Easter Sunday—The Fact That Changes Everything
Transcribed by TurboScribe.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now, if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how is it that some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is pointless, and your faith is pointless too.
There's this short story by a writer named Flannery O'Connor called A Good Man is Hard to Find. I don't remember why I read this to my sons for the first time, but we were camping out in our backyard and they wanted me to tell like camping scary stories. And I didn't have any on my Kindle except for these short stories from Flannery O'Connor.
And I said, well, I'll read you this one, but it's not exactly a scary story. It's unsettling. And when I finished reading the story, Andy said, wow, dad, you're right.
That was unsettling. And so it became this tradition when we're on our own camp out, not when we're with a Trail Life troop, because I let my boys watch, you know, Lord of the Rings with the heads chopping off and stuff like that. But some of the kids at Trail Life, it's too much.
So I read it to them when we're camping, just us. But there's this every time I read it, this short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, something there new sticks out to me, something I didn't notice the first time I read it, which is a sign of a really good short story. But there's this one enduring part that stuck with me since the first time I ever read the short story, and it's from this the bad guy in the story named the Misfit, who gives basically what I think is a very accurate commentary of a worldly unbeliever when it comes to the verses of 1 Corinthians 15 that I just read to you, that if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is pointless and your faith is pointless too.
A Good Man is Hard to Find is about a mom, a dad, some children and their grandmother who can't stop talking and gets them in all sorts of trouble going on a trip. And they get lost because of the grandmother. They crash because the grandmother brought her cat and had hidden it in a purse and it jumped out and they flipped down this hill and eventually they end up being robbed and killed by this escaped convict named the Misfit.
That they had talked about earlier in the story when they were stopped at this gas station, he had escaped from prison and was out and about and they had a description of him. As the father is working on the vehicle that wrecked the Misfit, and you don't know yet that it's the Misfit, but you kind of have a feeling it is, the Misfit and his men pull up. It quickly becomes clear that he's not interested in helping the family.
And to make matters worse, the grandmother, who again, I told you already could not keep her mouth shut, announces with excitement, I know who you are. You're the Misfit. I recognized you from the very beginning.
And then the Misfit said, yes, I'm smiling slightly as if he were pleased in spite of himself to be known. But it would have been better for all you lady, if you hadn't recognized me. The grandmother consistently did this sort of thing, like I said.
From this point on, the family's fate is sealed. The grandmother continues to run her mouth, pleading with the Misfit saying, I know you're a good man. You come from good blood.
You must come from nice people. As the Misfit tells his men to take the father and the children and eventually the mom and her baby away, the grandmother continues to plead. You could be honest if you only try.
Think how wonderful it would be to settle down and live a comfortable life and not have to think about somebody chasing you all the time. At this point, the Misfit scratches his head and he's rubbing the butt of his gun in the dirt and he's thinking about what she's saying. And he says, yes, somebody is always after you.
At this point in the story, the grandmother asks him if he ever prayed and starts begging him to pray. She never in the story actually prays herself. But she says, if you would pray, the old lady said, Jesus would help you.
That's right. The Misfit said, well, then why don't you pray? She asked, trembling with delight. Suddenly, I don't want no help.
He said, I'm doing all right by myself. At this point, all the other members of the family have been taken away. It's just the grandmother and the Misfit.
The henchmen have taken everyone else away and she is despairing. The grandmother at this point found that she had lost her voice. Finally, there was not a cloud in the sky nor any sun.
There was nothing around her but woods. She wanted to tell him that he must pray. She opened and closed her mouth several times before anything came out.
Finally, she found herself saying, Jesus, Jesus, meaning Jesus will help you. But the way she was saying it, it sounded as if she might be cursing. Yes, the Misfit said as if he agreed.
Jesus thrown everything off balance. It was the same case with him as with me, except he hadn't committed any crime and they could prove I had committed one because they had the papers on me, he said. After hearing a scream and gunshot off in the distance, the old lady cried, Jesus, you've got good blood.
