Acts 10:38-43
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Today is the high festival of the Resurrection of Our Lord. It is indeed the highest day, which shines the heavenly light of God’s salvation in Christ onto every other day.
If the resurrection of Jesus had not taken place, nothing else would matter. And because the resurrection of Jesus did take place, everything else makes sense.
And so, every Sunday is a little Easter. And every commemoration of a martyr, who died without fear, is yet another testimony to the power of Easter.
We know now why the babe was born in Bethlehem. And we know that the sacrifice that was offered on the cross of Calvary was accepted by God the Father, and accomplished its purpose of atoning for the sins of the world.
Jesus lives. And because he lives, we, too, live. We live even now with a deeper joy, and with a more certain hope. And we shall live forever, with him, in his eternal kingdom.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Please listen with me to the words of St. Peter, as recorded in the 10th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, beginning in the 38th verse.
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him, all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
So far our text.
People are impressed by miracles. TV preachers who perform miracles, or who claim to do so, have the largest audiences.
We might wonder, then, why Jesus didn’t appear in his miraculous, resurrected glory to everyone. Wouldn’t that have made the greatest impression? Wouldn’t that have gotten everyone’s attention?
We can imagine what would have happened if the resurrected Lord had appeared to the high priest and the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin – who had condemned Jesus.
Their first reaction would have been to quake in fear. But then, they would grudgingly have recognized the divine power of Jesus and would have submitted themselves to his authority.
We can also imagine what would have happened if Jesus, in his resurrected glory, had appeared to Pontius Pilate and the other Roman authorities.
At first, they would have been shocked. And then they probably would have apologized for their actions and tried to appease him so that he would not seek to get revenge for what they had done to him.
Wouldn’t it have been great to see these evil men put in their place? Wouldn’t it have been great to see Jesus vindicated as the righteous and good man that he was, and to see those who had persecuted him, and lied about him, discredited and disgraced?
But Jesus, by keeping the resurrection a “private event,” as it were – rather than making it a public demonstration – allowed the high priest, the Roman governor, and everyone else who had been involved in these injustices, to continue on as before. They remained just as arrogant and vicious as they had always been.
That wasn’t a good thing, was it? Why did Jesus, after his resurrection, appear only to the disciples, and to those who were already within the circle of his followers?
Well, the answer is really quite simple. The purpose of the resurrection was not to show the raw power of Christ to proud unbelievers.
Jesus was not interested in making those who had hurt him, now to be afraid of him. Rather, the purpose of the resurrection was to show the mercy and forgiveness of Christ, to those whose hearts had been properly prepared for this by Christ’s Word.
The resurrection was intended to show that God the Father had accepted the death of his Son on the cross as a sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world. It was intended to assure penitent sinners – like Peter and the other apostles, who in fear had forsaken Jesus – that their sins will not be held against them.
The resurrection was intended to instill in all those who trust in Christ, and yearn for his salvation, a firm confidence that they will indeed live forever through him.
In his resurrection, Jesus showed forth to the church his victory over sin and death, so that we would no longer fear the power of the devil. For us, the devil has been vanquished. He no longer has a claim on our souls.
The blood that Christ had shed on the cross was the purchase price of our redemption. Now, in the resurrection, Jesus is taking possession of that which he has purchased. We belong to him, and in the resurrection, he claims us and embraces us.
He is now going to live among his people as their risen Lord, to justify us, to protect us, to sanctify us, and to bring us forward to the day of our own resurrection, when we will share fully in his glory and life.
Christ’s pathway to the resurrection was by means of the crucifixion. Before he could be glorified and exalted on Easter, he needed to be degraded and humiliated on Good Friday. Before he could bestow on us his life and victory, he needed to take upon himself our transgressions and wickedness.
For us, then, our pathway to enjoying the benefits of the resurrection is by means of a penitent embracing of the cross. The true power and purpose of the resurrection is completely lost on those who do not first know their need for forgiveness.
As today’s Gospel from St. Matthew recounts, the angel said to the women on that first Easter morn:
“I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said.”
We, too, must “seek Jesus who was crucified,” before we can hear and understand the angel’s announcement about his victory over the grave.
