Easter sermon: Christus Victor

Matthew 28:1-10

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: `He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

1 Corinthians 15:50-56

I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Many of you know what it feels like the first few days after a loved one has died. So you can imagine the women at the tomb, after Jesus has died. It seems surreal. Only a week earlier, Jesus had entered Jerusalem with crowds shouting blessings on him. But now he is dead, crucified with common thieves. All that is left for the women to do is visit the grave and take care of any further arrangements.

At the moment of their deepest grief, when things look the bleakest, things get worse: a violent earthquake shakes the cemetery. You may remember that the earth shook at the moment of Jesus’ death. Now it shakes again at his rising. There is a blinding light. The Roman guards faint dead away. An angel rolls back the stone and sits on it.

The women are cowering. The angel looks like lightening. So, like every other angel in the gospels, he begins by reassuring them, "Do not be afraid.” He tells them Jesus has risen, and directs them to look for themselves, then run and tell the disciples.

They see that he is not there and they run from the tomb, "afraid yet filled with joy.”

Fear and Joy. Do you know that combination of feelings?
A skydiver making her first solo jump.
A 16 year old driving on the freeway for the first time.
A groom on the morning of his wedding.
A young mother giving birth to a healthy baby despite complications.
A soldier’s family, anticipating every email from their son’s unit, never knowing what news it will bring.
An elderly man, unsteady on his feet and fearful of falling, but happy to be out for a walk.
A widow, uncertain about her future but grateful that her husband’s pain is ended.

The women leave the tomb with fear and joy. Let’s try to grasp their fear, because there’s more than just the angel’s dramatic appearance.

Think for a moment of how frightful it would be to have the dead living again. It’s the stuff of many horror movies. How would it be if one of your dead relatives or friends suddenly appeared on your doorstep? We miss them, yes, but we don’t expect them to come back.

Last Easter (2004), Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Cantebury, said that to people of Jesus’ day, resurrection was not a welcome idea but a terrifying one. He quoted a scholar of ancient history: "If an educated Greek or Roman had been told that someone had been raised from the dead, his first question would have been 'How do you get him back into his grave again?' " The point was that most of those who first heard the Easter gospel would have found it grotesque or even frightening.”Resurrection was not a joyful sign of hope but an alarming oddity, something potentially very dangerous. The dead, if they survived at all, lived in their own world -- a shadowy place, where they were condemned to a sort of half-life of yearning and sadness. .. For them to return would have been terrifying and unnatural.”

No wonder the women are full of fear.

But there is also joy, and this is the joy we more often associate with Easter. Their friend and teacher who was dead is alive again! The one who had been humiliated has been exalted. The one who had been defeated is now the victor.

What they could not have known then, we know now: Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection changes everything! Jesus has been raised from the dead, and death no longer has any power over him.

"Death has been swallowed up in victory."
1CO 15:55 "Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"

Think about how joyful this is. People can be saved from their sins and find reconciliation with God. We can be called God’s children. We can receive the Holy Spirit as a force for good in our lives. We can worship God and know God.

Perhaps most of all, we no longer fear death. That changes things, not only for our future, but for our daily lives.

William Stringfellow, in a small book called An Ethic for Christians and Other Strangers in a Strange Land, says that what sets Christians aside from others is our ultimate assurance that death is not the end for us. The threat of death, he said, is what ultimately keeps most of us "in line."

When we hear from guards in Nazi death camps that they had to do what they did, what we are hearing is that if they did not do what they were told, they would be killed, just as the inmates were being killed. And if we say, "Of course, in that case, you had to do it," we are missing the main message of the cross.
For we Christians are supposed to be free of the fear of death. When we are told, "Kill that woman, or you will die," our answer should be, "And so? I will not do it."
We may say, as many did in that circumstance, that if we die, the SS will simply find someone else who will do the deed, but Stringfellow points out that this may be so, but so what? We will not have done it. We will have stood firmly for the right, the Christian thing to do. And furthermore, this may not be so; it may be that others, seeing our resistance, will be strengthened to resist evil, and so evil will not be able to be carried out.
(William Stringfellow, An Ethic for Christians, via Emphasis Magazine)

When you are not afraid of death, you see things differently. You make decisions in the light of your beliefs. You don’t want to die, but neither are you frightened of it.

It’s only through Christ we have this assurance. He’s the only one who has been raised from the dead to never die. This is how he has broken the power of death over us.

That does not mean that there is no continuing struggle, as each of you knows from your daily life. What is meant is that final victory is already underway and already assured.

In one of those old classic religious movies, Deborah Kerr played a Christian about to be thrown to the lions. Real lions were used in the scene. A friend asked her, "Weren't you afraid?" She said, "No, not at all. You see, I had read the script ahead of time, and I knew that Robert Taylor would rescue me." (Emphasis magazine)

We have read the script. We know how it ends. You get to the end of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, and you see the coming of the city of God, where there is no more death, no more pain, no more crying, for all those things have passed away.

So don’t give in to being a victim. Don’t give up hope of a meaningful life. And don’t be afraid, except for having a holy fear and awe of God and what God has done.

Fear and Joy. When it comes to Easter, we might not have put the two together, but in the resurrection, it makes sense. The defeat of death and evil is a fearsome event.

Ministers usually get to church early on Easter to make sure everything is ready to go. It was an Easter morning when Presbyterian minister Bill Carl drove up to his church. He expected to see the cross on the front lawn, draped in white. Instead, he saw a splintered fraction of a beam protruding like a dagger from the ground. The night before, the Texas wind had snapped the cross in half, about two feet below the cross bar. The decapitated limbs had fallen on a nearby flowerbed.

He was upset at first, then he smiled. He said later that it was the perfect symbol of resurrection – God had broken the backbone of death. (Emphasis)

Here’s how John Chrysostom described it centuries ago in his famed Easter sermon, which is still read aloud each year in many Eastern Orthodox churches:
"Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hades, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep."

Christ is risen! Alleluia!