The Lutheran Hour
-
"He Has Risen!"
- Download MP3 Reflections
-
Text: Luke 24:5-6
-
He Has Risen!
During one week of 1918, a father and a mother lost three of their children to influenza. In spite of this overwhelming loss, on Easter morning the father, mother, and their remaining child went to church. That Sunday the father led the children in devotions by reading the story of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. He read without a crack or quaver in his voice. Others reacted differently. Some teachers began to cry, but the faces of the mother and father remained serene. After church and Sunday school were over, one of the students, a 15-year-old boy, was walking home with his father. The boy said, “I guess the superintendent and his wife really believe, don’t they? They really believe the resurrection.” The father responded to the question with the doctrinally correct reply: “Of course they do; all Christians believe in the resurrection.” Then the boy countered, “All Christians may believe, dad, but not like they do.”
Today, the Sunday when the Christian world stops to give thanks over Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, I realize some of you neither know about, or believe what happened at Jesus’ borrowed tomb over 1,900 years ago. You may, having heard all kinds of theories and discussions about the events of that day, despaired of ever discovering anything which resembles truth. If that is how you feel, I’d like to ask a favor of you. Invest the next 15 minutes of your life listening to this Lutheran Hour message. Invest 15 minutes and I will try to give you the truth as simply and as uncomplicated as I can. Invest 15 minutes to hear what God has intended to be the most important, the most significant, eternity-changing message you will ever hear.
First, let me give you some background to the resurrection. Nineteen hundred years ago some women went to pay their final respects to a man that they had loved. They were not alone in loving Him. Thousands had adored Him as He reached out to those in society who were alone; as He healed those who had a wide spectrum of illnesses; as He spoke with words of wisdom which were too wonderful to have come from the mind of a mere man.
As is true for any great man, this one had His enemies. This man, Jesus was His name, had rivals who came together and successfully managed to have Him captured, tried, and crucified. Jesus died, and because of a religious holy day, His burial had been rushed and incomplete. Those few who were there that dark day quickly placed His lifeless corpse inside a borrowed tomb. Before sunset on Friday they made a promise to come back, at the earliest opportunity, to finish His funeral.
Early on Sunday these women came together with all that was necessary to give Jesus a proper burial. They set out for the tomb early in the morning. The choice of time was, at least in part, a practical one. This was the third day since Jesus had been killed and, no matter how much they loved Him, the oppressive heat of the noonday sun would have made it hard to work with a three-day-old corpse. They had hoped Jesus was the Messiah, God’s appointed deliverer. They had hoped that He would bring them freedom and change their lives. They had had hopes, but no more. Those hopes had all ended when Jesus had breathed His last. When the Roman spear pierced Jesus’ heart; it had cut all of them.
I am sure of one subject which caused the women concern. They wondered about the obstacles they would encounter. There was the guard which had been set in place by Pilate. Hardened Roman soldiers, having spent the night in a graveyard, might not be too sympathetic to the women and their mission. Then there was the seal which had been placed on the tomb. The women would have wondered: Why was that necessary? Jesus is dead. He isn’t going anywhere. Of course they wondered about the great stone blocking their way.
The Bible tells us the ladies need not have worried. As they approached the Savior’s grave there was no sign of the guards and it was obvious, even from a distance, the entry stone wasn’t going to be a problem. It had already been rolled away and the entrance to the grave was open. Partly out of respect, and partly out of fear, the women would have approached the grave with caution. You can almost see them peering into the darkness of the tomb which had been cut into the rock. As their eyes became accustomed to the darkness, they would have seen Jesus’ body was not where they had placed it three days before. The women entered the grave. No, don’t envision them jumping into a rectangular hole in the ground. In those days, rich men often had a small visitation room as part of their tomb. The perplexed women went in.
It was only then that the women saw two men, angels from the way the Scripture describes their shining garments. One of the angels spoke. He said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”
That’s the background to the Resurrection Sunday events. Those ladies at the empty tomb were privileged to be among the first to see the most important turning point in history. God allowed them to be there as the Savior showed to all the world His victory over death. The great difficulty is: the resurrection of the Savior which stands at the center of all Christian doctrine has been rejected, renounced, and repudiated by Satan and the world. For 2,000 years the Holy Spirit has urged souls to follow the Savior and the salvation which His resurrection assures; and for that same 2,000 years Satan and the world have contested the truth of God’s Word and lined the path of salvation with land mines of doubt, distrust and disbelief. The ancient Latin Church summed up this difficulty with the words: aut Deus aut malus homo: either Jesus is God or He is a bad man. Either Jesus rose from the dead and He can be absolutely believed, or Jesus stayed dead and can never be trusted.
