Woodlawn Evangelical Lutheran Church           

Introduction – Do you ever have a chance to watch any of these TV programs about Jesus and Easter? Or read any articles? There seems to be no end of study by archaeologists and historians and religious scholars about the life of Jesus. And certainly one of the things that is most talked about is his death and what happened afterwards. For many it is an interesting footnote in history that Jesus’ followers claimed that he became alive again after he was dead.

Some people would follow the idea that it was all a big trick by the disciples, so that they could start a new movement, based on Jesus’ teaching to love one another. Some would say that the disciples had visions of Jesus, but it was not really the physical Jesus who appeared to them. Perhaps they were some type of hallucinations or inventions of their minds because they really did not want to let go of their beloved Teacher. I suppose some might conclude that there probably is a grave of Jesus somewhere over there, but we just haven’t found it and may never. Some even claim that Jesus went to live out his days in another country and may even have been married with children.

But Jesus Christ would not allow his resurrection merely to be some mystery for the ages to try to solve. The Bible tells us that his disciples spoke with him, touched his body, and ate with him after he had died and come to life. This was no magic trick. Jesus had really been dead and he really is alive. Some of what Jesus said to his disciples after he came to life again is recorded for us in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verses 44-47:

[Jesus said to his disciples], "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Have you ever struggled to describe something and you end up telling someone, “You just have to see for yourself!” The Grand Canyon is an amazing sight! But it is hard to describe to someone that might just think of it as a big hole in the ground. You really have to be there to understand just how amazing it is. I think you even need to hike into it a little bit in order to feel how incredible it is, both in size and in beauty.

                I had the chance to show a few people how amazing the Grand Canyon is when I lived in Arizona; a chance to match up the picture with its description. When someone can see for themselves an amazing sight like the Grand Canyon, or the mountains of Colorado, or even part of the beautiful shoreline of Lake Michigan in Door County Wisconsin, then all the words that you used to describe that picture suddenly make sense.

                Jesus came to his disciples after he rose from the dead and “he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” God had spelled out for them his great plan to rescue the people of our world from God’s punishment. God told them how the Chosen One would suffer and rise from the dead. And now with Jesus alive again and standing before them, they could see for themselves:

The Father Has Forgiven Us!

I. Christ’s glorious resurrection is all the proof we need.

Jesus died on Friday around 3 pm. The Jewish Sabbath, the day of rest, began at sundown. The Bible doesn’t tell us much about that Saturday, except that the cave tomb of Jesus was secured with a guard and the seal of the governor. Any dedicated Jewish person would not work that day. They would take the time to rest and worship. It was a day to go to the synagogue and hear God speak to them in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms – what we know as the Old Testament.

Did Jesus’ followers go to the synagogue? Perhaps. Or maybe out of fear they stayed home and wrestled with their doubts about Jesus. The Old Testament writings say that “Anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse.” (Deuteronomy 21:23) To us it may sound horrible, but in past history, in some cultures, terrible criminals and defeated enemies would be publicly displayed for people to mock and make fun of as they died or after they died. It was a way to set them up as a bad example and a warning to others not to follow in their footsteps. Is that what Jesus deserved? Was he a criminal – A LIAR? Someone who really was AN ENEMY? and no real friend to the people that he taught and healed and showed compassion on. No way! But that is how Jesus was treated – as a criminal, an enemy of the people, cursed by God.

 The Jewish ruling council, called the Sanhedrin, cursed Jesus and his popularity. They condemned him for what they called blasphemy, his claim to be the All Powerful Son of God. They cursed him and proclaimed him worthy of death. The higher authority at that time, the Roman Empire, provided the tree so that the people could really see who this arrogant man was and that he really wasn’t so great and powerful as he claimed. The wooden cross – what we might call a manmade tree – did the job. Pontius Pilate ordered that Jesus be crucified, nailed to those wooden beams and put on display as a cursed man. Even though Pilate didn’t find Jesus guilty of anything, he washed his hands of the whole incident and gave the people what they wanted.

