath our sins were due in our place at Calvary; He bore our curse. The Great High Priest who mediates a new covenant (Heb 9:11-28) in His blood; He became our propitiation (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2, 4:10). The risen King who defeats death, overcoming the grave; He secured our eternity. The ascended Savior now seated at the right hand of the Father in the position of universal authority; He intercedes for us (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25) and by virtue of our union with Him has seated us in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6-7).

Jesus’s death was vicarious in the sense that it was in our place, as our substitute. Jesus’s resurrection is vicarious in the sense that it foretells our own. “For if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection. …So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:5, 11). The Scriptures refer to Jesus as the firstfruits—the first of a larger harvest to come. Because He was resurrected to eternal life, those of us who are in Christ will follow in like manner. Because Jesus lives, we will live also with Him and can join this prayer with all the saints:

“Almighty God, who through Your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by Your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever and ever. Amen” (The Book of Common Prayer, 1979).

 

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EASTER SEASON

Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal (Fullness of Time) by Esau McCauley (2022, IVP Formatio)

The 1979 Book of Common Prayer (2005, Oxford University Press)

50 Core Truths of the Christian Faith: A Guide to Understanding and Teaching Theology by Gregg R. Allison (2018, Baker Publishing Group)

 

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Read the Bible: Matthew 28:1-20

 
 

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men.

The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. For he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there.’ Listen, I have told you.”

So, departing quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to tell his disciples the news. Just then Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus told them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

As they were on their way, some of the guards came into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests had assembled with the elders and agreed on a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money and told them, “Say this, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him while we were sleeping.’ If this reaches the governor’s ears, we will deal with him and keep you out of trouble.” They took the money and did as they were instructed, and this story has been spread among Jewish people to this day.

The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:1-20 (CSB)

 

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Holy Week: Saturday

 
 

“O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of Your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with Him the coming of the third day, and rise with Him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen” (The 1979 Book of Common Prayer, 2005).

 
 

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Holy Week: Good Friday

…AND THE LORD HAS LAID ON HIM THE INIQUITY OF US ALL (ISAIAH 53:6).

Good Friday. The irony of the name has proven hard to reconcile for many. What’s so good about a sham trial, brutal torture, and the most humiliating and excruciating form of execution conceivable? “Good Friday is filled to the brim with blood, injustice, and death” (McCauley, 2022).

Over 700 years before the death of Jesus at Calvary, the prophet Isaiah foretold this day and our role in it. “We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way…” (Isaiah 53:6). We are none innocent. In ways great and small, we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)—short of the image we were created to bear in an insurmountable violation of purpose. “…and the LORD has punished (laid on) Him with the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

And what a punishment it was, bearing the wrath of God against sin. “…This is the day when the Living Water says, ‘I thirst.’ It is the day when the Bread of Life hungers, the Resurrection and the Life dies, the Priest becomes the sacrifice, the King of the Jews is killed like a criminal. No wonder we stammer in the face of this mystery” (Witvliet, 2010). A cross not only ended a life but did so in the most ridiculing way possible—by magnifying Caesar’s domination over the one gasping for air on a stake. With Roman soldiers standing around and crowds screaming in rage and laughter, Good Friday looked like the triumph of Babel, right down to the signs in multiple languages over the head of the crucified King (Moore, 2022). “The cross forces us to take seriously our sins and those of the world. Our trespasses are of grave concern” (McCauley, 2022).

We dare not minimize the cross of Christ, softening its blow to our notions of self-righteousness or “self-help-ability.” We dare not repackage it with a nobility it was never afforded. Recognizing this tendency, the Rev. Fleming Rutledge (2019) warned, “‘A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of Christ without a cross.’ When this happens, we may have religiosity, we may have uplift, we may have spirituality, but we do not have Christianity.” The Apostle Peter, quoting the Prophet Isaiah long before him, rightly described a crucified Savior as “…a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,” (1 Peter 2:8) skandalon in the original Greek. The word of the cross—its necessity, its brutality, its humiliation—is scandalous.

 
 

And yet, “We gather on Good Friday not to wallow in guilt, but to announce that sin and guilt have been atoned for, conquered, healed, addressed, dealt with once and for all, in heaven and on earth through the blood of the cross” (Witvliet, 2010). Good Friday is not the story of tragedy, but of triumph.

On this day, when the sky became dark at noon, when the temple curtain was torn in two, when time on this tired earth nearly stood still—on this day when "God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross"—we whisper with great joy: "Welcome all wonders in one sight. Eternity shut in a span. Summer in winter. Day in night. Heaven in earth. And God in man."

Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (Witvliet, 2010).

“Jesus is the beginning of the resistance. In Him God declares that sin and death will not always rule… The cross of Christ is not an ending, a final act of evil in a world that knows only the destruction of good. The cross is evil meeting a more powerful foe: Emmanuel, God with us, even unto death” (McCauley, 2022). Jesus our propitiation “set [His] passion, cross, and death between [His] judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death” (The Book of Common Prayer, 1979).

We have no such claim apart from the saving work of Jesus at Calvary. “So we weep at the evil our sins have caused, but we also rejoice in the glory of God. We remember the price by which we were purchased and the life it opened up to us. We find our strength at the cross, where God’s Son became weak for us” (McCauley, 2022). And we join with those redeemed through the shed blood of Jesus Christ in prayer:

“Almighty God, we pray You graciously to behold this Your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen” (The Book of Common Prayer, 1979).

 

LEARN MORE ABOUT GOOD FRIDAY AND THE REST OF THE EASTER SEASON

Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal (Fullness of Time) by Esau McCauley (2022, IVP Formatio)

The 1979 Book of Common Prayer (2005, Oxford University Press)

A Crescendo of Wonder by John Witvliet (2010, Christianity Today)

The Cross Contradicts our Culture Wars by Russell Moore (2022, Christianity Today)

Why Good Friday is So Good - And How it Makes Easter Such Great News by Karl Vaters (2019, Christianity Today)

Why ‘Being Christian Without the Church’ Fails the Good Friday Test by Fleming Rutledge (2019, Christianity Today)

 

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TOMORROW: Easter Eggstravaganza!

 
 
 

Mark your calendars to join us for a free time of food, fun, & fellowship! All are warmly welcome.

What can I expect?

  • Lunch will be served (hot dogs, hamburgers, & fixings)

  • Easter egg hunt with areas divided by general age groups

  • Weather permitting, both inside & outside games for all ages

What should I bring?

  • The most important thing to bring is yourself & all the family & friends your vehicle will hold! Nothing else is required.

  • If you’d like, you’re welcome to contribute to the Easter eggs for the egg hunt, or bring a container to participate. We’ll have a few extra baskets on hand too.

More questions? Contact us.

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