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This Week's Sermon THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD 04 April 2010 "Remembering the Resurrection" Luke 24:1-12 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

If I say, "December 7, 1941," or "9/11," you remember that those are dates that are burned into our national memory as days to remember great tragedies and world-changing outcomes. You also remember dates that have intense, personal meaning to you, such as the anniversary of the death of a spouse or parent or child. They are dates that you will never forget because they changed your life for good. You may forget your wedding anniversary, but you won't forget the day on which your parents, your spouse, or your child died.

Our memory for good things, however, is not quite as good. We tend to forget such things. I wondered why that is, so I did a little research on memory and memory techniques. I found this interesting observation:

The brain by nature is a selective organ, committing to permanent memory only those items it deems are absolutely necessary to retain. You must determine what is important and what is just fluff. If the information is important and needs to be stored, you must perform an essential operation to insure transfer into permanent memory. This process is called recitation or verbalization. [Cuesta College website. http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/AS/311.HTM]

Why did the disciples forget what Jesus told them about his resurrection? Why were they seeking the dead among the living? Perhaps they were so overwhelmed with the horror of Jesus' arrest, trials, and brutal crucifixion that they came to consider his words about rising from the dead as no longer important. Maybe they thought it was just "fluff." Surely, there can be a psychological reason why they forgot.

In reality, there is a theological reason. The Evangelist John tells us about the men, but it was true also of the women:

"for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead." (John 20:9, ESV)

It wasn't that they hadn't heard Jesus speak the words, because he did, on numerous occasions. Rather, it was that they had expected the kingdom to come immediately at Jerusalem, but they didn't have a grasp of what the kingdom really is. They had expected him to enter into it on Palm Sunday, but not through his cross and death. So, the angel reminded the women of all that Jesus had said about his suffering, death, and resurrection. St. John Chrysostom said that there were like young birds confined to the ground, not yet able to fly [ACC, NT III, p. 375]. It took the angel to remind them, to re-educate them, reciting again what Jesus had said.

"He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise." (Luke 24:6-7, ESV)

We began the Lenten season on Ash Wednesday. As you entered the sanctuary, before anything else took place that evening, you were marked with ashes in the form of the cross, and you had these words placed into your ears: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Remember!

But we often forget that because we don't want to be reminded of our sins and our innate sinfulness. It isn't that we don't know Jesus' words-we simply don't believe them! We would prefer to think that we are people who are, to borrow a local phrase, "a level above" other people. We don't like to think of our sinfulness. You and I were made from the dust of the earth and therefore, we are connected with this earth. When our first parents sinned, the creation itself suffered corruption. In the reality of man lies the fate and destiny of all things on this earth. Politicians and others forget this. Because of Adam's disobedience and sin, all things change. It isn't just in the external things, this created order with which we are often at odds, but our inner being finds a friend in Satan himself. Man sinned and in sinning man became a sinner. Thus, sin now has a face, a human face. Everything is affected. In short, all creation dies. You and I die. The mortality rate for man and animals remains at 100%. Sin and death go together, not just as a cause and effect, but as a reality we would prefer to forget. Physical and mental decline go with death. My college human anatomy professor used to say: "There is no such thing as a natural death; everybody dies of something" [Professor John Klotz].

That is a profound statement which expresses a Scriptural truth: God did not create man to die. God did not create death or he would not be the God of the living. Death is an intrusion because death is intimately connected with sin. Sin is not merely transgression or disobedience, it is a power which brings forth consequences that God did not intend. God made man in his image, an image that was one of life. Adam corrupted all of that and ruined God's good creation. The opening chapters of Genesis are not about the "ascent of man," but the descent of man into further and further wickedness and sin. Man invented even more wickedness, such as Paul describes on Romans one, and so man received the sentence of death. No more stark reality exists than these words through the Apostle Paul:

"For the wages of sin is death . . " (Romans 6:23, ESV)

Death brings more death, and corruption brings more corruption. We keep looking for ways to live longer and some scientists claim that they may have discovered the key to reverse aging, but aging is not the problem, sin is. Death is a power which has its roots in sin.

"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law." (1 Corinthians 15:56, ESV) Paul writes.

