“JESUS LIVES, THE VICTORY'S WON”
Saint Mark 16. 1-8
The Resurrection of the Lord: 27 March Anno Domini 2005
Fr Watson
"He Is Risen........Hallelujah!" He is alive, and THAT is what IT is all about! He Who Is Risen answers all of your prayers. He Who Is Reigning at the Right Hand of Majesty Is Who He said He Is. Jesus is God. He Who conquered death did what He said He would do. He suffered on the cross to pay for all of your law-breaking and disobedience; He shed His precious blood and gave His body unto death to forgive you your trespasses and to snatch you out of the jaws of sin, Satan, and death.
The noble "Lion of Judah" Who was so shamefully shorn of His mane on Friday past, is this morning resplendent, rampant and roaring with laughter, joy, love and life for all of you. The suffering servant suffers no more though His delight is to remain your servant and friend. What kind of a Lord do you have? An eternal One; One Who understands your fleshly failings, your fears and gnawing doubts, your pains, sorrows and terrors. You have a "Lion" Who is not the "King of the Beasts" but rather the Monarch of all time and space. He bids you to embrace Him, luxuriate in Him, be in Him.
The Day of Rest was past; the Sabbath was over. The faithful women brought spices to the tomb to embalm Jesus. They thought He was dead. They thought the body was already afflicted with rigor-mortis and beginning to decay, to stink. That's what sin does to all of us; makes us stink the stench of hell; the putrid miasma of brimstone. That's what death does to one; makes them stiff as a board, hard as a rock, lifeless and incapable of communion with God. Death is the ultimate separator. Sin pulls one away from the Lord but death, death of an unbeliever makes that break permanent.
That's why losing a loved one is the most painful hurt a human being can suffer. Yes, when you sin, when you fall from Grace and step away from the life the Lord has given you, it hurts too, it brings pain and misery. But even in your disobedience, your "New-Man Saint" struggles against the flesh; the Holy Spirit returns you to your Baptism and you are drowned again in repentance and contrition. Sin and Forgiveness become a daily pattern of warfare and small victories for the Christian warrior. But it too wears you down. That's the rub; all sin eventually leads to death. All disobedience slowly but inexorably decomposes the body, the flesh, that you have been given. Is it any wonder that the older you get, the more stiff, arthritic, and less flexible you become. It is a reminder of the rigor mortis of the tomb.
Death scares the unbeliever. It should. It is a horrible enemy; one of Satan's most fierce beasts. Death is an affront to God the Creator. Death is a blasphemy to the Lord of the First Article of the Creed. Death sucks the life even out of the living when they lose someone that they have loved. You know that. You who have lost a beloved Father, or mother, or child, or sibling, or dear friend and soul-mate, you know that. You, even as a believer, fear, in your sin, never seeing that person again. That fear of death and its consequences makes it even hard to breathe and swallow. And, somewhere in the back of your own conscious mind, in sin, you fear your own death as well. But only for a moment.
He is Risen!
Without Easter, without the Lord's Rising, all I could really say to you this morning is that you are one day closer to your own death; you're two days closer to the grave than you were when you met here on Good Friday; the clock continues to tick, the sand continues to drain out of your hour glass. For the unbeliever who has the courage to face reality, life is nothing but a cruel joke; a gigantic nihilistic void.
We pray for such lost souls. We pray that all the "lost" will have the same joy that we do this happy morn. We do more than pray; we evangelize.
The women, the Magdalene and the others, were feeling the incredible sorrow that first Sunday dawn. You know. They didn't want to believe Jesus was dead. Neither do we, at first, when that one special person in our life dies. We keep hoping it was all a bad dream and that we'll awake and see him/her walking through the door with a smile on their face.
The women approached that hillside crypt with tears running down their faces. What happened next makes all the difference in the world; in their lives, in yours.
The heavy rock had been rolled away. That boulder of the "LAW," that stony reminder of the Two Tables, had been kicked away by the Blessed and Pierced Feet of He Who walks on still, to this very moment, proclaiming His Kingdom, His Peace and Release for His kin. The Christ provided then, as He still provides, "a man dressed in a white robe" to proclaim the Good News. This isn't just the Magdalene's Good News, it's yours too.
"HE IS RISEN.....Hallelujah"
Jesus Lives, the Victory's Won, death no longer can appall you. Do not be alarmed, you will see your loved ones soon. This joy is so incredible when it is finally internalized that it too almost makes one cry and weep with joy. The King was dead, now we chant Long Live the King! The Lion was tamed unto death, but now our Regal Monarch roars the victory anthem, darkness flees, demons dive for cover, Satan slinks away, and the dead rise again.
The Lord Jesus was but the first of the harvest of souls. Because He lives never to die you too and your own, will not just have "life," but will LIVE as God meant you too.
Jesus lives death's reign is done. Your aches and illnesses and terminal diseases have been swallowed up with death, by the "Living One." Your heartaches and defects have been done away in His perfect Glorified Easter Body. That same body now called His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church; the same Body and Blood which will be given to you this morning. Your confidence isn't your faith, your works, your hope or your steadfastness. Your confidence is He Who is the Way the Life and the Truth. He Lives, He Acts, Preserves, Restores, Forgives, Strengthens, Washes and Feeds. He Holds you forever close to His bosom. Jesus is your Confidence.
"HE IS RISEN.....Hallelujah"
In The Name of The Crucified and Risen One, + Jesus the Christ