The message of the resurrection is a message of God’s power to restore the penitent to fellowship with God. The message of the resurrection is a message of God’s power to raise those who are sorry for their sins to a new life in his Son Jesus Christ.
The message of the resurrection is not a message of God’s power to show skeptics and idolaters “who’s the boss,” or to prove that he is right, and that his enemies are wrong.
If Christ, after the resurrection, had appeared to those who had been his earthly opponents, it may very well have “put them in their place,” or caused them to grovel before him in terror. But as men who had rejected the Lord’s call to repentance, and who had mocked his suffering, such an appearance would have accomplished nothing for their eternal good.
If Jesus had done something like this, he would just have been “showing off.” It would have been far beneath his dignity as God’s Son, to put himself on display before such blasphemers.
Jesus once said, “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs.”
An appearance of the resurrected Christ before the Sanhedrin, in their hardness of heart, would have been giving dogs what is holy. An appearance of the resurrected Christ before the Romans, in their pagan arrogance, would have been throwing pearls before pigs.
Today, as the Easter gospel is proclaimed, are you ready to hear it? Is this proclamation able to serve its intended purpose in your life?
The resurrected Savior did not appear to his disciples simply to make himself available to them as a supernatural resource for the solving of earthly problems.
He appeared to them to demonstrate that, on the cross, he had already solved for them their deepest and greatest problem: that is, their sinful alienation from God. He appeared to them to demonstrate that God is now at peace with them.
The resurrected Savior did not appear to his disciples to vindicate their faithfulness, or to congratulate them for their moral successes.
He appeared to them to assure them that they are forgiven for their unfaithfulness. He appeared to them to reveal to them his divine mercy, even in the face of all their human failures.
If you want to be sure that you are hearing the Easter gospel in the way that it is intended to be heard by a follower of Christ, and if you want to be sure that you are experiencing the power of the resurrection in the way that it is supposed to be experienced by a disciple of Christ, then heed these words of St. Peter:
“He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
The resurrected Christ comes to you today as the forgiver of your sins. Whenever the inspired testimony of the apostles is proclaimed, the living Lord of the church mystically appears to you, to renew in you the faith by which you do indeed “see” him, and cling to him.
Notice, too, this wonderful little phrase in St. Peter’s statement: Those to whom Jesus appeared, and whom God had chosen to be witnesses of the resurrection, are also those “who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.”
What a wonderful experience this was! And one of the reasons why we know how wonderful it was for the apostles to eat and drink with the risen Christ, is because we too have had this experience.
The church’s table fellowship with Christ did not come to an end when he ascended to the right hand of the Father. Our intimate enjoyment of Christ’s companionship and forgiving love continues on, in the sacred Supper that he has instituted for us.
In this sacrament, he makes himself present among us in his body and blood, as a living and life-giving Savior.
Those who are communicants in the Lord’s church are, in faith, able to experience the true meaning of the resurrection, as the risen Christ appears to us. We are able to “see” Jesus, in the assurance that our sins are forgiven.
His body was given into death for us on the cross, and his blood was shed for our redemption. In his means of grace – through both Word and Sacrament – the risen Christ delivers this redemption to us.
And he does so again, and again, and again. He never stops forgiving and saving his people, because he is alive forevermore. He will never die again. In him we, too, will never die.
Someday – when he returns visibly for the judgment of all men and nations – Jesus will appear to everyone in his resurrected and ascended glory. On that day there will be much fear and anguish on the part of unbelievers.
But Jesus did not appear to everyone after he rose from the grave. The appearances of the risen Christ were not for the high priest and the Sanhedrin, who rejected his Word. They were not for Pontius Pilate and the Romans, whose hearts had been hardened against his Spirit.
The appearances of the risen Christ were for his apostles and disciples, who repented of their sins and sought the Lord’s pardon. The appearances of the risen Christ were, and are, for us, who repent of our sins, and seek the Lord’s pardon.
So let us keep the festival Whereto the Lord invites us;
Christ is himself the Joy of all, The Sun that warms and lights us.
By His grace He doth impart Eternal sunshine to the heart;
The night of sin is ended.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Amen.