174. Easter Day. I.
The voice of rejoicing and salvation
is in the tabernacles of the righteous.
Gospel Lesson, Mark 16, 1-7. And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.
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“Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?” anxiously inquired the women; but “when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away; for it was very great.” The stone which imprisons us in death and the grave is sin. It is so large and heavy that no man and no angel could have removed it. It would without any question have held us forever in the cave of death, separated from God, shut out from all life and light. But Jesus has taken away sin, and burst open the grave; then the angel rolls the stone away, that the victory may become known. Go to the grave of Jesus; and behold, the stone is rolled away! He who died for the sins of the world, and who said, “It is finished,” he is risen, and the truth of his announcement has been established. If he had not in truth fully paid for our sins and fulfilled all things for us, the death to which he delivered himself would have held him bound. Now we know of a certainty that he is risen; and hence it is clear that the cup of death has been drained to the dregs, and that the whole burden of sin has been taken away. The stone is rolled away. Should sin still rest heavy on your conscience, and death still have terrors for you, then bear in mind that you are baptized into him who was dead and is alive, and that hence you are dead with him and risen again with him. Sin has no more any right to cause you death. In Christ death has already been suffered; it is finished. — Neither shall death be able to make your heart a grave filled with death’s ugly brood, a habitation for the evil powers of darkness. You are united with the living Christ; you are one with him, over whom death has no authority whatever. Christ is risen; therefore the stone is rolled away. Christ is risen; and thereby sin is vanquished, and death destroyed. To me there is nothing, and can be nothing, more grand than the declaration of Paul (2 Tim. 1, 10), that “Jesus Christ hath abolished death.” Death, this terrible reality; death abolished, done away with! Hallelujah! O, that we might make our shout of victory heard in all the earth! Verily, death is abolished, death for us and death in us. We are saved from the greatest of all terrors; for we are members of his body, who died and rose again, and are one with him in his death and in his resurrection. To be sure, our faith still is weak; but it is founded on the word of God, and is therefore stronger than all the gates of hell.
The grave of Jesus is the door to all graves in which the bodies of the faithful are laid to rest. The seal is broken, and the stone rolled away; he is the resurrection and the life. “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” (John 11, 25. 26). My reader, believest thou this? There is no doubt whatever of its truth; himself, who is the truth, has spoken it, and you may trust in it with absolute safety. Blessed are you, if you believe! Yes, blessed is everyone who in truth believes, even though his faith be weak and he be obliged to fight continually against unbelief. — How shall I thank thee, Lord Jesus, for thy victory over death and the devil, and for life, everlasting life, which thou hast given me! Grant me grace to live for thee while life endures, to confess thy name by walking in godliness, and to bring forth much fruit for thy kingdom. And let me then forever lie at the foot of thy throne with praise and thanksgiving. Thou knowest that it is my innermost heart which says: Blessed be thy glorious name evermore! How blest shall I be to praise thee with a new tongue in thy kingdom forever and ever! Amen.
Christ the Lord is risen today,
Sons of men and angels say;
Raise your joys and triumphs high,
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply.
Lives again our glorious king;
Where, O death, is now thy sting?
Dying once, he all doth save;
Where thy victory, O grave?
175. Easter Day. II.
Lord Jesus, our living Savior; quicken us,
and sanctify us with thee. Amen.
Epistle Lesson, 1 Corinthians 5, 7. 8. Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
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The use of leaven was, under penalty of death, prohibited among the children of Israel during the Easter festival. They ate the passover every year; and with the faith of our heart we eat the true passover all the time. Christ was sacrificed for us, and they that believe in him live in communion with him alway, and celebrate Easter without ceasing. “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.” (John 6, 63). Reference is here had to the union of the heart with Jesus. In this union only is there life. But do you hear what the apostle says in regard to the leaven? Do you remember that the leaven is prohibited, and that it is death itself? “The old leaven” is the nature and life of the natural man. War must be made on all the lusts of the flesh, even as the Israelites were to have no leaven in the house at the time of Easter. It means death, if you again conclude peace with any of your carnal lusts. “The leaven of malice and wickedness” means an evil and deceitful mind. Is it possible, do you think, that hate and anger, the spirit of Esau and Saul, can be united with Jesus, who is all love? Or how should malice, deceit, and craftiness be connected in any way with our holy and blameless Lamb of the passover? No, sincerity and truth shall be our bread. You, the Lord’s believers, are a new lump, unleavened and pure; and this is what you should be. The passover is sacrificed; and thereby you are become a new lump, says the apostle. How happy we would be, did we but understand the word of God and believe the truth! As you are a new lump, you can and shall purge out the old leaven. Your whole life shall be a life in sincerity and truth. It shall be lived in the power of Christ’s resurrection and in the fellowship of his suffering. Your whole life shall be on a high plane; you shall not wallow in the mire of sin, but climb the heights, bathe in the sunshine of truth and holiness, and breathe the pure and heavenly spirit of Jesus. In like manner as a leaven leavens the whole lump, so shall the new life, the life of Christ’s resurrection, be manifest in all that you do. It is a life of the heart, and must be seen in every act down to the least important, even as the heartbeat sends the blood coursing through the body out into the tips of the fingers.
God help us to be true believers, and to lead a life of true holiness. Amen.
The strife is o’er, the battle done!
The victory of life is won;
The song of triumph has begun,
Hallelujah!
The powers of death have done their worst,
But Christ their legions hath dispersed;
Let shouts of holy joy outburst,
Hallelujah!