Audio of the sermon is here:

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

            I’m assuming most of you have been to a memorial service. Even if you haven’t, you know what happens there: people gather—including some people who may not have seen each other in a long time; those people remember the person who has died; they tell stories, some good, some not-so-good, some funny. They talk about how they knew that person. Memorial services are all about the past: about remembering someone who has died, whose life is over, and remembering the things they did, the people they impacted, your relationship with them. All of that is in the past. Sometimes “memorial service” sounds a bit sad to us, so we try to dress it up a little, call it a “celebration of life.” But that’s really not any better. You’re still celebrating a life that is past, that is over and done; a life that is gone from this earth. There might be a reason why most people prefer either memorial services or celebrations of life: because we actually really believe that we are gathered only to talk about something in the past; because we really believe that that life is over; that we really believe that death is final, and the great separator.

            The women go to the tomb very early on the first day of the week for a memorial service. What is in their hands when they come to the tomb? Aromatic spices and ointments. They’ve come to finish the job that they didn’t have time to do before the Sabbath began. But these are not things you do for living people. They have come to this tomb because they are expecting to find Jesus’ dead body, still wrapped up in cloths for burial. In fact, the Greek word for “tomb,” repeated more than once in this passage, is related to the word for “remembering.” And we can see why: you go to a grave to remember the person who has died. And that’s what the women are doing. This is a memorial service, and maybe they’re lost in their own thoughts at this point, or maybe they’re talking to teach other about what Jesus did and said. But this is still a memorial service, because those are things related to the past.

            The memorial service continues in chapter 24 with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, who are telling their traveling companion all about what’s happened in Jerusalem these past few days. Don’t you know what happened? they say. And Jesus says, No, I have no idea what happened. Tell Me about it. So they tell their stories about Jesus, how everyone respected Him, and He did some pretty impressive things in His short life; and we had thought that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel. Some of the women with us told us that they didn’t find His body, and that’s a little strange. But it was good while it lasted!

            Memorial services are about the past, about what’s dead and gone. But Christian funerals—even though people think “funeral” is too sad a word to say—are not about the past, primarily. They are about the present and about the future. Yes, we have to acknowledge the present reality, staring us in the face in the form of an urn, or a casket, or a grave. Sin and death don’t get much more concrete than that. But they are not only about the present, as if Christians gather at a funeral only to talk about what has happened to a person. Christian funerals are about the future as well. In the Christian funeral liturgy, we confess that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and even if a Christian dies, that person will live again; and if that Christian is alive and believing when Jesus appears, then that person will never die.

            The women and the disciples are there for a memorial service, but Jesus’ death and burial are the first Christian funeral, because He does not stay dead. The stone is rolled away. The tomb is empty. And the two young men in dazzling white clothing say to the women, “Why are you looking for the Living One among the dead? He is not here, in this tomb, for a memorial service. He is risen. Don’t you remember how He said to you while He was still with you, that it was necessary for the Son of Man to be handed over into the hands of sinful men, suffer, die, and on the third day rise? Don’t you remember?” And the women remembered His words.

            But this is no longer the sort of remembering we do. Our remembering keeps us from remembering. Our remembering gets in the way of remembering Jesus’ words. Have you ever had one of those moments where all you can do is remember all the horrible things you’ve said and done? I have. I think, why did I say that? Why did I do that? I remember my words and actions, I remember my guilt, I remember my shame. And that keeps me from remembering Jesus’ words and actions. I get stuck in the past. And when we’re talking about sin, that’s the only place you can be. You can’t do anything with your sin other than remember it, be burdened by it, grieve it, hate it. All sin is in the past for you, and it cannot be undone. Death is the end. Final separation. Memorial service.

            But then Jesus shows up and turns memorial services into funerals. He breaks the dead end of time, breaks through death into life, and changes the past. He changes your past. He doesn’t make it so that it didn’t really happen. It did. The crucifixion proves that. But it doesn’t count anymore before God. He remembers His covenant. He remembers His mercy. He remembers you in His kingdom. And then we say things like, “Remember your baptism.” That doesn’t mean remember something that happened in the past: reconstruct in your mind the experience of that moment. If it happened to you as an infant, you don’t literally remember it in that way. No, remember your baptism means remember what it means. Remember what God did and said to you. Remember that He put you into the death of Jesus so that you would rise with Him as well. Remember that He made a promise to you, that He would be with you all the days until the completion of this age. Remember that He named you with His own name, and He is never far from His Name. That is not a promise only for the past, but for the present and for the future. When you are burdened, grieving, tempted, dying. Remember your baptism. When you are stuck in the past with your sins, remember your baptism, which means that you are dead to your sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. And that is not only true now, but it is true into the eternal future of your resurrection, when God will complete your baptism in death and resurrection, just as it began.

            When Jesus shows up, there is a different kind of remembering. He says, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” He doesn’t mean that you should conjure up in your mind what all of it must have been like, think about it really hard. Nothing wrong with meditating on the actions and words of Jesus. That’s part of what we’ve been doing this past week: meditating on what Jesus did and what happened to Him, how it was necessary for Him to be handed over, suffer, die, and rise from the dead. But He means remember what this means for you: it is for now and it is for the future. Now, I am with you as one who serves, to feed you with bread that endures to eternal life. And I will be with you until this feast is fulfilled in the eternal wedding supper of the Lamb in the new creation. Do this, because by this bread and wine, body and blood, I remind you of all of that and more.

            So no more memorial services. No more mere remembering what has happened, what is over and done with, what is dead and gone. And it is not only for now, although God knows we need it here and now. But if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, then we are wasting our time. We are to be pitied above all other people. They ought to feel sorry for us, gathered to celebrate our dead and gone God. No, it is also for the future. He is and will be the resurrection and the life. You are not dead in your sins. Those you loved who have died in the faith will not stay dead. Jesus is risen, the grave is empty, and so will yours be. Remember how He said to you that He has gone ahead of you, through death and into resurrection. Remember His Words. Remember your baptism. Do this in remembrance of Me. Have a funeral and know the reality of sin and death; but, even more, know that death can never have the last word, because Jesus has spoken a living word that will never be silenced. 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, 4/18/25