Easter
Jn
20:1-18
4/5/26
It is John’s Gospel which informs us
that Jesus’ trip to Jerusalem for the Passover which resulted in his Passion
was not the only trip that he made to the city to celebrate the feast. In
chapter two we learn about an earlier visit, and John tells us about how Jesus
drove out those who were selling animals and the money changers.
When the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing
these things?,” Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up.” His opponents were
completely confused by this. It had
taken forty six years to build the temple, and in fact it wasn’t even done yet.
It would only be completed just a few years before its destruction in 70 A.D.
How could Jesus raise it up in three days?
Then John tells us: “But he was speaking about the temple of
his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples
remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the
word that Jesus had spoken.” This statement teaches us two things. First, Jesus
said things during his ministry that his disciples did not understand. And
second, it was the resurrection of Jesus that enabled them to understand the
words and deeds of the Lord. In fact it
was only the resurrection that made it possible for them to understand Scripture
as a whole.
We saw the same thing last Sunday in the reading for the procession
with palms. Jesus found a young donkey
and sat on it in order to ride into Jerusalem. John explained that this was
just as it had been written in Zechariah, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold,
your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” Then he added, “His disciples
did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified,
then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had
been done to him.”
And this emphasis continues on into our Gospel reading for Easter. This morning we hear “Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” This morning we see that in the resurrection of Jesus he demonstrates his authority over death itself. He is the source of life which conquers death, and by this we can understand what his cross means for us.
John’s Gospel tells us exactly who
Jesus Christ is. He is the Son, the second person of the Trinity. He is God who created the universe. John
begins the Gospel by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
He tells us, “All things were made through him, and without him was not
any thing made that was made.” And then the evangelist announces that the Son
of God became man without ceasing to be God. He says, “And the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his
glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace
and truth.”
This Gospel also tells us exactly
why the Son of God entered into the world in the incarnation. When John the
Baptist saw Jesus he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away
the sin of the world!” John was certainly drawing upon the Old Testament
as he said that Christ would be a sacrifice.
More specifically, he was almost certainly describing Jesus as the
Passover lamb. The blood of the Passover lamb had caused God’s wrath to pass
over the Israelites in Egypt. Now in his death, the blood of Jesus would cause
God’s judgment to pass over sinners.
John’s the Baptist’s words identify
sin as our basic problem. Jesus says in this Gospel that everyone who sins is a
slave of sin. He told his opponents that if they did not believe in him they would
die in their sin.
John the Baptist had designated
Jesus as the One who would die as the sacrifice for sin. And Jesus had been
clear about how this would happen. He had told Nicodemus, “And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” And during
Holy Week Jesus declared, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the
ruler of this world be cast out.
And
I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to
myself.” John tells that Jesus said this to show what kind of death he was
going to die – that he would die on the cross.
The Gospel of John tells us that
faith in Jesus is the means to life. It is through faith in Christ that we
escape the wrath of God against sin. We
hear, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” And then
later Jesus announced, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into
judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
In fact, Jesus had said that he was the means to resurrection life.
He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here,
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who
hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has
granted the Son also to have life in himself.”
On Good Friday, Jesus had been lifted up on the cross. He had died.
Then he had been buried. And on Sunday, as a new week began, it was apparent
that all of that talk about life was just nonsense. Everything that Jesus had
said and done had come to nothing. He
had cried out “It is finished” as he died. And everything was all finished. It
ended as the Romans killed Jesus on the cross.
In our Gospel lesson we learn that very early on the first day of
week, Mary Madalene went to the tomb. We know from the other Gospels that she
went to complete the burial arrangements for Jesus. She went in a final act of
devotion for her Lord who had been killed.
But when she arrived at the tomb, she saw that the stone that
covered the entrance to the tomb had been taken away. Her immediate reaction was
to run and tell Jesus’ disciples. She reported to Simon Peter, “They have taken
the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
This startling news prompted Peter and another disciple –
presumably John – to run to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple
was faster and got there first. He
didn’t enter the tomb, but stooping he looked in and saw the linen burial
cloths lying in the tomb. When Peter
arrived, he entered the tomb, and there he saw not only the linen cloths, but
also the cloth that had been placed over Jesus’ face. It was not with the
burial clothes, but had been folded up and set apart by itself.
