Destroying the Shroud

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

Why are we celebrating?!

•THE VICTORY

And he will swallow up on this mountain

the covering that is cast over all peoples,

the veil that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,

and the reproach of his people he will take away from all

the earth,

for the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah 25:7-8

•THE SHROUD

And he will destroy on this mountain

the shroud that is cast over all peoples,

the sheet that is spread over all nations;

he will swallow up death forever.

Isaiah 25:7-8a (NRSV)

We are celebrating because God promises to defeat our oldest enemy – the funeral shroud.

•THE LINEN SHROUD

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.

Matthew 27:57-60

•TWO SHROUDS

The man who died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

John 11:44

Even after the raising up of Lazarus, the old enemy – the funeral shroud – retains it’s power.

•TWO SHROUDS

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.

John 20:6

What is different about what Peter sees here?

•THE EMPTY SHROUD

God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Acts 2:24

Peter preached what he saw on Sunday morning.

The shroud of death was now empty and powerless.

•THE EMPTY SHROUD

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death swallowed up in victory.

1 Corinthians 15:54

We celebrate because the Resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of the final victory over the shroud.

•BE GLAD AND REJOICE

It will be said on that day,

Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that

he might save us.

This is the Lord for whom we have waited;

let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Isaiah 25:9

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