I know you wouldn't shoot a lady. I know you come from nice people. Pray, Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady.
I'll give you all the money I've got. Lady, the Misfit said, looking beyond her far into the woods, there never was a body that give the undertaker a tip. Jesus was the only one that ever raised the dead.
The Misfit continued, and he shouldn't have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If he did what he said, then it's nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow him.
And if he didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure, but meanness, he said, and his voice had almost become a snarl. Maybe he didn't raise the dead, the old lady murmured, not knowing what she was saying and feeling so dizzy that she sank down in the ditch with her legs twisted under her.
I wasn't there, so I can't say he didn't, the Misfit said. I wished I had been there, he said, hitting the ground with his fist. It ain't right I wasn't there because if I had have been there, I would have known.
Listen, lady, he said in a high voice. If I had have been there, I would have known, and I wouldn't be like I am now. His voice seemed about to crack, and the grandmother's head cleared for an instant.
She saw the man's face twisted close to her own as if she were going to cry, and she murmured, why, you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children. She reached out and touched him on the shoulder, and the Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him, and he shot her three times.
When his men finally came back, he ordered them to take her away, too, and one of them said to the Misfit, she was a talker, wasn't she, sliding down the ditch with a yodel. She would have been a good woman, the Misfit said, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life. Some fun, said the other man, and the Misfit replied, shut up.
It's no pleasure in life. The Misfit is right, not to murder people, but he's right about Jesus. If Jesus didn't really raise the dead, if what he said and did isn't true, if he didn't really rise from the dead, then you might as well do whatever you please in this life.
Maybe you don't want to murder people and burn people's houses down, but you might as well get whatever you can out of this life that brings you pleasure while you have a chance, because it means absolutely nothing. You certainly don't need to be in church on Easter morning, but, and I've seen it on Facebook, people looking for a church but I like church people, they're nice. And so like, is there a place I can go where people don't care that I believe or not? I've seen Facebook posts like that.
So maybe you're like that, hopefully not. If you are, because you enjoy the social side of churches, then you don't need to care whether that church teaches what the Bible teaches or not. It doesn't matter if the church you attend and the preacher you listen to teaches that baptism truly washes away sins by the power of Jesus' death and resurrection.
It doesn't matter if that church teaches or the pastor preaches that the Lord's supper is actually Jesus' body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. That don't matter. If it ain't true, it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter if the music that the church sings actually teaches you God's word and points you to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have done, continue to do, and will do for you and your salvation. It doesn't matter what the church teaches at all, if Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, and if what he said isn't true. If Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, and you still happen to want to hang out with church people for fun, then you just need to find a church you like, a church where they say things that sound nice, where the people are nice, people that you like that aren't breaking on your nerves or abrasive or aggravating, a place where the pastor seems nice and doesn't bore you or doesn't say things that make you uncomfortable, like telling you this dark short story on Easter morning, a place where there are people close to your age or in a similar stage of life as you that got kids or they don't got kids, they're working or they're retired, so you have a good nice social group you can go out for a ladies' night or a guys' night with, a place where you like the musical style and the general vibe.
If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, the last thing you need to be worried about is whether that church preaches, teaches, believes and sings and lives according to the true doctrine laid out in the Bible. It don't matter. If Jesus really didn't rise from the dead, then the whole Bible is worthless.
It don't matter if you go to church. It don't matter if you read the Bible or pray. It don't matter if your kids memorize Bible verses or the small catechism or hymn stanzas.
It don't matter if your kids get confirmed or you get confirmed or they receive first communion. If Jesus really didn't rise from the dead, then it doesn't matter if your kids skip Sunday divine service or you skip it or you skip Sunday catechesis or youth catechesis. If you need to get your house in order before the work week starts, then go ahead.
It doesn't matter. If you think it's more important for your kids to have perfect attendance in sports than it is that for them to have perfect attendance at divine service and other times we offer catechesis at St. Thomas, then you do you. If Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, if he really didn't rise from the dead, then you may as well order your life around how much money, success and pleasure you can squeeze out of this orange before you breathe your last breath.
