St John 20:1-18
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
There is a beauty and elegance to the Gospel according to St John. He draws together the many Messianic currents running throughout the Old Testament into one deep well, brimming with the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Giver of Life.
Tonight, this blessed Easter Eve, when Christians for centuries past kept the vigil with psalms and prayer and the Holy Eucharist, let us draw from this living water and drink deeply of the joy of our Lord’s resurrection. The tributaries guiding us to this great fount of righteousness are the Old Testament lessons. Consider the readings:
Our Lord delivered Noah and his family from the deluge through the safety of the Ark. Noah sends out a dove in search of new life for a world plunged into death; it returns with an olive branch. On Mount Ararat the Ark rests and is opened to release life into a world deadened by water. Christ is the Ark that safely ferries you through the flood of Holy Baptism. God the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, alighted on Him, the Fruitful Branch from Jesse’s stump. Indeed the Spirit has enlightened you, by water and Word in your Baptism into Christ. On Mount Calvary His riven side was opened to you to release life, life for a world once dead in sin. He is the Sign of the eternal covenant between you and the Father.
Christ is the Prophet like Moses. He has delivered you from bondage to sin and the tyranny of the devil, your wicked pharaoh. Not by the blood of a lamb, but by His own precious Blood. He is the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You eat His flesh, the flesh of the Lamb of God. His Blood stains the wood of the Cross and you enter through it into the Promised Land. He is your Pillar of Cloud and the Angel of the Lord, and He has gone between you and your enemies. He has parted the waters of Holy Baptism and leads you through to safety, and all Pharaoh’s chariots are rusting at the bottom of the font.
Our Lord breathed life into the dry bones and gave them flesh. So too did He take on flesh and breath the life-breathing breathe of His Holy Spirit on the apostles in the upper room, forgiving all their sins. He continues to breath His Spirit upon you in His Holy Absolution, which raises you from you graves, and gives you the very life of Christ, who was clean-cut off from the land of the living, yet behold He is risen!
Christ was with the three men in the furnace. He is the Servant of the Most High God; indeed He is God in the flesh! And He suffered the furnace of the Father’s wrath for you; that you might pass through the fiery trials unscathed. To Him alone you yield up your body in service and worship, for He yielded up His for you upon the Cross, only take it up His life again.
And do not forget the first reading, the origin of all things by the very Word of God; the Word who was with God in the beginning, the Word who is God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. It is in and by and through Christ that man and woman were made in the image and likeness of God! And by His good work upon the Cross, you are recreated in His image and likeness.
In the beginning St John placed us within Eden and the work of creation. Now, at the end of his Gospel, he again puts us in a garden, the day after the Sabbath, whence God rested from His work. Consider: God completed the work of His creation on the sixth day, having formed man in His image, and He rested on the seventh. So too Christ, the GodMan, the second Adam, finishes the work of man’s redemption, his recreation, on the sixth day, Good Friday, and rests on this, the seventh day.
The Sabbath is nearly over, darkness covers the earth, but the Sun of righteousness has risen on this the first day, which is the eighth day, that is, the day of the new creation, the eternal day. And He comes, walking in the garden, to the woman. He calls her by name, as Adam had named Eve, so too our heavenly Bridegroom calls His Bride. No – Mary of Magdala is not the bride of Christ in the Da Vinci code, secularist sense. But she portrays the Church, the holy Bride of Christ, whom He calls in tender voice, His Body. In faith we cling to Him, our crucified and risen Lord.
Beloved, your Head, your Christ, is risen from the dead! The grave is empty, the fiery sword of the cherubim have been quenched by His Blood. Paradise is restored. The way to the Tree of Life, His very Cross is opened to you. Christ the Seed of the woman has put enmity between you and the serpent. You are at peace with God. Your sins are forgiven. Your guilt atoned for.
He has said and continues to say these things to you in the Word of His Cross, proclaimed for your forgiveness, life, and salvation. Behold, you have seen Him and indeed cling to Him, even as He comes to you in His Body and Blood this night and clings to you in body and soul. By these He shall strengthen and preserve you in the true and saving faith unto life everlasting.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
There is a beauty and elegance to the Gospel according to St John. He draws together the many Messianic currents running throughout the Old Testament into one deep well, brimming with the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Giver of Life.
