Video of the Divine Service is here. The sermon begins around the 30:25 mark.

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

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Alleluia! …and yet. Alleluia, Christ is risen, and He is not in the tomb. Alleluia, He will go ahead of you into Galilee, and there you will see Him, just as He said. Alleluia! And yet, the women go away from the tomb in fear and astonishment. From this word we get our English word “ecstasy.” It literally means to stand outside yourself. They were beside themselves! They fled from the tomb. Fear and astonishment, trembling and silence. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Alleluia…and yet.

These women had gone to the tomb with aromatic spices. You only do that for a dead body. That’s what they expected to find. Instead they find an open tomb, a man clothed in white telling them things they should have remembered, and no Jesus. This is not unbelief, however. When people are afraid in the Gospel of Mark, it is very often because something is happening that is outside their experience. People are afraid when God does stuff, like when Jesus calms the storm, or heals someone, or when they find the formerly demon-possessed man in his right mind and sitting at Jesus’ feet. Then they fear. So God is doing something here; it is beyond their understanding, and it is outside their experience. Alleluia…and yet.

At this moment here, as the women flee from the tomb in trembling, astonishment, fear, and silence—at this moment, they are in exactly the same position as we are. At this moment, they have not seen Jesus. They have not told the disciples. They have not gone to Galilee. All those things are going to happen, but at this moment, they don’t have any of that.

We come here this morning, and Easter has a certain sort of feel to it. Lilies, and pastel colors, and eggs, and bunnies. The joy of resurrection. We expect all happiness. Alleluia, Christ is risen! …and yet. Alleluia, and yet, you may still be mourning the death of someone you love. Alleluia, and yet, you may have a relationship that is still broken. You said something, or they said something, and you have not been reconciled, even though it’s Easter. Alleluia, and yet, you’re still sick, or suffering, or dying. Alleluia, and yet this world is still the way it is. There is still war and violence and death. People are still being bombed and killed. People are still suffering from hunger and thirst, from famine and earthquake, and all the things that Jesus said would happen to show us that this world is coming to its end. Alleluia…and yet.

At that moment, those women have only a word and a promise. They have the word of the young man, the messenger clothed in white, that the crucified Jesus is alive. His glorious wounds are visible, but in a resurrection body. He is the crucified one, but now He is also the risen one. The word is that He is risen, and not in that tomb, where they had seen Him be buried. And they have the promise of Jesus: I will suffer, die, and on the third day, rise. I will go ahead of you into Galilee, and there you will see Me. That’s all they have.

And that’s all you have: the same word and the same promise. Of course, those words and promises depend precisely on Jesus being actually raised from the dead. If He is not, it doesn’t matter what He said, or what He promised. If He’s still dead, then the young man is lying, and Jesus certainly isn’t going to show up in Galilee, no matter what He said. If He’s still dead, Paul says, then we and all the people celebrating the resurrection of Jesus in churches around the world are to be pitied above all people. Then we are still in our sins, and that’s it for those who have died, and we have no hope. But if He is risen from the dead, then everything He says is true.

In the midst of all of your “and-yets,” whatever they might be, I tell you today, alleluia! He is risen from the dead. He is alive with new resurrection life, the beginning of a new creation in His own body. I tell you that He is not in the grave. You have not seen Him yet, but you will see Him, just as He said. You who have been buried with Him by baptism into death, crucified with Him, will be raised with Him. It is the living Jesus who forgives your sins today. It is the living Jesus who gives you His life-giving body and blood to eat and drink here and now. On the resurrection day, when Christ appears, He will transform your lowly body to be like His glorious body. Then, there will be only the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

You have His word and promise, which are true because the crucified one is the risen one. Everything He says is true, and these living words are for you today. In the midst of your fears, your anxieties, your trembling, God is doing something here that is outside of you, beyond your reason and emotion and experience: Jesus Christ is alive, and His life is for you. You may be tempted to say, “and yet…,” but: Alleluia! Christ is risen! You will see Him when He comes again in glory with all His angels, just as He said. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

— Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 3/29/24