Easter 2025
Saturday, April 19, 2025
Easter 2025
We were last together on Thursday, when Jesus and his disciples shared their last supper before his arrest. At that meal the disciples were perplexed as Jesus washed their feet as if he were their slave, showing them a new way to be free. They were equally perplexed by Jesus' conversation that evening, as he began to talk to them as if he was about to die. Jesus talked about the bread they were eating as if it were his own flesh, and the wine they drank as if it were his blood. It was all very confusing.
That night one of their number slipped out and went to the temple authorities. He had made a deal, trading Jesus for money. He had arranged a sign: when he came back with soldiers, Judas would betray Jesus with a kiss.
Because of his misdeed, Jesus was arrested and abused and passed from person to person. First the High Priest, and then Pilate, the Roman governor, who found Jesus curious but was warned by his wife not to have anything to do with him. What if he really was the Son of a god?
After Pilate, Herod. The mad king of Judea had heard of Jesus and wanted Jesus to do tricks for him, but Jesus is not a magician or a court jester or a clown.
The religious leaders. The imperial governor. The local king.
Jesus had threatened their place at the head of the table. Jesus would not stop proclaiming that a new kingdom had come, and everyone who held a position of privilege was set on edge. This new kingdom was supposed to be for everyone, but they would not be able to use their usual tricks to stay on top. In the end the authorities cried out for Jesus' death, and the crowds going along with them yelled “crucify him”. And they did, along with many others. On a hill outside the city, the broken and bloody body of the blameless Jesus was put on display between two criminals. On Friday the skies went dark, and Jesus breathed his last. One of his followers loaned the family a tomb, and the unmistakably dead Jesus was wrapped up in sheets and sealed in stone, never to bother anyone again.
His disciples fled. They ran for their lives. They hid, shutting themselves away in a dark room. The doors were locked. The windows were shut. They avoided the crowds, because the crowds had helped kill their Master. His followers fully expected they would be next.
Well, the men hid. The women who were following Jesus were bolder. Even after Jesus had been killed, while the men stayed in hiding the women had the courage to venture out. Jesus had inspired the men, but his way was a revolution for women everywhere and they knew it. The kingdom Jesus proclaimed had promised them a place and a value they could never hope to have in the world they had known. The way Jesus spoke to them and treated them proved to them he was like no one else.
And though Jesus was very dead and the streets were full of soldiers, these women were determined to honor him. He had been buried quickly, to get him into the ground before dark. Saturday was a day to mourn, a day of the deepest sorrow. Now, on Sunday morning, the women brought spices to honor his body and show their devotion to who he had been and what he had promised. He had shown them all what real love was like, and they all did what they could now to show their love in return. They brought their spices, and they brought their grief.
Luke 24:1-12
But very early on Sunday morning, the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.
The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? HE isn’t here! HE is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”
Then they remembered that he had said this. So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples - and everyone else - what had happened. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it. However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.
What had happened was that Jesus had done what he had said he would do. His promises had come true. Jesus had not only promised his disciples that soon he would lose his life, but that on the third day he would rise again because his Father was faithful and would not allow his beloved to see decay.
What had happened was that the kingdoms of this world, the patterns of power and violence that had worried the world forever, had tried to put an end to the kingdom Jesus proclaimed and had tried to lock him away forever, but the kingdom of God could not be stopped. No grave could have been deep enough. No stone seal could have been heavy enough. The kingdom of God is bursting forth and nothing can hold it back. Jesus is Lord and the future belongs to him.
What had happened was that when Jesus' body entered the cave that served as a tomb, it was as if he was entering the mouth of hell. And all the forces of darkness began to dance and sing because they thought they had taken the lord of the universe captive. They thought they had won. But they had it upside down because Jesus wasn’t there to become their captive, but to overthrow their rule. Jesus took them captive instead, the devil, the satan, whatever name you want to call these pathetic powers of darkness, and he dragged them into the light of day. Jesus has vanquished sin and destroyed death. The Risen Jesus is victorious forever!
