Easter Sunrise

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft 1 Corinthians 15:1–25; John 20:1–18   –     4/5/26

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Christ is risen!

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? Now this is not a problem of belief that the Church is currently experiencing. The debate between the Apostles and the Sadducees or Greeks is long past, where the Sadducees denied that there was a life after death and the Greeks taught the best one could hope for was trial after trial and if you were perfect in all you did then you would be worthy of Elysian Fields, but even their own Epic heroes, such as Ajax and Achilles, knew that life on earth was better than reigning in those fields. Our problem today is rather that we forget the purpose of Christ’s earthly life, of His trial, of His death, and of His resurrection and ascension. So we might ask another question, Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how is it that some of you don’t care?

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. If Christ is not raised from the dead for this particular purpose, then we can’t even hope for the Elysian Fields, we are stuck rather with Tartarus, Gehennah, Hades. If our thought is always on the affairs of the world, who is president, who is the popular singer, what show is on, what game have we got coming up, then our minds and our hearts with them will drift away from the resurrected Christ to settle upon the dead works and dead people of this world. If Christ has not been raised for you, then for you there is no resurrection of the dead.

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be false witnessing of God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. If the world, if politics, pop culture, sports, or whatever else are our whole beings, then there is no space for Christ. Where is the learning that marked the early church, where is the singing that marks always the Church throughout the ages; doctrine is forgotten or ignored, and the best hymns are left unfamiliar because of their difficulty. Christ and Church become a past time we occasionally engage in. But God is a jealous God, and He does not suffer rivals to His glory and rule. He gave us His Word to read, hear, and memorize. His Church gave us the hymns, not the old time religion hymns, but the ancient, the medieval, full of depths of wisdom. Dare we neglect God’s gifts and the Church’s gifts. If we do so then the preaching of the pulpit soon becomes dead to the ears because the foundation upon which the preaching is based is unknown.

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. And this will be true of you if God’s Word lies neglected, the doctrines and the hymns which the Churc has given us lie unlearned, and so Jesus and the cross become a fable rather than the source of your salvation. The Apostles become funny fellows whom you remember merely for their numerous faux pas, not joy, the fervor, and the indefatigable witness to Christ crucified even before death. The martyrs of ages past become a mere myth, names unknown and acts forgotten, lessons of faith and piety never learned. Only the catchy toons of the popular crowd play in your heads, and so the devil fiddles away with you until you walk into Tartarus.

If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. If in this life only we have hope in politicians, pop stars, movie stars, athletes, sports tournaments, video games, books, or whatever, we are worthy of great pity, for those are all the enjoyments we shall ever know, and they are passing and unfulfilling.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. It need not be as I have said above. Will reading your Bible, going to the old dogmatic and doctrinal works of the church, and learning to sing Bernard of Clairvaux’s hymns help you? Only if the reason you seek them is the reason for everything: Christ crucified for sinners, Christ crucified for you. Not as a story, not as an example, but as the payment for your evil, the evil within yourself against which you pray in the Lord’s Prayer. The ancient Church will only help you if you seek her guidance and her gifts because you believe that Jesus rose from the dead having defeated death for sinners, having defeated death for you. Then, since Christ is your Savior, since He became man, made His Father’s name holy among us in His faithful teaching and preaching, fulfilled His Father’s Will by taking our sin and punishment, brought about His Father’s Kingdom by dying on the cross, and gives you provision for eternity by joining you to HIs death in Baptism, then the old, precious treasures of the Church will be a blessing, for they are founded upon the gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation Christ the crucified and risen Savior has given to you. Amen. He has done it. Christ is risen!