Want it even easier? Okay. Jesus is a liar, or He ought to be your Lord. If Jesus hasn’t physically risen from the dead, He is a liar, the Bible is a fraud, and the world has been bamboozled, hoaxed, and hornswoggled. Either the resurrection happened in historical time, or it did not. Paul summed up this all-important truth when he said: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins… If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:17,18).
Did Jesus lie? Did those who reported the resurrection, deliberately, or accidentally, perjure themselves? There are many who say they did. Islam concedes Jesus to be a great teacher, preacher, and prophet, a man worthy of respect; but it recoils at the idea of Jesus being our resurrected Lord. Nor can other world religions accept the Savior when He makes the exclusive claim: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Mohammed and Buddha both came up with ideas that millions have found to be helpful as they live their lives, but no Scripture ever promised Mohammed or Buddha would be born; no prophet ever predicted they would carry anyone’s sins; no holy writings predict that they would die and rise again. Only Christianity has a Savior who predicted He “must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31).
But other religions are not the only ones who reject the Savior. Surveys say that most people in the western world believe that all faiths are basically the same; that they all speak of the same god, and will, eventually, get all their adherents to the same place. All who hold fast to such a contemporary non-denominational creed come up short when they hear the absolute claim of Christianity which says: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). With great sadness, today’s open-minded thinkers feel compelled to conclude: Jesus Christ was a liar.
Even within Christianity there are those who would shy away from the idea that the Bible is God’s inspired, inerrant Word and Jesus Christ is the crucified, yet ever-living Savior. Worship with them this day of resurrection remembrance and you will find they have taken the cross off their steeples, and thrown out the dusty doctrines of sin and Satan, damnation and resurrection. Listen carefully and you will hear preachers substitute some nebulous mental image of Jesus rising in the hearts of humankind for the Scriptural reality of a bodily resurrection. And while it may be true that they may fill their churches and increase their listenership by censoring the Bible, they do their followers no favors. Without the forgiveness Jesus offers through His suffering, death, and resurrection, the story of salvation is incomplete, and those who hear only a partial message remain dead in their sins. They may believe something, but they don’t believe in a Savior who “was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God” (2 Corinthians 13:4).
So, was Jesus a liar or is He the Lord and Savior? In recent years many of you have come to believe that the church has been conducting a cosmic cover-up, a centuries old attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of everyone. What can I tell you? I can tell you this: From outside the Gospels, we can determine that Jesus lived and died. We can also see from Roman records that within a generation belief in a risen Christ had swept over the Roman Empire and much of the known world. It didn’t take too long for Christianity’s enemies to respond to the resurrection reality with replies – the same replies which are heard today.
For example, there were those who said the disciples came while the Roman soldiers were asleep and stole His body. That sounds possible until you realize it would mean that the disciples did a complete about face, screwed up their courage, snuck past the sleeping guards, moved a great stone without catching the eyes or ears of the Romans, and carried off Christ’s corpse. Now I could reply, when Romans were instructed to guard something, they did. For a guard to fall asleep meant the death sentence. I could say that the disciples would have been a strange group of men if they were willing to die terrible deaths in order to protect a lie. What I will say is this: believing the disciples took Jesus’ body calls for a bigger leap of faith than believing in His resurrection.
Have the Scriptures lied? Some will say yes. Some will say Jesus was taken down from the cross in a coma-like state. They concede Jesus looked dead, and He was buried as being dead, but in reality He was alive. They say an alive Jesus revived in the cool darkness of the tomb and when He came out of the grave under His own power, people thought He had come back from the dead. Possible? Probable? Let’s see… you want me to believe that Jesus who had been beaten, whipped, nailed to a cross, and stabbed in the heart by a Roman spear, managed to extricate Himself from a bunch of bandages and spices, move a great stone, and get past a bunch of Roman guards unnoticed? If that is what I have to believe to explain the resurrection, I prefer to believe Jesus rose from the dead.
