Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2007 : April 8, 2007
Theme: Behold the Hidden Glory of the Cross -
It Is Hidden Even in the Savior's Triumph
Text: Matthew 28:1-10
Church year occasion: Easter
What is the best day you've ever experienced in your life? I suppose that would depend on you and what you've experienced in your life. Maybe for you children, it might be your birthday. You get all kinds of presents, maybe have a party, get a cake -- all in your honor. Maybe it's a certain vacation that you went on when you can think of how perfect everything was -- not a care in the world. For you married folks, what was your greatest day? The correct answer is -- your wedding day (and hopefully you didn't need any hints from your spouse). Perhaps for some it was the birth of your child. Some of you I know went through horrible experiences when you didn't know if your child or your wife, or either, was going to live through it. When they both made it through, it became easily the best day of your life. But if you think any of those days is the best day of your life, then you're wrong. You've forgotten Easter.
Could there be a more glorious day than this? We might think of a few that might compare. How about the first day of creation, when God simply spoke and created time and space and all matter out of nothing more than his words? Or maybe the fourth day of creation was more glorious, that day on which God, just by speaking, created the sun, the moon, and the stars and flung them into the positions and courses that they hold to this very day. Were those days more glorious than this one? No way! Not even close! After all, the sun and moon and stars will one day collapse and be changed by God with no more effort than taking off a coat. What about the Last Day, the day when Christ will come again with all the saints and angels, the day on which all will rise from the dead and face the judgment seat of God? Is that day more glorious than this one? No way! Again, it's not even close! For apart from this day, that day would not be glorious at all to us. In fact, it would be filled with horror and terror unimaginable, and we would hear the voice of thunder say, "Depart from me, you cursed, to that place of dread prepared for the devil and all his angels." No, this day, the day of Christ's resurrection, is by far the most glorious day in all of time and in all of eternity. CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! Even the day you enter heaven is not as important as this day, because this day assures you that heaven is yours.
But notice yet again what we have noticed all through Lent. Every step of the way in Lent there was glory, but it was glory that was hidden. And even today, this most glorious day of all time and eternity, the glory of Christ is hidden. Did you catch that in the resurrection report? Who appears in glory in that report? It isn't Jesus! It's an angel. Matthew focuses on one angel who descends from heaven, knocks open the grave, and sits on the stone that covered its opening. The soldiers, these seasoned veterans whose job it was to look death in the face and not flinch, were so frightened that they fell down and became like dead men. John focuses on two angels, one of whom speaks to the women. Where is Jesus? He has already done his great works, and he has done them hidden from sight. On Easter Sunday, before dawn, his body and soul were reunited in the grave. No one saw it. On Easter Sunday, before dawn, as St. Peter says in his letter, the risen Christ descended into hell and proclaimed there his great victory over sin, death, and hell. No one on earth heard the shrieks of rage and the impotent howlings of the devils that day. It was hidden. Then, before the angel came down from heaven, Jesus came out of the grave. The stone was still there. The angel didn't let Jesus out. He let us in to see Jesus had already risen.
When the women arrive at the tomb, the soldiers have apparently recovered and have already run into the city to report to the chief priests. As John tells us, Mary Magdalene runs back to tell Peter and John, but the other women go into the tomb and see the angels. One of these heavenly messengers speaks to the women and frightens them also by his glorious appearance. His message, however, is far more glorious even than his appearance. "See, he is not here in the house of the dead. He has risen, just as he said he would. Go and tell the disciples. He will see them in Galilee, just as he said he would!" But Jesus' glory is still hidden.
Isn't that all a bit of a disappointment? Don't we want to see Jesus, the risen Jesus, on this most glorious day in all the world, looking even more glorious than the angel? Don't we want to see him robed in splendor, with his face shining like the sun and his garments white as the light? Don't we want to see him looking the way he will look on the Last Day and the way St. John describes him in the book of Revelation, with eyes like burning coals and legs like bronze glowing in a red-hot furnace? Shouldn't this be when he unleashes his glory on the world for all to see?
The answer is no! We see his glory on Easter Sunday in the way he shows that glory to the women at the tomb. After they ran from the tomb at the command of the angel, Jesus appears to them. And how does he appear? With his glory hidden! Oh, thank God for that! For if the appearance of an angel in glory caused the soldiers to fall down as dead men and filled even the hearts of the women with fear, what, then, would become of us if we would see Jesus in all his resurrection glory? We'd freeze in terror and die of fright right on the spot. What joy would there be for us sinners then? But no. He shows us his glory by showing us his love for us -- even for us sinners. There will be a day for his appearance in majesty and glory, the Last Day. But not today. Not on Easter Sunday.
