https://assets-cdn2.dropwave.io/086174f0-efbe-400f-a3e9-b91549a26ab7/media/The Resurrection of Our Lord (Easter Day) AD 2026.mp3

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

++ JESU JUVA ++

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[The death of Jesus]

You are here today to celebrate and receive our Lord’s resurrection. But before we talk about that, we need to look at something else first. Which is more important, the crucifixion or the resurrection of Jesus? Jesus died. This is where Easter begins. Without the preaching of Jesus’ death, His resurrection makes no sense and has no meaning.

So we begin with our Lord’s death. Throughout the last week, the Church read the Passion accounts from all four Gospels. We heard the suffering and death of Jesus. We pondered His time of trial. We sat with His disciples. Jesus announced that one of them would be His betrayer. In response, every disciple asked the same question: “Is it I?” Every disciple asks the question because he knows he has the capacity to deny Jesus. And each of them, in their own way, has already betrayed Him. Even more striking, this question is asked in the midst of the Lord distributing His own blood to them.

But what about you? How have you betrayed your Lord? Are you afraid to speak about Jesus to your friends and neighbors? — or even to your own children? Have you denied Christ in order to seek acceptance from others? Have you failed or refused to speak the truth? Have you ignored the sins of others? — or worse, accepted them? For all this — for every betrayal, every denial, ever sin — Jesus came to die.

Who killed Jesus? God the Father declared His Son would crush the head of the serpent and redeem the world. The Jews demanded His crucifixion and that His blood be on their own heads. Pilate declared God’s judgment: “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him” (John 19:6). The Romans drove the nails. Jesus laid down His life to atone for your sin.

This is why Jesus died. Jesus brought health and wholeness to the poor, the blind, and the lame. He called sinners to repentance and comforted all who were distressed because of their sin. He took their sin. The wages of sin is death. He suffered in the flesh for the sin of the world. Through death He destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and released those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15). His death destroys Death. His death atones for the sin of the world. His resurrection is the proof that His death has accomplished what He said. By His suffering and death and resurrection, He has opened heaven to all believers. He handed over to us the Kingdom of heaven. It is this same Jesus, who has won salvation for us, who suffered in the flesh.

As it was in His creation of the world, so it is in His redemption. He rested when His work was completed. The Sabbath has been perfectly fulfilled. God has rested from all the work that He has done in redemption Thus [the redemption of] the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had [done] (Genesis 2:1-3).

[Jesus lives]

Now the Old Testament day of rest has been fulfilled. It is past. Therefore, Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, [the pious women] came to the tomb when the sun had risen Mark 16:2. A new day has dawned. A new reality has begun. But the women don’t know it yet. Their minds and hearts are full of love and grief for Jesus. They have come to care for the body of their loved one, to honor Him and anoint His body. Their full attention is set on the task at hand. They went to see the crucified Jesus. They were concerned about the dead Jesus.

So it is only as they approach the tomb that they begin to ask the reasonable question. “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large Mark 16:3-4. Their sorrows and wonderings are suddenly interrupted. For before them, the tomb stands open. Entering the tomb, they do not find Jesus. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t there because He isn’t dead anymore. Alleluia! Christ is risen!

But the women don’t know it yet. Instead of a dead body, they find a messenger of God. Perhaps it was an angel. Perhaps it was the Evangelist, St. Mark. Tradition says he was the young man who ran away naked when Jesus was arrested. This messenger is clothed in white. The Latin word for white is ‘alb.’ It’s also what we call this white Communion under-vestment the pastor wears.

In Luke’s account, this messenger questions them: Why do you seek the living among the dead? (Luke 24:5). That is, Jesus has defeated death. He has risen. He lives. Why do you look for Him among the dead? Death is the wages for sin. Why do you seek to obtain the consequences of sin and its wages? Jesus does not dwell in death! He dies no more.

Unlike those He raised in His earthly ministry — they all died a second time — Jesus does not. His resurrection is different. He got up from death, and He will never again return to it. See the place where He lay. It’s empty now, and He will never use it again. The power of death is broken.

[Is crucified; was raised]

You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! Mark 16:6. Most translations get this wrong — including ours. It would be more consistent with the Greek to say ‘Jesus is crucified; He was raised.’

This matters for a few reasons. First, the resurrection of Jesus does not undo His crucifixion. It’s not like the crucifixion was some tragic mistake made on Friday that God then ‘fixed’ on Sunday. It’s rather the public declaration that the crucifixion did what Jesus promised. In this life, He bore the sins of the world. He died because the wages of sin is death. But when He had been sacrificed and dead, then sin had been atoned. Its penalty has been fully paid. The sins that He once carried are now paid for and removed. They are gone. His work of accomplishing the salvation of the world has been completed. He no longer carries sin. His business with sin is done. His defeat of death is finished.