Have the Scriptures lied? Is Jesus a liar, or is He our Lord? I won’t bother to reply to those who say everybody went to the wrong tomb; that the women who loved Jesus managed to misplace His body; that the priests sealed and set a guard at the wrong tomb? Impossible!
Nor will I speak at length about those who say the disciples, moved by grief and sadness, wanted to see the Lord so much that they imagined Him. That might happen, but you would then have to explain how other people, hundreds of people in different locations and at different times, had the same imagination. You would have to explain how Paul, in the time when he hated Jesus, imagined a vision of the living Lord. You would have to explain how the disciples felt the breath of an imaginary Jesus; how an imaginary Jesus managed to eat a meal; how an imaginary Jesus made a fire, cooked a breakfast; and an imaginary Jesus was touched by a doubting disciple. That imaginary explanation is harder to accept than the angel’s resurrection announcement.
So, was Jesus a liar, or is He our Lord? Ask those around Him. Ask Judas, the disciple who turned traitor and betrayed His Master with a kiss. What does Judas say? Only this: Judas, filled with guilt over what he had done, returned the blood money with this confession: “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood” (Matthew. 27:4). Maybe we should ask the priests who hated Jesus. Rest assured, they would have gladly pointed out Jesus’ sins and shortcomings, if they had found any. Amazingly the priests remain silent, for Matthew tells us, “The chief priests and the whole Council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put Him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward” (Matthew 26:59-60). Might not Pontius Pilate, the Roman ruler who condemned the Christ, shed some negative light on Jesus’ character? Not once, not twice, but three times, Pilate says, “I find no fault in this man” (John 18:38; 19:4; 19:6). Sometimes a black heart can best be discerned by another great sinner. Ask the thief who hung on the cross beside Jesus; what does he say? He confesses only this: “This man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23: 41). Is Jesus a liar? Those around the Savior; those who hated Him; those who had the most to gain by ruining His reputation are silent. Not one can accuse Him of a lie or of any other sin.
Was Jesus a liar? If I heard someone say they were going to feed thousands of hungry people with a few loaves and fish, I would think them so; but Jesus said He would, and He did feed the multitude with plenty to spare. If a doctor said he would cure some terrible and hopeless disease with a touch, or a bit of mud, or by saying a few words, I would think him a madman and a quack; but Jesus healed lepers, and brought sight to the blind. If I ever saw a man come into a room where a child had died and tell the family not to worry because their little girl was only sleeping, I would escort him out before his foolish talk could hurt the grieving hearts. But Jesus said it, and then with the power of God, He brought the little girl back to life. If someone said we should love our enemies, I would think all reason had left him; but Jesus not only said it, but as he hung upon the cross, carrying your sins and mine, He looked down at those who had put Him there – the ones who had wielded the hammer, the ones who had lied about Him, who had spit at Him, who were even now making fun of Him, and He said, “Father, forgive them.” If Jesus can keep His word in these things, I believe Him when He fulfills His own prophecy which promised: “They shall scourge Him, and put Him to death: and the third day He shall rise again” (Luke 18:32-33).
Is Jesus a liar, or is He my Lord? Is His body in some unmarked grave, or does He live for all eternity? Without question or doubt, without fear of contradiction, I gladly say this: Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! He has performed miracles which only the Son of God could do. He has fulfilled every prophecy which identified Him. He has kept His word, and He has risen. Now, because Christ is risen, death’s hold is broken, and the grave is no longer our final destination. Jesus lives, and by the Holy Spirit’s power, I pray He lives within your heart.
It was only a few years ago, a Hindu woman went to visit the missionary who had converted her 16-year-old daughter. The woman asked, “What did you do to our girl?” The missionary replied, “We did nothing.” To which the girl’s mother said, “Oh, yes you did. My daughter died yesterday, and she died smiling. Our people do not die that way.” Christ is risen! May that truth live within your heart. To that end, if we can help, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR: 74-28
AIRS: April 8, 2007
TOPIC: Easter AccountsANNOUNCER: Now Pastor Ken Klaus responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer.
KLAUS: Thank you, Mark. I really do look forward to hearing what our listeners are asking.