Tonight, this blessed Easter Eve, when Christians for centuries past kept the vigil with psalms and prayer and the Holy Eucharist, let us draw from this living water and drink deeply of the joy of our Lord’s resurrection. The tributaries guiding us to this great fount of righteousness are the Old Testament lessons. Consider the readings:
Our Lord delivered Noah and his family from the deluge through the safety of the Ark. Noah sends out a dove in search of new life for a world plunged into death; it returns with an olive branch. On Mount Ararat the Ark rests and is opened to release life into a world deadened by water. Christ is the Ark that safely ferries you through the flood of Holy Baptism. God the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, alighted on Him, the Fruitful Branch from Jesse’s stump. Indeed the Spirit has enlightened you, by water and Word in your Baptism into Christ. On Mount Calvary His riven side was opened to you to release life, life for a world once dead in sin. He is the Sign of the eternal covenant between you and the Father.
Christ is the Prophet like Moses. He has delivered you from bondage to sin and the tyranny of the devil, your wicked pharaoh. Not by the blood of a lamb, but by His own precious Blood. He is the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You eat His flesh, the flesh of the Lamb of God. His Blood stains the wood of the Cross and you enter through it into the Promised Land. He is your Pillar of Cloud and the Angel of the Lord, and He has gone between you and your enemies. He has parted the waters of Holy Baptism and leads you through to safety, and all Pharaoh’s chariots are rusting at the bottom of the font.
Our Lord breathed life into the dry bones and gave them flesh. So too did He take on flesh and breath the life-breathing breathe of His Holy Spirit on the apostles in the upper room, forgiving all their sins. He continues to breath His Spirit upon you in His Holy Absolution, which raises you from you graves, and gives you the very life of Christ, who was clean-cut off from the land of the living, yet behold He is risen!
Christ was with the three men in the furnace. He is the Servant of the Most High God; indeed He is God in the flesh! And He suffered the furnace of the Father’s wrath for you; that you might pass through the fiery trials unscathed. To Him alone you yield up your body in service and worship, for He yielded up His for you upon the Cross, only take it up His life again.
And do not forget the first reading, the origin of all things by the very Word of God; the Word who was with God in the beginning, the Word who is God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. It is in and by and through Christ that man and woman were made in the image and likeness of God! And by His good work upon the Cross, you are recreated in His image and likeness.
In the beginning St John placed us within Eden and the work of creation. Now, at the end of his Gospel, he again puts us in a garden, the day after the Sabbath, whence God rested from His work. Consider: God completed the work of His creation on the sixth day, having formed man in His image, and He rested on the seventh. So too Christ, the GodMan, the second Adam, finishes the work of man’s redemption, his recreation, on the sixth day, Good Friday, and rests on this, the seventh day.
The Sabbath is nearly over, darkness covers the earth, but the Sun of righteousness has risen on this the first day, which is the eighth day, that is, the day of the new creation, the eternal day. And He comes, walking in the garden, to the woman. He calls her by name, as Adam had named Eve, so too our heavenly Bridegroom calls His Bride. No – Mary of Magdala is not the bride of Christ in the Da Vinci code, secularist sense. But she portrays the Church, the holy Bride of Christ, whom He calls in tender voice, His Body. In faith we cling to Him, our crucified and risen Lord.
Beloved, your Head, your Christ, is risen from the dead! The grave is empty, the fiery sword of the cherubim have been quenched by His Blood. Paradise is restored. The way to the Tree of Life, His very Cross is opened to you. Christ the Seed of the woman has put enmity between you and the serpent. You are at peace with God. Your sins are forgiven. Your guilt atoned for.
He has said and continues to say these things to you in the Word of His Cross, proclaimed for your forgiveness, life, and salvation. Behold, you have seen Him and indeed cling to Him, even as He comes to you in His Body and Blood this night and clings to you in body and soul. By these He shall strengthen and preserve you in the true and saving faith unto life everlasting.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
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