Easter Vigil "Thanks Be To God, He Gives Us The Victory"

“Thanks Be To God, He Gives Us the Victory”  

 I Corinthians 15:57

     To really appreciate the meaning of this Easter vigil, you have to use your imagination a bit.  You have to take yourself back to that day after Jesus was crucified and placed in the tomb.  You have to put yourself in the place of those followers of Jesus who were mourning the death of their teacher and friend.  They were men and women who had followed Jesus from Nazareth to Jerusalem, thinking that they were simply going to celebrate the Passover.  Some of them remembered some things that Jesus had said along the way that they didn’t really understand fully.  He talked about going to Jerusalem, being arrested, beaten and crucified but on the third day being raised from the dead.  What could that mean?  Peter had told Him to stop talking like that.  Nothing like that would happen to Him, not if they had anything to say about it.  But then in the last twenty-four hours it happened just as He said it would.  He was arrested.  They all ran away.  He was beaten by the Romans.  He was crucified and he died.  They laid His life-less body in the tomb that Joseph of Arimathea provided.  Now what was going to happen to them?  Where would they go?  Would they be safe showing their faces in Jerusalem?  Would the temple guard hunt them down too?  Could they make it back to the relative safety of Galilee?  What would happen to the many people who looked to Jesus, who cried out to Him, “Hosanna, save us now?” 

    If you are like most people, you are the most nervous and fearful when you don’t know that is going to happen to you next.  That may have been the overriding emotion of the disciples of Jesus on that Saturday.  By this hour of the night the Sabbath had passed and they were probably lying awake wondering and worrying about what they would do on the next day.  The women had prepared ointments and spices that would be used to anoint the body of their Lord the next morning.  Worry, fear mixed with sadness must have filled their hearts as they prepared for the grim tasks ahead of them. 

     Perhaps in the back of their minds there was that statement that Jesus made that on the third day He would be raised from the dead.  But that sort of thing just doesn’t happen.  Yet He did raise Lazarus in Bethany just before they arrived in Jerusalem.  But that was someone else.  Could He raise Himself?  That just doesn’t seem possible.  Add to the other emotions the confusion over things that Jesus said about being raised from the dead and you probably would find yourself with a very restless night. 

     That may have been the way it was for the disciples of Jesus on that night, but things are different for you.  You journeyed with them to Jerusalem last Sunday.  You sat with them in the upper room on Thursday and received the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Sacrament that He instituted that night.  You observed the Crucifixion in all it’s horror on Friday and now you look forward to the great news that “He is risen!”  You know that He rose on the third day.  You know that He is alive.  You rejoice with all Christians everywhere that Jesus conquered death and rose from the grave.  An evening like this gives you an opportunity to experience the range of emotions from sorrow over your sins that caused Jesus to have to come into the world to be your substitute under the Law and on the cross to the joy of knowing that because He lives you shall live also.  His victory over the sin, death and power of the devil is your victory as well. 

     When you stop and think about everything that took place over those days, you have to be moved to love and worship the Lord for His great love for you.  What Jesus did for you is something that you could never do for yourself.  It truly is a victory.   His victory is your victory.  St. Paul wrote, “When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?’  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Victory!  When there is a victory it is time for us to celebrate.  You can celebrate with your heart, your voice and your whole being.  The victory over sin, death and the power of the devil has been won for you.  Christ’s victory is truly your victory. 

     This is a victory that the church celebrates all year long.  Each week as you confess your sins, as the pastor announces the forgiveness of sins, as you remember your baptism, as you receive the Lord’s Supper, as you hear the Law and the Gospel proclaimed, you are celebrating that victory. With Paul we can say everyday, “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Easter Vigil

March 30, 2013