This would be an utterly and absolutely depressing situation if Christ had not risen from the dead. We need to remember Christ's entire work of redemption! Jesus, the very Word of God made flesh, came to suffer and die for all so that the effects of sin would be undone. St. Athanasius, the champion of Christian orthodoxy against those who taught falsely about God, creation, and Christ, said: "No one else could bring what was corrupted to incorruptibility." [Athanasius, De Incarnatione 7; Thompson, Athanasius, 151, quote in Weinrich, Athanasius on the Atonement, CTQ, Vol. 72, number 4, October 2008, p. 301]

Christ has put to death death itself by his work of redemption. Death itself is undone in Christ's death. His resurrection is the proof positive that this is so. It is also the proof that the corruption of our flesh also has an end, the grave. Yet, we shall rise from those graves because Christ himself is risen. Our loved ones who have died in Christ shall also rise from their graves, and we look forward to a happy reunion in the presence of Christ.

The angel's words, "Remember how he told you" has the force of continued action, namely, "Keep on remembering how he told you . . ." that he would rise from the dead. God knows that Satan continues to tempt us to disbelieve. The world in which we live considers it to be "an idle tale," something that only mentally deficient people believe. Our own flesh tempts us to doubt the truth of this event. Don't give up believing Christ's own promise and the angel's words! He IS risen!

What great irony there is in the resurrection accounts. Mark and Luke both tell us that the report of the women that Jesus is alive was considered by the men to be "an idle tale." [v. 11] It reflects our human condition. When Eve told Adam what the serpent had said, he believed her immediately. A lying woman was believed and all humanity died. But the disciples didn't believe the women when they told the truth! Do not think that it was merely an accident that the women are the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection! All humanity fell through a woman's sin. All humanity was restored through a woman's offspring. Life came through the Virgin's Son. Women proclaimed that Christ had risen, but the men thought that they were raving lunatics. Yet, the women told the truth.

How best can you remember the resurrection of Jesus? Is it merely a mental exercise? If so, you can do that at home. Perhaps this is the reason why some Christians do not understand the necessity of the Divine Service. Obviously, remembering the resurrection of Christ is not just some fact that you review in your mind, but one which is the intimate power of your life. Something must be changed-forever!

"Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel," (2 Timothy 2:8, ESV) wrote the Apostle Paul. Did you ever stop to think that our faith in the resurrected Christ is what distinguishes genuine Christianity from all the other religions of the world? Most of them have the graves of their founders, but Christianity does not worship at the tomb of Jesus because he is risen from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the bedrock of our faith.

In Holy Baptism you have participated in Christ's death and resurrection. You have been raised with Christ in Baptism and put on the righteousness of Christ. That is a very real thing. It is not a mere symbol, but it is truly the incorruptibility of Christ himself which is put on you. In Holy Baptism is your real death and resurrection because it is connected to the death and resurrection of Christ. Even though your body will die, you will be raised with him on the last day. Jesus promised,

"Because I live, you also will live." (John 14:19, ESV)

So every time you make the sign of the holy cross and say, "In the Name of the Father and of the ( Son and of the Holy Spirit," repeating the Apostles' Creed, and praying the Our Father, you are remembering Christ's death and resurrection because you were baptized into his death and resurrection. Practicing your Baptism causes you to remember your salvation.

When our Lord Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the altar he uttered some words that you perhaps forget,

"and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."" (1 Corinthians 11:24-25, ESV)

Then Paul concludes:

"For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." (1 Corinthians 11:26, ESV)

We do more than simply recite facts. We do more than verbalize what happened. We bring to remembrance, in a very real way, our Lord's death and resurrection for us because in this Sacrament he gives us his true body and blood, the same body and blood given and shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. He makes it present. We live in his resurrection. We keep remembering it in this way because this is a proclamation of the Gospel itself. Everything that is done in the Divine Service proclaims Christ's resurrection. The Sacrament proclaims that Christ lives in himself and that he also lives in you.

Dear friends, Christ is risen! He lives as your Savior forevermore! He has taken you into his death and resurrection by means of your Baptism, and now he comes in his body and blood to forgive your sins of forgetting and to renew and restore you for life eternal. It is now time to remember all that Christ has won for you and to celebrate and proclaim his mighty resurrection from the dead!

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.