St Mark 16:1-8/1 Corinthians 15:51-57/Job 19:23-27
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
O death, where is your victory?
You swallowed up the Son of God. You took His lifeless body into your jaws. You captured God in the flesh. You brought the Creator so low that you stopped His breath, broke His heart, cut Him off from the light and land of the living. You exacted a terrible price, the price of all the sins of all men, of the Law’s full measure, you took your pound of flesh and more from the sinless and perfect Son of God.
Is that your victory?
No. It is not. For the angel has rolled away the stone and shown the world that the Lord has escaped. You strength has departed. You could not hold Him, nor could the guards guard Him. It was as though they were dead. It is as though you are dead, for Jesus lives again, out of the grave, back from the dead, raised alive and in the and of the living, giving His own life.
Where is your victory, O grave? Show me. Where is your sting? What has happened to your power? Have you so soon forgotten how you made us tremble at you? Don’t you come, with cold hands and claim to be the common lot of men? Don’t you tell us that we all must toil in this thorny place and then submit to you? Have you not claimed to be our true master? That you will take us when you want, even as you will and do take those we love? Don’t you claim that you make our bodies fail, grow weak and old and contract disease? That you make this living death a pure misery of pain, dying and loneliness, even while you strive to take our dignity?
But we laugh with derision. We mock you. You, O grave, are dead. Death you are empty. You have no claim on us! Jesus lives! You have not victory, no sting! Jesus Christ is risen out of you and back to us. He has come out as a King to meet His people, as father racing toward His prodigal sons, prodigal no more, eager to take us back into the family.
The Lord has burst your walls from within, like new wine in an old wine skin. And now you, O death, who could not holy Him, you cannot hold us. On the last day the dead will rise; everyone out of the grave, alive. We shall meet the rising Sun. No one, not one will stay in the grave. You, O death, have lost.
They will be divided. For there is a distinction to be made between the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the chaff, the believers and the unbelievers. Just as there is a distinction to be made between God and Satan. For this living, risen God is not like you. He claims no dominion by power, though it is rightly His. He will not force Himself. He will not steal. He does not demand.
Those who do not want Him, who choose to remain in darkness, who turn back to the grave from whence they were called, to persist in impenitence and make for themselves their own way with their own laws and their own god – a god who just want to be “happy” and understands and rejects those old, moralistic attitudes of the Hebrews – they can have what they want: they can go to hell. They will be raised only to be returned, to go with what is just, with what they have earned.
But to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, the good and the bad, whether honored or despised by men, whether rich of poor, whether full of virtue or scandal, to everyone who believes in Christ Jesus, eternal life and a place in the kingdom will be given – for free, as new wine in a new skin.
They will come out of the grave in their bodies. The Lord will bestow on them that which they did not earn and do not deserve, but which has been won for them by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, by His perfect life, by His immeasurable grace. Strangely the last will be first, the sinners will be saints. They will go with their God, with Jesus, into heaven to enjoy the reunion of the ages.
But you, O grave, you will not get any of them, not even the goats. For you are undone and have no victory. Your wages have been paid. You are done, finished, perfected, and complete, once and for all. There is no more to ask, no more to pay. Your accusations against us have all been stripped away, nailed to the cross with the pledge, “King of the Jews.” And by grace, we are sons of Abraham, circumcised in the heart, we live by faith and are reckoned righteous by grace, who share in the hope and expectation of Job, whose king is not you, but is Jesus Christ crucified and risen.
All men have been reconciled to the Father in the death of Jesus Christ. No one who believes in Him, even if he sleep, will ever die. Jesus has risen for our justification. He has declared us righteous and holy and welcomes us to Himself in the Holy Communion. You can scowl, threaten, and attack. But you have lost. You are defeated. You have come to an end. Jesus lives!
So we will bury our dead, O grave, only to mock you, not because they are dead, but because they live, because they are with Jesus, and their bodies sleep while they wait for the resurrection to come. We bury our dead because they have been sanctified and sealed for the resurrection through the risen body and blood of Jesus poured out on them. They go into you, O grave, only that they might follow Jesus out and defeat you.
You think that is victory? It is utter defeat. But you get no pity, bitter tyrant, from us, for Jesus lives! He is our King, not you.
So I ask again, Where, O grave, where is your victory> Where is your sting? They are gone. Jesus lives. And Jesus, alive out of the grave, is here for us – living, risen, in His holy body and precious blood, the seal of the new life, the forgiveness of sins, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, given to use to eat and to drink that we would never die and never suffer your lying tyranny.
This is our victory. And these are our words. Oh, they are written, inscribed with the Blood of the Lamb in His Book of Life; engraved upon He who is our Rock and our Redeemer. Do not be afraid, your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ lives!
