Easter 2026

John Donne

Psal. 89:48.

What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?

Preached March 28, 1619

John Donne, the famous preacher of the 17th century said that we are all in prison. We are grown in prison in the womb, we are born into this world that functions as a prison, and not just a prison, but actually death row, for each of us have an execution date, although mercifully none of us here know the specifics of it.

A prison is a place where one is constrained to be, and where a person cannot flourish and grow and be all that they could be otherwise. It is a place where communication is limited, where freedom is limited, and unsullied joy can be hard to come by. In that sense, indeed, we are all in prison.

I watched an interview last week of one of the American POWs in the so called Hanoi Hilton…the North Vietnamese prison where they kept mostly pilots that had been shot down. For a long while they were not able to communicate with each other because the cell walls were too thick for talking through. They could hear taps, but Morse code doesn’t work by tapping. So they invented an ingenious system of tapping that was easily memorized and contained the whole alphabet.

Yet this is not so different from the prison of the real world. We struggle to communicate with each other, because of our brokenness, because of our sin. A man and a woman might live together for decades, sharing a home and children and a bed every night for years…and then find themselves in counseling because they don’t know how to communicate with each other. Friendships and close family relationships are frequently sundered because we cannot communicate well.

This is but one of the many ways that this world is indeed a prison and we the inmates that must strive to learn how to survive and flourish in this prison of our making.

This week I was called into a school for a difficult situation with one of my ‘adopted’ grandkids. It is an Elementary school. And I was standing just outside the school there talking to one of the teachers and feeling somewhat drained and hopeless. And at that moment around 15 or so Middle School students walked by, having been dropped off by buses nearby, and a couple of them recognized the teacher I was with and ran up to her and gave her a hug and were so clearly happy to see her. But the majority of the kids walked past, fighting. Not physically fighting, but yelling angrily at each other, using words and language that I could never utter in church. Saying the most ugly things. And one felt that at any moment fists could fly and physical harm could ensue. And this was not just a group of unruly boys, in fact the girls outnumbered the boys and seemed just as potentially violent. I am not sheltered in my upbringing or my profession, but I felt for a moment even frightened by the anger and threats emanating from them all as a whole. And they were middle schoolers. Children.

The 2 kids who ran up to the teacher seemed a little younger and one of them told the teacher that he had seen 3 fights that day, on that day alone, at the middle school and that the cops had to come for one of them. They both said they missed elementary school.

And I felt such a weariness in that moment…seeing those angry kids on the street saying such terrible things and fighting with each other. What kind of homes do they have? How much love do they receive? What kind of meaning do they see in themselve, in life, in anything?

And yet, did not 2 of them come out from among them and embrace the teacher they recognized?

I felt in that moment the bars of the prison cell. This world has many beautiful and wonderful things in it. And my daily life has more blessings than I deserve. But sometimes I feel it in my bones, this is no home for me.

1 John 2:15–17 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

And so we find these twin truths at work in our souls: we are in a prison, and we have an execution date.

And Donne in his sermon, centuries ago, makes the following point…you never see a convicted criminal, being transported from his cell to his death by the executioner’s axe, you never see him fall asleep on the trip. How could he fall asleep? He is terrified, for he is going to his death, and therefore he can do nothing other than fix his thoughts upon his maker, and pray that he is in right relationship with God at the moment of death. That is all such men can do, and that is why there is always a priest or a pastor accompanying them to their final destination, because here is a man who has no hope left in this world. He has no desires of the flesh, his eyes are dead to the world, his pride is meaningless, all that remains is contemplation of his eternal destiny. Falling asleep or engaging in meaningless pleasantries would be absurd in such a moment.

And yet so many of us sleepwalk through our lives, only shooting terrified glances at the approaching execution, making small talk with the pastor and trying to purchase meaningless trinkets while being escorted to our resting place. And it looks just as absurd to God as a convicted criminal in the 1600s trying to buy new shoes from a vendor on the way to the hangmans noose.

I am sorry if this seems grim and morbid for an Easter morn. But I must speak this truth today of all days because if you do not know that you are in a prison- if you do not know that your execution date is set and certain- if you are not seized within your inmost being with a desire to be right with God before your last breath leaves your lungs, then what good is Easter? None. It is no good. Easter has no point, no benefit, no merit and no true joy for those who love this world and who are given over to the desires of the flesh and their pride. Those who think this Hanoi Hilton is just a Hilton.

Easter contains within its narrative your only hope. But a glimpse of hope will only capture the hopeless. It will mean nothing to those who treat this prison like a luxury hotel…consuming all they can consume, abusing the staff, and giving no thought to the bill that one day will come due. No, Easter is not for them. Easter is for those who see the prison and can name it for what it is. God’s threshing floor.

And if for anyone here these words have kindled even a spark of fear towards our God, then it is my prayer that you will blow upon that spark and add kindling to it because

Hebrews 10:31 “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Why? Why is it fearful? Because God hates you? Because you are worthless? No. No. No. No.

That is one truth that by itself contains no Gospel. That you are in a prison with an execution date waiting. That is not the Gospel. It is the beginning of the Gospel. Let us turn now to the next truth.

