“EVEN AS WE...”
Saint Mark 16: 1-8
The Feast of The Resurrection of our Lord: 1 April Anno Domini 2018
Father Jay Watson SSP
“Hallelujah Jesus lives, death no longer can appal me.”
This is what it’s all about. This is. Light and Life and Immortality. But even more, joy and family and peace.
The fear of every child when it is put to bed by a baby-sitter because the parents are out for the evening, is the fear that they won’t come back, that there could be an auto accident. The fear of every parent is that a dear child might be lost—no mother or father should have to bury a child. The fear of every spouse is that they will be the one still living—a widow or widower. The fear of losing close friends, siblings, is also terrifying.
It isn’t that sin, your sin—original and daily, just causes pain and decay all around, but that it separates and causes alone-ness and solitary weeping. The Lord meant for you to be His family: emphasis on HIS, and Family—together—a community, a communion, a feast forever at The Trinity’s Table.
No Easter sermon needs to be special, or better, or more meaningful. Every Sunday, every Lord’s Day is a little, or mini, Easter. The message is always the same when Christ Crucified is preached. Christ Jesus laid in death’s strong bands for your offenses. Past tense!!! Jesus was punished for your punishable deeds. Jesus died for your treason, your petty meanness, your cowardice in admitting you know Him, and your rejection of His Grace because you normally want yourself instead of Him. But as the Apostle writes: Jesus “was delivered for [y]our offenses and was raised again for [y]our justification.” Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
You know that your Redeemer lives, what sweet comfort this sweet sentence gives. The sweet Easter lily of Life Eternal is the aroma at the Holy + Font, the Holy + Absolution, and the fragrance which breathes from the Holy + Chalice in invigorating, calming, tear-wiping peace!
You miss your dead Mother. You miss your dead Father. You miss those other family members and dearly beloved who have died before you. But they will not precede you in the great Resurrection of all flesh…from the dead. “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” [1 Thes. 4. 13-18]
We do not disparage or criticize, much less judge, our dear sister in the faith, Mary Magdalene, or her companions, who rushed away from the empty tomb without immediately telling the Disciples. They did, subsequently—soon—and are thus honored for all time as the first eye-witnesses that “He’s risen, He’s risen, Christ Jesus our Lord, He opened death’s prison, The Incarnate Word.”
You fully realize and experience all the things you do wrong every day. Your sin weighs heavy upon you. You fear failure, you fear sickness, you, even in your old-nature, fear death. But your hope is “in the Name of The Lord.” And you know with every fiber of your faith, given by God’s Grace, that you will greet your + Sainted loved ones soon. You are content. The Lord draws you near to His bosom this day. Your pilgrimage is shortened and your mansion approaches. He will wake your loved ones, and you, from the dead as He awoke Himself in triumphant victory.
“But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” [1 Cor. 15. 21-23]
Today we spit in the face of Satan. This morn we mock all of hell and death itself. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” [1 Cor. 15. 55-58]
Hell today is vanquished, heaven is won today.
The foretaste of the eternal feast is celebrated. Commune, now, by ears and faith this happy morning with your loved ones who too are gathered with The Present Christ. The visual and physical reunion with all the host of heaven comes “in a moment, in twinkling of an eye.” [1 Cor. 15. 52] The day of resurrection beckons you. God hath brought His Israel, into joy from sadness.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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