Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : March 27, 2005
We See Jesus Giving Us Rest
Easter Sunday
Do you remember those commercials for Southwest Airlines that used to say, "Need to get away?" The main character always did something dumb, like the referee for a football game who only brought a dollar bill to the coin toss. That person needed a vacation. Do you ever need to get away? I do sometimes. There's only so much I can do before I start getting cranky and hard to live with. There are only so many sermons I can write and visits I can make before I start messing up out of sheer exhaustion. From time to time, I need to take a break. So do you.
Today we're looking at one more shadow in the Old Testament that pictured the coming Christ. That picture is the Sabbath. What does the word "Sabbath" mean? It means "rest." What do we see in this shadow? We see Jesus giving us rest.
200 years ago, Napoleon Bonaparte's army was closing in on the town of Feldkirch, Austria. No one was there to defend the town, so Napoleon's army advanced very confidently at night. At the same time, the Christians of Feldkirch gathered in a little church to pray. It was the night before Easter. The next morning, even though the small group of Christians knew that their situation was hopeless, they decided to have their regular Easter church service, so they rang the bells of the church as loudly as they could to show the enemy where they placed their trust. Napoleon's army didn't realize it was Easter Sunday. When they heard the bells, they thought the Austrian army had moved into Feldkirch at night and the bells were ringing in jubilation. So Napoleon ordered a retreat, and the battle of Feldkirch never took place. They had peace.
Even though we don't have church bells to ring in our church, the power of Easter morning and the open and empty tomb still bring us peace. Easter brings us the rest that the Sabbath law foreshadowed and even the 7th day of Creation promised. But that Sabbath rest can often be misunderstood. The Pharisees of Jesus' time misunderstood the Sabbath -- they thought they could keep the Sabbath day by not doing any physical work. But that was just a physical picture of a much greater spiritual reality. Moses said, "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Did God need to take a break after creating the world? Of course not. So why did God make the Sabbath law for Israel? He made the Sabbath Day for us, to show us that we need to take a break from this physical world, and regularly get connected to God, in other words, we need to find spiritual rest.
What's going on at work right now? What ties your stomach up in knots? What do you want to get away from? Maybe it's a strained relationship with a family member or friend. Maybe it's a conscience that keeps telling you what you're doing is wrong, but you don't want to listen. Maybe it's just burning the candle at both ends so that you don't have time to make sure your connection with God is strong, so your devotional life falls off and your prayer life is almost non-existent. Whatever problem you're dealing with, it comes from sin. All our pains and sorrows come from sin. But Jesus conquered our sin for us. That's why we're here this morning. We've come to look back into the tomb where Jesus was buried and to see that it's empty. We've come to hear the angel announce to us again: "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay." (Matthew 28:6) In Jesus' resurrection, we come to receive again the gift of spiritual rest. We will rest from all those hardships because Jesus defeated them all. The greatest hardships that sin piles on us are not the stresses and difficulties of work. The greatest hardships are the curses of death and hell. Jesus suffered both; then he rose! He showed us that our broken relationship with God was now fixed by Christ's death. He freed us from those things. And he freed us from the curse of sin. From now until we enter eternal life, the resurrection gives us rest. It comforts us with God's promise that Jesus is greater than our sorrow. Jesus is greater than our pain and our difficulties. Jesus is greater than the worst stress we suffer here. He will give us the strength to overcome. He will guide our lives and use even our pain to bring us closer to him. He will put an end to our suffering -- maybe already here, but certainly in heaven.
We need that rest for our souls, just like our body needs rest every week, even every day, or it will wear thin. So we also need rest for our souls, a time when we can put everything else in this world on hold -- our jobs, our relationships, our problems, our concerns, our plans -- so we can connect with our Savior; so we can have rest. That's why we come to church on a regular basis, not just on Easter.
"Mom and dad, why do we have to go to church again this morning? We just went a bunch of times during the past weeks. And besides, everyone already knows that Jesus rose from the dead. It's the same old story every Easter." Have you ever heard that one? I've probably said it a few times myself, or at least thought it. And that child is right -- it is the same message every Easter ever since Jesus rose. In fact, every Sunday is like a little Easter when we can celebrate once again that Jesus died and rose from the dead. Why do we celebrate it every year, every week, even every day? Because we can't even imagine, we don't even want to think what our lives would be like if Jesus didn't rise. If Jesus didn't rise, he would have broken his promise about rising on the third day, which means he was a liar and had no power over death. If he was a liar, he was a sinner. If he was a sinner, he wasn't our Savior. We would still be dead in our sins, with no hope and no comfort, and no rest for our souls.
So thank Jesus for Easter. Paul says, "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead." Because he did, we know that he is God and everything he says is true, including when he says, "Whoever believes in me will not perish but will have eternal life." We celebrate the resurrection every Sunday when we come to church.
Martin Luther often described this life as one in which we wear our work clothes. This life is painful. This life hurts. We are at war with the devil and our own sinful flesh. And because of it, our clothes are grimy and ripped and torn. But some day we will have rest from our work, when all our sorrows and trials and temptations and pains will be gone forever. Then we can breathe a sigh of relief because we will finally be completely holy in the heavenly peace and rest Jesus earned for us with his death on the cross and proved to us in his resurrection. The New Testament book of Hebrews says, "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God." (Hebrews 4:9) We have a peace and rest for our souls knowing that all our sins are forgiven, and that one day eternal life will be ours. Coming to worship gives us temporary relief. Our church is a shelter against the attacks of the devil and of our own sinful flesh. But it's only temporary. When will we have complete rest? Our permanent rest is coming. We will rest from our sin. We will rest from our warfare. We will rest in holiness in heaven. The resurrection assures us of that holy rest.
In the Walt Disney movie Fantasia, the cartoonists took Mussorgsky's classical masterpiece Night on Bald Mountain and visualized it. It pictured a huge demon that came alive at night on the top of a mountain on Halloween, and he controlled all kinds of demons and unholy things in a terrifying night of sorcery and evil. But then a bell rang -- morning was coming, and all the demons and evil creatures were banished because it was now All Saints Day. The demons had had their fun, but now it was daytime, and peace ruled.
Instead of being a picture of Halloween and All Saints day, I think Night on Bald Mountain pictures much better the night of despair that we felt seeing our Savior dead and buried, when it seemed like all hell broke loose, when it seemed that sin, death and the devil had triumphed. But then Easter morning dawns. The stone is rolled away. He is not here. He is risen! Jesus is victorious, and so are we through faith in him. Our sins are forgiven. Heaven is open to us. Our souls rest secure already in this life, knowing that an eternity of rest awaits us in the pure holiness of eternal life in heaven. A new day for us has dawned. It's Easter Sunday. Jesus has given us rest. Amen.