And as the forces of darkness had done their very best to destroy Jesus, to demean him, to ruin his reputation and subject him to the greatest shame you could ever imagine, as Jesus was nakedly paraded through the streets of Jerusalem carrying the very cross he would be displayed upon as the crowds cackled and the soldiers jeered, as it seemed obvious that this was the end of this man and the end of this movement - it was not the end. What had happened now is that Jesus' Father had proven to all the world that despite the shame and degradation, the God of all the universe endorses his Son. He celebrates him. He glorifies him. He raises him to new life and brings him out of the grave to walk this earth again and to give this new life for us too. Because just as we are subjected to shame and degradation, as the world tries to ruin us and shut us up and slam the stone closed, Jesus takes all of that into the tomb with him and leaves it there. Jesus rises without any of it. Jesus kills death and cancels debt and erases shame and elevates us so as we live in his new life we are vindicated by our Heavenly Father just as Jesus has been vindicated too.
We are now all brothers and sisters with him. Humanity has died and been raised to life again. Death cannot kill us. Sin cannot condemn us. Shame cannot even annoy us. Our Heavenly Father has embraced us. God himself has come to be at one with us, and nothing, not even death, can ever change that. God has decided, once and for all, to share life with us and to bring us through the very worst life can throw at us because in Jesus we are risen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
And Christ tells us the story of all of humanity. He goes before us into death; he is raised to life; and because humanity is united with him his story is our story. Yes, we still suffer shame. Yes, we still hear the satan yammer on about our many sins and trying to convince us that we are empty of love and beyond all hope. Yes, we still mourn and grieve when our loved ones enter the grave.
But Jesus loves us and Jesus gives us life. And if we recognize that his story is our story, we grieve as those who do have hope; we turn our backs on sin because it doesn’t own us any more; and the sadness of shame is just a nudge for us to keep on receiving the vindication of our God who loves us more than life itself.
So, what had happened? Christ is risen and so are we!
But Jesus’s disciples - well, the men, at least - Jesus’s disciples at first could not bear to believe it. It’s not as if Jesus hadn’t promised this. It’s not as if it wasn’t true. But they were caught at first in the middle - between the life they had always known, a life always burdened by sin and shame and death and by powers who ruled by spear and sword - between that and the hope that maybe, just maybe, Jesus really was everything. Could God really have done it? Could the heartbreaking loss of their lord really have led to the greatest victory of all?
We pick up the story a little later.
Acts 10:34-43
Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.. This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel- that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching his message of baptism. And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.
It took a while, didn’t it? At first, Peter considered the women’s story to be nonsense. But it was all true. Later, these women would be hailed as “the apostles to the apostles” - the ones who first brought the message that Christ is Risen to the world, blazing a trail so many more could begin to tell that same tale.
It took a while, but Peter believed and encountered the risen Jesus. The Risen Jesus walked with his friends for eight miles and opened the scriptures to them. The Risen Jesus visited his friends in a locked room and showed them the wounds by which he had won their freedom. The Risen Jesus had breakfast with his friends on the beach.
And the Risen Jesus broke bread and shared it with his friends, and their eyes were opened, and he celebrated the life he shares with them, and with us, both now and forever.
May we continue to grow in our awareness of Jesus' resurrection, and that as he lives, we live, raised to life with him forever.
The Eucharist
The Collect
From https://bcponline.org/Collects/collects.html
Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus
Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of
everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the
day of the Lord’s resurrection, may know ourselves to be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
LORD’S PRAYER
Let us pray as our Lord has taught us.
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever AMEN
CREED
Let us confess our Christian faith together.
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
CONFESSION
Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. AMEN
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
And God is gracious to all who confess their sin and in humility ask for his mercy. I tell you this: in the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven.
Holy and gracious Father: In your infinite love you made us for yourself; and, when we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, you, in your mercy, sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all.
He stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.
On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread; and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.”
After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said, “Drink this, all of you: This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.”
We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer you these gifts.
Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of your Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in him. Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace; and at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.
All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ. By him, and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.
PARTAKE
The body of Christ, the bread of Heaven. Amen. The blood of Christ, the cup of Salvation. Amen.
Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.
Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ Jesus our Lord. AMEN.
BENEDICTION
The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.