So even on Easter Sunday, he hides his glory. He appears to the women in the same humble form that they knew and recognized during the preceding three years. But he is risen from the grave! The work he finished on Good Friday is truly finished. Sin has all been paid for, covered in his blood. And now is the great day to proclaim the glory of that victory.
And the glory is hidden, hidden in his words. In two short sentences, he sums up the whole glory of Lent, the whole glory of Easter, the whole glory of the gospel. He tells the women, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
Don't be afraid! What a beautiful summary of our Easter joy and of the whole of the gospel. We should be afraid to see God. Fallen with Adam and Eve in the garden, we were separated from God by our sin. Death was our lot in this life, and hell, our future in the next. But Jesus died and has risen. He did exactly what he said he would do and what was prophesied concerning him already in the Garden of Eden. He went into battle for us on the cross. And he won. Easter Sunday is the proof of it. He paid for our sin. Don't be afraid; he conquered hell. Don't be afraid; he has triumphed over the grave. Don't be afraid.
But how can I know that he did it for me, even for me? For my conscience still condemns, and temptations still gnaw and nag. Listen to Jesus' second sentence to the women: "Go and tell my brothers!" What an astonishing thing! He calls the disciples his brothers! Brothers -- who slept in the Garden of Gethsemane after he warned them that they should watch and pray, who ran away when the soldiers same to arrest Jesus, who denied even knowing Jesus and called down curses if that should be a lie. They certainly don't deserve to be called his brothers, do they? And that's exactly the point. That's exactly the glory of Lent and of Easter. The disciples don't deserve it, and neither do we. For we are no better than they. But Jesus called them brothers, and he calls us brothers and sisters, too. Their sins are gone, and our sins are too. St. Paul says our sins are buried in Jesus' grave when we are baptized. And now with the sins covered and hidden away, there is no reason why he should not call the disciples brothers, and us brothers and sisters as well. Wrap your mind around that, and you have seen the glory of Easter! Jesus died. Now he has risen and will never die again! We are redeemed! We are reconciled! Our sin is gone! Hell is conquered! The grave is destroyed!
And see how gentle Jesus is with us, how kind and considerate. Does he make it known with the glory of the angel that would scare us to death and send us running away from him in terror? No, he still hides his glory. He hides it in his Word. That's where we will find it all. Did you notice how that point was emphasized in the Easter story? Jesus promised that he would rise. And he tells the women to report it to the disciples. He does not appear to them right away. He wants them to depend on the Word. He emphasizes that again when he tells the women to add this detail: he will see the disciples in Galilee. That is what he promised them earlier. Again, he wants them to learn the lesson well, to depend on his Word. For soon his visible presence will be withdrawn when he ascends into heaven on the 40th day. But his real and abiding presence he will not take away. He will be with them until the end of time, again just as he promised, in his Word and sacraments.
So, then, do you want to find the glory of Easter? You've come to the right place! For here, where his Word is proclaimed and his sacraments are celebrated, is where you will find his glory. It is in the Word that drives away our fears. For to you no less than to the disciples, he says this day, "Don't be afraid. I am not coming to you this moment in majesty and might that terrifies. I am coming to you with hidden power and glory in my Word. That Word announces and declares that sin is forgiven. Don't be afraid. Tomorrow you will still have problems and temptations aplenty. Don't be afraid. I have died, and see, I am alive. I will not leave you or forsake you. Ah, but still the grave lies ahead of you and you must die. Don't be afraid. I conquered it all in my death and resurrection. Because I live, you will live also. Death, the last enemy, has been defeated, and the grave is the portal to life eternal."
Go ahead then. Just as the disciples saw Jesus in Galilee and even before that -- he always gives even more than he promises -- so you too will see him in splendor in heaven. Yes, and you will even share in his glory. For you are his brothers, his sisters. Nothing that he has will he hold back from you. And every step of the way, whenever you can, come to his Word and return to his sacraments, so that through the whole journey you may taste and see the glory that is hidden on the cross, the glory that is his resurrection and the promise of your own. FOR CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! HALLELUJAH! Amen.
