He lives!

Because I live, you also will live (John 14:19).

It was early on Easter morning when a number of women went out to the tomb to embalm the body of Jesus, which had been laid to rest in haste late on Good Friday. While they were on their way, they wondered who they could find to roll away the stone which Joseph and Nicodemus had used to seal Jesus’ resting-place. They were surprised when the burial site came into view and it was obvious that the stone had already been moved aside. They were amazed when they reached the tomb and met an angel dressed in white who told them I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said (Matthew 28:5-6). That is the joy of Easter. Jesus is alive! And because He lives, we will live also.

But before we talk about the joy of Easter, we need to consider the price of Easter. We must go through Friday to arrive at Sunday; similarly, we must go through the crucifixion to arrive at the resurrection. We must talk about the price of Easter before we can fully appreciate the joy of Easter.

Jesus came into our world in order to perform a task. Saint Paul, writing to the Galatians, said when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons (Galatians 4:4-5). That was His task--to redeem those who were under the Law. Jesus put it this way: the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10). Accomplishing this task wasn’t easy. It wasn’t accomplished by throwing some money at it—Saint Peter writes, you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Maundy Thursday found Jesus praying on His knees in the Garden of Gethsemane. He pleaded that He might be spared the suffering to come. Even in the final hours of His life, our Lord hoped and prayed that the Father might propose some other way to rescue mankind from the death of sin. When He realized that there was absolutely no other way save us, except by suffering His Father’s anger in our place, He prayed so hard for strength that His blood began to mingle with His sweat.

But this was just the beginning of His suffering on our behalf. In the court of the church, our Lord was accused of crimes that He did not commit. He was spit upon, slapped, and taunted. Under Pilate’s tender care, Jesus was crowned with thorns, beaten over the head, stripped, and whipped mercilessly. He was forced to carry His cross to the place of His execution. At the Place of the Skull they drove nails through His hands and feet, fastening Him to that cross to slowly die from exposure, exhaustion, dehydration and blood loss. But even all this was only the beginning of the price of Easter.

The suffering of our Savior involved much more than just physical suffering. Isaiah writes, the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). Do you know what the price of just one sin is? The price for even the smallest sin is separation from God and eternal damnation. James tells us, whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10). Imagine what Jesus went through when the Father took all the sins of all the people who had lived, all the people who were living at that time, your sins and mine, and the sins of every person yet to be born, and punished His Son for all of these evil thoughts, words and deeds! As He hung on the cross, Jesus suffered all the torments of being abandoned by God to hell. No wonder that He cried out, My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? (Mark 15:34) That’s the price of Easter.

Jesus paid the price of Easter so that we can now have its joy. Our Savior speaks these beautiful words of promise to us: Because I live, you also will live. There are many people in the world who are afraid of death. They are like the mother who said, "Oh no, I never take my child to a funeral. It makes me shudder to be there." They are like the man who had given no thought to the afterlife, and panicked when his doctor told him that he had terminal cancer: "Listen, I can’t die. I have no place to go." When the prospect of death rears its head, the non-Christian begins to worry about what will happen after death.

But we Christians have no reason to worry. We know that because Jesus lives, we will live also. That is His promise to us. It was while visiting Martha at Bethany that Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die (John 11:25-26). That’s the joy of Easter. God’s people don’t stay dead; they merely awaken in a better place where they will never die again. That is why St. Paul could say, 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 (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

What a glorious life that’s going to be! Human words cannot begin to describe it. Allowed a glimpse of Paradise, St. John tried to describe the beauty of heaven in terms of pillars studded with diamonds and streets paved with gold. In Psalm 16 King David says, you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Here in life, we often have times of pleasure and happiness. But we never have pure joy; there’s always some problem that takes away from our delight. Complete joy is reserved for those who reach heaven. Here on earth, pleasure always fades away eventually; but in heaven there will be pleasure forever.

That’s the promise of Jesus to all who believe in Him. Remember, it was to His believers that Jesus said, Because I live, you also will live. A time a separation is coming. Jesus has told us that on the Last Day He will separate the believers from the unbelievers as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The unbelievers will be sent to eternal punishment, but the believers will be welcomed to the eternal joy that God has had prepared for them since the creation of the world.

But the joy of Easter is that there are millions and millions and millions of people who believe. Nearly a third of every person living today identifies him or herself as a follower of Christ! Like the Centurion who stood watch at the cross of Christ, they declare: surely he was the Son of God! (Matthew 27:54) John writes that in one of his visions of heaven, he saw people of all nationalities and languages, a multitude which no one could count, all dressed in robes made white by the blood of the Lamb of God. That’s the joy of Easter.

We get a foretaste of this joy as members of the Church on earth. Since I have been pastor, I have conducted quite a few funeral services. The joy of Easter is that Jesus also spoke these words to each of those departed Christians--Because I live, you also will live. I can’t imagine trying to console a person who is facing death, or who has lost a loved one, if I did not have the promise of Easter to hold out to them in their time of sorrow. This is what the Church is really all about—helping people through this world, so that they might die in faith and live forever. That’s the joy of Easter.

But the greatest joy is that this promise is for you and me personally. Jesus is the Good Shepherd; He calls his own sheep by name and leads them. It is to each of us that Jesus gives the promise, Because I live, you also will live. It is to each of us as individuals that Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. This is why we can say, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me (Psalm 23). That’s the joy of Easter.

An Indian chief had been sick for a long time. He became so ill that he stopped letting anyone visit him in his teepee. A day went by, then two, then one week followed by another. All the members of the tribe wondered whether he had died. Finally they couldn’t stand any more waiting. During the night, one man silently approached the teepee and peered through the hole to see if the chief were dead. When he saw that the chief was still living, he whispered to the man in back of him, "He lives!"—and this man whispered to the Indian who stood behind him, "He lives!"—and so the message was passed from man to man until the entire camp was shouting with joy, "He lives!"

If Jesus is still dead, then as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, all preaching in His name is without purpose. If Christ is dead, then our sins are not forgiven, those who have died are gone forever, and of all people living we Christians are the biggest fools. But the women looked into the tomb and an angel said "He lives!" Apostles, preachers, parents and children have passed the message down through the centuries: "He lives!" That is the message of Easter today: He lives! This living, risen Lord is the One who gives us the blessed assurance that Because I live, you also will live. That’s the joy of Easter.