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!) Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
O death, where is your victory?
You swallowed up the Son of God. You took His lifeless body into your jaws. You captured God in the flesh. You brought the Creator so low that you stopped His breath, broke His heart, cut Him off from the light and land of the living. You exacted a terrible price, the price of all the sins of all men, of the Law’s full measure, you took your pound of flesh and more from the sinless and perfect Son of God.
Is that your victory?
No. It is not. For the angel has rolled away the stone and shown the world that the Lord has escaped. You strength has departed. You could not hold Him, nor could the guards guard Him. It was as though they were dead. It is as though you are dead, for Jesus lives again, out of the grave, back from the dead, raised alive and in the and of the living, giving His own life.
Where is your victory, O grave? Show me. Where is your sting? What has happened to your power? Have you so soon forgotten how you made us tremble at you? Don’t you come, with cold hands and claim to be the common lot of men? Don’t you tell us that we all must toil in this thorny place and then submit to you? Have you not claimed to be our true master? That you will take us when you want, even as you will and do take those we love? Don’t you claim that you make our bodies fail, grow weak and old and contract disease? That you make this living death a pure misery of pain, dying and loneliness, even while you strive to take our dignity?
But we laugh with derision. We mock you. You, O grave, are dead. Death you are empty. You have no claim on us! Jesus lives! You have not victory, no sting! Jesus Christ is risen out of you and back to us. He has come out as a King to meet His people, as father racing toward His prodigal sons, prodigal no more, eager to take us back into the family.
The Lord has burst your walls from within, like new wine in an old wine skin. And now you, O death, who could not holy Him, you cannot hold us. On the last day the dead will rise; everyone out of the grave, alive. We shall meet the rising Sun. No one, not one will stay in the grave. You, O death, have lost.
They will be divided. For there is a distinction to be made between the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the chaff, the believers and the unbelievers. Just as there is a distinction to be made between God and Satan. For this living, risen God is not like you. He claims no dominion by power, though it is rightly His. He will not force Himself. He will not steal. He does not demand.
Those who do not want Him, who choose to remain in darkness, who turn back to the grave from whence they were called, to persist in impenitence and make for themselves their own way with their own laws and their own god – a god who just want to be “happy” and understands and rejects those old, moralistic attitudes of the Hebrews – they can have what they want: they can go to hell. They will be raised only to be returned, to go with what is just, with what they have earned.
But to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, the good and the bad, whether honored or despised by men, whether rich of poor, whether full of virtue or scandal, to everyone who believes in Christ Jesus, eternal life and a place in the kingdom will be given – for free, as new wine in a new skin.
They will come out of the grave in their bodies. The Lord will bestow on them that which they did not earn and do not deserve, but which has been won for them by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, by His perfect life, by His immeasurable grace. Strangely the last will be first, the sinners will be saints. They will go with their God, with Jesus, into heaven to enjoy the reunion of the ages.
But you, O grave, you will not get any of them, not even the goats. For you are undone and have no victory. Your wages have been paid. You are done, finished, perfected, and complete, once and for all. There is no more to ask, no more to pay. Your accusations against us have all been stripped away, nailed to the cross with the pledge, “King of the Jews.” And by grace, we are sons of Abraham, circumcised in the heart, we live by faith and are reckoned righteous by grace, who share in the hope and expectation of Job, whose king is not you, but is Jesus Christ crucified and risen.
All men have been reconciled to the Father in the death of Jesus Christ. No one who believes in Him, even if he sleep, will ever die. Jesus has risen for our justification. He has declared us righteous and holy and welcomes us to Himself in the Holy Communion. You can scowl, threaten, and attack. But you have lost. You are defeated. You have come to an end. Jesus lives!
So we will bury our dead, O grave, only to mock you, not because they are dead, but because they live, because they are with Jesus, and their bodies sleep while they wait for the resurrection to come. We bury our dead because they have been sanctified and sealed for the resurrection through the risen body and blood of Jesus poured out on them. They go into you, O grave, only that they might follow Jesus out and defeat you.
You think that is victory? It is utter defeat. But you get no pity, bitter tyrant, from us, for Jesus lives! He is our King, not you.
So I ask again, Where, O grave, where is your victory> Where is your sting? They are gone. Jesus lives. And Jesus, alive out of the grave, is here for us – living, risen, in His holy body and precious blood, the seal of the new life, the forgiveness of sins, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, given to use to eat and to drink that we would never die and never suffer your lying tyranny.
This is our victory. And these are our words. Oh, they are written, inscribed with the Blood of the Lamb in His Book of Life; engraved upon He who is our Rock and our Redeemer. Do not be afraid, your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ lives!
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!) Amen.
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