The wooden cross: “Anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse.” Could it really be true? Could Jesus have been under the curse of God? Condemned to die? Cast away from the presence of God? Could it be? YES! And today we thank God for it. But the Bible makes clear that the curse he died under was for no sin of his own—it was for our sins against God’s law. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” (Galatians 3:13)

The curse rested squarely on our shoulders – the guilty verdict. God had proclaimed the human race guilty when Adam and Eve disobeyed him. The verdict pronounced in the Garden of Eden rests on every generation born from their descendents, up to today, here and now. We are condemned by God’s law. But Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. In other words, he traded himself for us; he took the curse from us and put it on himself, leaving us guilt free and him guilty. And as a guilty liar and thief and enemy of God, he cried out in pain on the cross as he suffered what we deserved – death in hell, the suffering of being cast away from God’s presence. Jesus cried out in pain, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” But when his suffering was down, he cried out in victory, “It is finished!” As the worst criminal in all of history, Jesus died. The sentence of death carried out, the punishment suffered, the debt to God forever paid.

With God’s justice satisfied by a dead Jesus, the substitute for you and me and the whole world, the living Jesus on Easter Sunday presents a new picture. He gives a picture of confident hope that looks ahead to each of our days on earth and our forever life with God. This hope tells us that we now are living under God’s grace. God offers to you and me repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior. It is almost like the guilty verdict placed on Jesus was overturned. It’s almost like the execution was undone. Jesus died as us – in our place – as our Substitute. He lives again as he truly is, pure, innocent, glorified, no longer burdened by sin. He lives to give us daily hope and the assurance that we, too, no longer have the curse of sin, the fear of God’s punishment resting on us.

This is why Jesus appeared on Easter and afterwards to those women and men who had followed his every word - to reassure them. If Jesus were lying in a grave in Israel, we couldn’t be sure that he had rescued us from God’s punishment. But the fact that Jesus is alive is all the proof we need that his mission was accomplished and that the Father Has Forgiven Us!

II. Spread the story to all who have sinned against the Father!

Surely it was time for the disciples to celebrate! Jesus is alive! He had gone through the struggle and won the championship of all time, defeating the devil and all that would join in the devil’s rebellion against God. But celebration was not the only thing for them to do on that first Easter. Jesus said that now that he had paid for all sins to be taken away us, it was time for his followers to go out into the whole world and preach repentance and forgiveness in his name. In the book of Acts, Jesus says: “You will be my witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth.” (1:8) In the Gospel of John, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (20:21) In Matthew’s Gospel, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”(28:19) In Mark, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” (16:15)

History records the often extraordinary efforts that Jesus’ followers have made to see that this message of the repentance and forgiveness is spread. Men like Paul and Peter and Thomas and others roamed to the very edges of the map to proclaim the news to those who had not yet heard it. Missionaries have crossed great oceans and mountain ranges to find those souls who have not yet learned that their sins are forgiven. Christians have suffered great hardships and sacrificed their lives and fortunes so that the news of Jesus alive and our sins forgiven might indeed spread from Jerusalem to all nations – even nations undreamed of at the time this great mission began. And now we are the disciples to whom this great commission has fallen. We are the ones who are to follow in the work of the prophets and apostles and diligent men and women of all the ages. We are to call sinners to repentance, and we are to assure them of God’s forgiveness for all the guilt that they have accumulated on their record.

Go and tell those who are frightened and have run from the Lord that he has come back from the dead to say, “Peace be with you” (John 20:21). Go and tell those who do not want Christ to be their king that he has returned from the dead and has established a kingdom of pardon and peace. Go and tell those who want Jesus to provide only blessings for this life that freedom from death is now theirs through the resurrection of Christ. Go and tell those who ask, “What is truth?” that this is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth: Christ has died and Christ has risen from the dead to bring forgiveness and never ending life for all people. Go and tell those who don’t take his claims seriously that every one of them has been proven true by the resurrection of Christ.

Go and tell those who have not yet accepted the fact that they are sinners and deserve God’s punishment, that their tears cried because of their guilt are never wasted, because repentance and forgiveness of sins are being preached throughout the world in the name of the risen and glorified Jesus Christ. Grab onto that comfort for yourself when the sins you have committed haunt you. Reach out your hand with this comfort to others whose sins still stand between them and the peace of forgiveness that Christ has won for us all. The words of the Bible describe it, but because of your trust in God you have seen it for yourself. Let other people in on the secret so that they, too, can be amazed by our wonderful Savior, who rose from the dead, and brings endless peace from the all powerful Creator of all things. Amen.