God loves you. And your value is immense. These are clear and inarguable Biblical truths from the very first chapter of Genesis and on. God loves you. Your value is immense.

How much does God love you? Good Friday answers that question. While we were still enemies with God, His Son, through the will of the Father and by the strength of the Spirit, endured torture, abuse and death, to pay the penalty of your sin- you, personally. He paid that cost so that you would not have to, ever, and that life eternal would be yours. That is how much He loves you.

How great is your worth? This life eternal is not in a prison such as we are in now, but in a place of such joy and beauty and healing that the Bible can only gesture at it with images of gold and trees and rivers, signaling worship and gratitude without end.

How does Easter do this? I return to Psalm 89, and this time I will give you the second line of the verse.

Psalm 89:48 Who can live and not see death,     or who can escape the power of the grave?

What man can live and never see death? None of us. None of us have that power. Who can deliver their soul from the power of Sheol? What is the power of Sheol? Well, Sheol was a word that also referred to death but with a darker implication, Sheol being a place without light and a place of suffering. Judgment is implied there. Who can deliver their own soul from God’s judgment? Who can weather a full audit of their life- their soul- without shame?

Jesus. Jesus is the man whom death could not hold. Jesus is the man who was delivered from Sheol, although even that is not entirely accurate. Jesus needed no deliverance. The natural consequence of sin is death, but Jesus did not sin. Death was not assigned to Him. His death on the Cross was not like the death of others. It was not due to Him, not assigned to Him, nor did we humans MAKE Him die. We killed him, yes, but Jesus was never powerless before his accusers. He allowed Himself to be shamed and to be tortured and to be killed. He was by nature the Lion of Judah, but He became by choice the Passover Lamb for our salvation. His power was beyond our understanding. He allowed Himself to be killed by us, because of your worth and because of His love for you.

Jesus is the man who can live and never see death and can be delivered from Judgment. Only Jesus.

That is the clarion call of Easter morning- Christ and Christ alone defeats the grave. He and He alone has been resurrected. Lazarus, by way of contrast, was not resurrected. He was revived. Brought back from the dead, to be sure, but not resurrected to new life. The bones of Lazarus rest out there somewhere today.

Jesus alone slips the surly bonds of Earth, if I may use that phrase in this instance for while we are all in a prison on Death Row, Jesus never was so constrained.

But Jesus is not raised up in triumph in order to gaze down scornfully at us lost sinners. Jesus is not wrapped in glory so as to mock our wretched rags of halfhearted righteousness.

Psalm 1:1–2 “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

No Jesus does not scoff or mock. His Victory was not for boasting. God has no need of boasting. His Victory was for us and was gifted to us. His Victory becomes ours.

I don’t know how many of you have heard of the Polish discus thrower Piotr Malachowski? In 2016 he won the silver medal in discus. This was his Victory.

Shortly after winning the medal- a lifelong dream of his- he received a letter from a young Polish mother. Her son had cancer in his eye, a rare form of cancer. The son’s only hope was a specialized surgeon in New York. She asked for his help. He was so touched by this that he put up his silver medal for auction, explaining on a website that he put up that it was for this boy’s surgery. Some wealthy people purchased the medal for a hefty sum. The boy was flown to New York and the surgeon was not only able to save his life, but also restore his eyesight. He is alive and well today at 12 years old. And even though Piotr no longer has his physical medal, he says the medal is worth so much more to him now because it was able to save this young boy’s life.

This is the heart of Christ. He purchased your salvation at tremendous cost to Him personally, and He paid that cost because of the joy set before Him and what is that joy? You, you are that joy. Even as that young boy’s life was Piotr’s joy, so are you the joy of Christ. You, forgiven, renewed, revitalized, remade, resurrected, you as you were originally made to be, you are the joy of God.

Now we have these two realities that I have tried to set before you as plainly as I can this morning. One, the awful predicament that each of us finds ourselves in…set in a prison, captured by sin, certain death awaiting us.

The other, the glorious Victory of Jesus on Easter morning, raised from the dead, and raised up by God the Father for the very purpose of sharing that Victory with you.

Those are the 2 realities, like a positive terminal and a negative terminal on a battery. The imprisoned and tortured human soul, and the glorious Victory of Christ on Easter morning.

When they are connected, that is what we refer to as salvation.

And what is the connection? It’s not a magic trick. It’s not a liturgical rite. Is not to be found in any ritual or denomination or secret mystery that must be unearthed.

It’s said a thousand different ways in the Bible but one of the simplest is in Romans

Romans 10:9–10 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

And that’s it. That is the connection of the 2 battery terminals, that is the human response to God’s mercy and grace that transforms a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. That is all it takes for life eternal, a life lived in truth and love, filled with grateful worship, to take root. There is no trying harder, there is no special pleading, there is no making excuses for your mistakes or your pride or your lust or your foolishness, it is just faith. And when you have faith, you have hope.

Romans 5:5 “and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Do not gossip or engage in meaningless trivialities on the way to your execution. Do not scoff or deride or wave away the mercy of God. Be humble, know your sin that is ever before you, and in your heart believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and with your mouth confess that He is Lord, and watch your songs change from a prisoners dirge to a glorious Hallelujah…He has done it.