The tomb was empty. The cloths in which Jesus body had been wrapped
were lying there. The face cloth had been folded up and put in its own
place. John tells us that when he saw
this evidence, he believed that Jesus had risen. However, he didn’t understand
that this was going to happen for as yet the disciples did not understand
the Scripture, that Jesus must rise from the dead.
The two disciples went back to their homes. By this point Mary had
returned and stood weeping outside the tomb. She stooped to look inside the
tomb, and there she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had
been.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She replied, “They
have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Then she
turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognize that it
was Jesus. The Lord asked
her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”
Mary thought that this was the gardener, and she said to him, “Sir,
if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take
him away.” Then the Lord said to her, “Mary.”
In that instant Mary recognized that it was Jesus risen from the dead
who stood before her. She turned and
said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!,” which means Teacher.
In that moment Mary had obviously taken hold of Jesus because he
said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father;
but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father
and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Then Mary went and announced to
the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and reported what Jesus had said.
Jesus had promised life – eternal life – to all who believe in him.
Good Friday had ended in death. It had ended with Jesus’s body on the cross and
buried in a tomb. But on the morning of
Easter the tomb was empty. And in the encounter with Jesus, Mary learned that
Christ had risen from the dead. It was the same thing that the other disciples
of Jesus would learn by the end of the day when the Lord appeared in the midst
of the room where they were gathered.
Sin brings death. God told Adam in the beginning that it would work
that way. He said, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day
that you eat of it you shall surely die.” And death destroys life as God created it to
be. God made us as people who are body and soul joined in a unity. Genesis
tells us, “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man
became a living creature.” Death tears apart this unity – it destroys what God
created as it leaves a lifeless body to be buried.
When Jesus cried, “It is finished” he announced that he had
accomplished the sacrifice that provided forgiveness before God. But this
forgiveness would have had no meaning for us if Jesus had not also overcome
death in his resurrection. Only in this
way could we be freed from the consequence of sin. Only in this way could Jesus
give us eternal life as God intends it.
Jesus had said that he would do this. He announced, “I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” And then
our Lord went on to say, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay
down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it
down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to
take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
Jesus demonstrated his authority as the Son of God when he took up
his life again in the resurrection of Easter.
This resurrection was not merely a return to life in which a person
would later die again such as occurred when Jesus raised Lazarus. Instead, the
resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of the transformation that will occur
on the Last Day. It was the beginning of the resurrection that will be ours
when the Lord returns in glory.
It was the resurrection of Jesus that allowed the disciples to
understand who Jesus really is, and what had done for us. Only the resurrection
could reveal the truth of Jesus’ words: “It is finished.” Because of the
resurrection we can now understand what his death really means for us.
Jesus said, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone
who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal
life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Because of Jesus’ death and
resurrection there is now eternal life for all who believe in Christ. This is
something that we already possess now, just as we have forgiveness now. It is something that we continue to have even
if we experience bodily death, because death now means that we are with the
risen Lord. And this eternal life will continue on in the manner for which God
created us in the beginning. On the Last Day the Lord Jesus will raise and
transform our bodies so that we can never die again. We will enjoy life in body
and soul with God, just as Adam and Eve did before the Fall.
Jesus captured this truth in words that he spoke to Martha just
before he raised Lazarus from the dead. He said, “I am the resurrection
and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet
shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
This gift of eternal life both now and in the resurrection is
something that the risen Lord Jesus gives to us this morning. He does it in the
Sacrament of the Altar. While he said to Mary, “Don’t cling to me,” the
ascended Lord now says, “Take and eat. Drink of it all of you” as he gives his
true body and blood into us.
Through his body and blood Jesus gives us life – life that gives
fellowship with God and life that will raise us from the dead. Our Lord said, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink
his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks
my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
No comments:
Post a Comment