ANNOUNCER: And one of our listeners asks, “I’ve read the four Gospels, taken a close look at the story of what actually happened on that first Easter Sunday morning, and it seems that they’re reporting totally different events.”
KLAUS: I can understand how a casual reader might feel that way.
ANNOUNCER: In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 (verse14), Saint Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” So, how could the Bible accounts disagree on such an important story?
KLAUS: I guess the person’s research shows they aren’t just a casual, first-time reader of the New Testament.
ANNOUNCER: Agreed. So, what do you think? Is he right? Is the story of Christ’s resurrection all jumbled up?
KLAUS: OK. I will answer his question, Mark, but first I’d like to ask one of my own. Mark, what do you think people would say if the accounts agreed?
ANNOUNCER: Well, they’d say there were no contradictions.
KLAUS: Yes, that would be obvious. Might they say anything else?
ANNOUNCER: They might say God is consistent.
KLAUS: Anything else? Think for just a second.
ANNOUNCER: Well, OK. Thinking back to the time when I was a teacher, if two students turned in an essay and they both ended up with exactly the same words, I’d sort of wonder if maybe they hadn’t shared their papers with each other.
KLAUS: In other words, they cheated?
ANNOUNCER: Well, I’m saying they might have.
KLAUS: What else would that mean?
ANNOUNCER: It usually meant that one of the students really knew his stuff, but the other just had good eyesight.
KLAUS: Now, let me ask, Mark, suppose these Gospels agreed in every period and comma? What would people say then?
ANNOUNCER: I imagine believers would say, “Look, God has inspired these writers to say exactly the same thing in exactly the same words.”
KLAUS: And what would the unbelievers say?
ANNOUNCER: They’d probably say it looks like Matthew, Mark, and Luke just copied their stuff from John or from someone else.
KLAUS: OK. Now let’s get back to the question the listener asked. If I can boil it down, it would be, “How come the writers don’t all agree in their accounts of what happened on Resurrection Sunday morning?” There is sort of an implied challenge. In other words: If the events of that morning are so important as Saint Paul said they were, couldn’t God inspire the writers to get it correct?
ANNOUNCER: Right.
KLAUS: OK, good. Let’s give our listener an answer. Let me start with a bit of history. There were many people who were on the parade route in Dallas the day when President Kennedy was shot and killed. Yet, when they were asked what they saw and heard, depending on what they saw and heard, they came up with differing reports.
ANNOUNCER: That’s true.
KLAUS: Did they agree on anything?
ANNOUNCER: Well, everyone who was there in close proximity to the assassination said the President had been shot. And those who were at the hospital said he had died.
KLAUS: Now, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John report different things concerning the events of Resurrection Sunday. They did that because one thought this was important, another reported something else because he thought that piece of information was significant. Just because they focus on different bits of the story, that doesn’t mean they contradict each other. The people at the hospital who said JFK was dead didn’t contradict those on the street who said “he’s been shot.” Are you with me so far?
ANNOUNCER: I am.
KLAUS: In the same way, just because Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us about the women going to the tomb, and John doesn’t pick up the story until he and Peter go there, that doesn’t mean those other events didn’t happen.
ANNOUNCER: It just means each reported what they thought was important.
KLAUS: Exactly, and the Holy Spirit used their individual skills and pieces of knowledge to bring us a picture of what happened that day. And now the last question was, was there anything the Evangelists agree on?
ANNOUNCER: Well, everybody agreed that Jesus had died, they agreed Jesus was buried, and they agreed that Jesus was now alive.
KLAUS: And that’s exactly what Paul was saying when he talked about the importance of Jesus’ resurrection. We can believe it, because different writers, seeing different things, reporting different parts of the same event, are in agreement: the dead Christ did indeed come back to life. And because He lives, we are forgiven and reconciled to God.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“This Is the Day” by K. Lee Scott. From Hymns for All Saints (© 2006 Concordia Publishing House) Concordia/SESAC
“Heut’ triumphieret Gottes Sohn” by J.S. Bach. From Orgelbüchlein & More Works by J.S. Bach by Robert Clark and John David Peterson (© 1997 Calcante Recordings, Ltd.)
“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” arr. by Timothy Moke and Georg Masanz. From Magnificent Christian Hymns, vol. 2 by Timothy Moke (© 2005 T. Moke Recordings)