Easter Sunday 2007
Easter Sunday
Luke 24:1-12
April 8, 2007
“A New Day Has Dawned”
Introduction: A New Day Has Dawned! The sun has risen over the horizon. With it we know that the night has ended. Light and life spring up all around us. There is something majestic about the brilliance that accompanies a new morning and a new day. Don’t you agree? Of course, this spring day isn’t so springy. It seems like the long night of winter continues. Even the plants that sprouted out of the earth now look like frozen lettuce. But still with every dazzling sunrise there is the promise of something greater. That day will come.
Two-thousand years ago, something happened that is more majestic, more brilliant and more dazzling than the simple rising of the sun. With the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead God has ushered in a New and Eternal Day for all of us, for all people. With Jesus Christ’s resurrection the long night of sin, death and the power of darkness has ended. The light of God’s one and only Son has dawned. Something new has begun.
Easter Sunday brings out a whole lot of “new.” Just look around you. New dresses, new suits, new hats, new shoes, new haircuts, new flowers, putting on the “new” leads to much excitement.
Who in this world does not have some degree of excitement over something new? Now the excitement may differ depending on the thing itself. A new dress or a new suit of clothes…they can make us feel pretty good. Most of us are or would be ecstatic over a new car, the new car smell, new car feel, and the way it drives. New is great because new, is well new. Gone is the old, in with the new. However, there lies before us one inevitable fact; what’s new will become…old. There is the rub, isn’t it?
Given time, the bright will become dull, the solid will become weak, the exciting will become ordinary, suits and dresses will wear out, new shoes will scoff. It’s just the way things are. We try to grin and bear it. We must acknowledge what is new today will be old tomorrow.
In our Old Testament text we hear these words. Behold (that means pay attention), Behold, God says, I will create a new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. Certainly, out with the old and in with the new to the highest extent! This “new” will be a delight, a joy, a “new” where people will not toil in vain, a “new” where children will not be doomed to misfortune, a “new” where people will eat the fruits of their labors, a new that will not fade away, rust or spoil, a new that never gets old.
Behold the “New” day, “Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, (the Angel’s) they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?
When the Lord God made the promise to make all things “new”, He fulfilled it in His Son with His death on the cross, and He declared it and made it so in His Son’s resurrection. When Jesus Christ came out of that tomb He walked into the dawn of a new day…a day which the Lord has made to last forever. Christ is Risen, He is Risen indeed! Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made…Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
God first made the promise of a “new day” to the first man and women as they fell into sin and were separated from God. Even as these first to two people entered into the dark night of death, as they went into their graves, they held onto this promise. Again, when the Lord made the promise to make all things new, it was promised to His people that were being held captive against there will in the land of Babylon, Iraq that is now. They toiled in vain, the work of their hands belonged to somebody else. What was new always turned old. As the cusre of sin and death reigned, they too held on to the promise of the “new day.” Though they had no hope in what they saw or what they experience, God gave them hope in His Word that someday there would be a new day.
Believe it or not, that new day came for them and for us all when Jesus was raised from the dead. The Apostle Paul tells us, “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new…that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation…For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Now, what about your life? What does it feel like to you? Does it feel like the “new” that is filled with rejoicing and delight? Does it feel like the “new” where all your toil is not in vain? Or does your life often feel like you are lost in captivity. Do you feel more like you are imprisoned, longing to be free? Do you long for something new, some relief, some hope? Are you held by sins that will not let you go, that burden you conscious? Often times it feels like there is no room for rejoicing, there is no room to be glad. Sometimes hearing these words of God in Isaiah, that someday a wolf and a lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like a cow, and all harm and danger will be taken away are just words of foolishness, filled with incredible impossibilities.
Then we hear the words of the angel ringing loudly in our ears: “He is not here, He is risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: “The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.” On Friday there was no apparent reason to rejoice. On Saturday there was no apparent reason to rejoice. On the first day of the week there was no apparent reason to rejoice. The morning walk of Joanna and the two Mary’s was not intended to be a walk of hope, but rather a journey to a dead body. But in the very midst of their sorrow, in the midst of their loss, in the midst of their lost hope, these women are confronted by the “new.” They expect to find death, but then they hear these words, “Why do you look for the living among the dead” the angels ask?
What about the disciples walking on the road to Emmaus? Another walk of hopelessness, or so they thought? Remember their discussion, recalling the recent events, “The chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him; but we had hoped He was the One who was going to redeem Israel.” Then the stranger walking along side of them, which is Jesus, gave them something “new”, that is “understanding.” All that needed to be fulfilled has been fulfilled. All of scripture was fulfilled…the “New” day has dawned!
For Isaiah and the people of Israel, beyond the Babylonian captivity were rescue and restoration and redemption, people brought back to the Promised Land, brought to their own, to live a life in response to their rescue. Today, this very day, this very moment in time, you are a new creation. You have new life in Him, in Jesus Christ, rescued, restored, redeemed. You have been made new in the waters of Baptism, through which, St. Paul writes, “We were therefore buried with Him through Baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Rom 6:4). What about tomorrow? What will it be like? Well, it may be a good day. It may be a bad day. In Jesus Christ, it will be a new day of hope that leads to new life and blessings great and small. The newness that we spiritually possess now in Jesus Christ will be completed in our flesh as well. Even as Adam, in the flesh walked into His grave, Jesus Christ was the first to walk out of the grave. Because of Him all people will be raised from the dead, some to eternal shame, and others to eternal glory. For the Lord’s chosen, they will experience a day like none other. On that day the lion will lay done with the lamb. The sound of weeping and sorrow will no longer be heard. The dawn of the new day will last forever. In the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, John the beloved friend of Jesus, who witnessed our Lord’s resurrection, tells us what it will be like 21:1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…"Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new."
We have new life in Jesus Christ, right now! That is because Christ is Risen, He is Risen indeed! Amen!