Easter Sunday (Sunrise Service) – March 31st, 2024
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: 1 Corinthians 15
“Resurrection of the Body”
Theme: Death is swallowed up in victory, for Christ has come to bring life.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
The Church has a lot of symbolism regarding the burial of our dead. This is because we believe they will not stay dead. In fact, we treat death as a sleep. Jesus himself comforts Jairus and his wife at the death of their daughter: “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping” (Luke 8:52). And so, we believe that every single person out there in our cemetery will one day rise again with new bodies. And just as the sun rises in the East from its death of night, that is how we orient our cemeteries, so if they could sit up right now, they would be facing East.
The names for cemeteries are also fitting. Although some may call them “graveyards,” cemetery means “place of sleeping.” We have many who are sleeping out there, just waiting to be awakened on the Last Day. There’s also an older German term that refers to cemeteries as Gottesacker, or “God’s acre.”
This gets at our reading from Corinthians. Paul describes the natural man as a seed whose body is placed into the ground as if it were planted there. I particularly love this section: “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” (42–44).
Every time we hold a funeral out here, we are planting another seed. Like good farmers, our rows our even, and we plant them one by one. What is sown is perishable, dishonorable, and weak because it has been a sinful body. Paul reminds us, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). He also says, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (56). Each person out there has received those wages. So too will we one day. And yet what will rise is something far greater: a body that is imperishable, full of glory, and raised in power—a spirit-filled body that we can hardly comprehend in this life.
Do not be mistaken: we will have bodies in the life to come. We will not be pure spirits floating in the air in eternity like angels. What God has joined together, body and soul, death cannot permanently separate. What will that body look like? It will look like Jesus. St. Paul says, “As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (48–49).
So let us ponder a bit the resurrection of Jesus. After all, he is the first one that St. Paul wants us to know has definitely arisen. In fact, he goes so far as to say this: “[I]f Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (14). If Christ did not rise, then we are wasting our time right now. There’s no point to being here if it were just a Spring festival. There’s no point to anything in the church in Jesus did not rise.
But he did rise.
Jesus Himself predicted that He would rise. There were many eyewitnesses to this fact. Many of them died defending this truth. St. Paul includes a list of all the eyewitnesses to assure you that there is a foundation to this message: “he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (5–8).
But what actually happened on that first Easter? Well, it seems to have been a rather chaotic day. I guarantee you, if the resurrection had been a hoax, it would not have been this chaotic. If people are lying, they pretend to be completely sure of their lie. They try to cover all their bases. None of the Gospel writers write in this way. They want you to know that they didn’t have a clue what was going on that Easter morning. Women arrive at the tomb, then hurry back to tell the disciples. Peter and John run to the tomb, see it being empty, then return. Mary Magdalene goes back to weep, then meets Jesus unexpectedly. He comforts her, then tells her to go tell the disciples again what she has seen. She has seen her resurrected Teacher. Through this whole story there is confusion and chaos. But through it breaks absolute joy.
We can have joy too. Today of all days, we ought to have joy in abundance. Each of us probably carries with us some confusion and chaos that is caused by sin in our lives. Perhaps there is also some fear of death. The message of Easter is that Christ your Lord is risen, and he works both now in time to conquer those enemies, and he will certainly conquer everything when the trumpet sounds and the dead is raised imperishable, and we shall be changed out of this perishable body into that which is imperishable. So we can sing this now, as we will also be singing it together as the Church on the Last Day: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (57).
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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