What are you waiting for? Be honest. If you don't really believe that Jesus rose from the dead, then just say so. Say you hate Jesus and that you don't believe a thing he said.
It'd save you a lot of trouble for me, your family and other Christians around you that poke and prod at you, telling you you ought to get the church more or make you feel bad when you don't show up to things that a Christian ought to show up for themselves and their own edification as well as their spouses and their children if they have them. If you don't want the guilt trip but you don't want to show up, then be honest. Say you don't believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
Say he is a lunatic or a liar like David Koresh out in Waco, Texas or Joseph Smith out in Utah. Well, he didn't make it there. He got killed first.
But curse Christ and move on with your life because whether you like it or not, indifference and hatred are the same to Jesus. You are either with him or you are against him. And having no opinion on the matter concerning Christ and his word is the same as striking against Christ, spitting on him and casting him and his word aside.
It is the same whether you're silent in indifference or you're honest and say it out loud that you don't care. Like the misfit said, if Jesus didn't do all the stuff the Bible said he did, then it's nothing for you to do. But enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him.
No pleasure, but meanness. Live for yourself while you've still got time. If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is pointless and your faith is pointless, too.
Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. I think for most, if not all of us here, I'm sure it's all we don't hate Jesus. That's not our problem.
It's not that we hate Jesus, but we're afraid to admit it. So we're going to go through the motions because we don't want to hurt nobody's feelings. I doubt that's true for any of us here.
For us Christians, I think, though, that in the busyness and toil of our day to day life and our schedules and our family schedules and the fake arbitrary pressure that the world puts on us day to day about what they tell us is important. I think in all of that rigmarole, we too easily forget that we will die. We too easily forget that Jesus died for our sins, according to the scriptures and was buried according to the scriptures.
We too easily forget that we will die and then comes the judgment and that God the Father proved that Jesus would judge the living and the dead by raising the God-man Jesus, his son from the dead. We can easily forget all that. Like the misfit said of the grandmother, we'd all be good people if it had been somebody there to shoot us every minute of our life.
If we had it before our eyes, and we should, that every moment could be our last. How different you think your life would be as a believing Christian. We'd all act differently if we had before us each moment of our life, the certainty of Christ's death and resurrection, the certainty of our own death and our own resurrection, and the certainty that we will stand before the crucified and risen Lord Jesus on the last day to be judged with all the living and the dead.
So do not forget. We must remember the resurrection of our Lord. Do not forget like those first witnesses who said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.
How could they be afraid of anything or anyone in this world knowing that Christ has risen from the dead? How could they fear anyone or anything in this world that can only destroy your body, that can only hurt you as far as you're alive, but cannot destroy the soul? How could they, knowing Jesus has risen from the dead, forget and be afraid of what can only destroy the body and not fear more the crucified and risen Lord who can destroy both body and soul in hell? If Christ is really raised from the dead, if God the Father really did prove that Jesus would come again to judge the living and the dead by raising him from the dead, then there isn't a single thing in your life that is more important than that. There are no exceptions. That is true.
It touches every part of our life, no matter what. It's not just the most important thing, me saying it up here, because I happen to have it as a hobby every day. If Jesus really rose from the dead, it is the most important fact of your life.
If Jesus really rose from the dead, then there really is a resurrection from the dead and a judgment. That means that hearing him in the preaching and teaching, every chance we get and receiving him in holy baptism, absolution and the holy supper of his body and blood are more important than every other thing in your life. If Christ is risen from the dead, then when he speaks, whenever he speaks in preaching and nourishes us in the sacraments, it is more important than our mental health, our personal comfort, musical taste or like or dislike of people's personality quirks.
If Jesus really rose from the dead on the third day, according to the scriptures, then being with him, hearing him and receiving him in the divine service, catechesis, midweek preaching and instruction, that is more important. If you really did rise from the dead, more important than your work, more important than your house being put together, more important than your children's academic or athletic success, more important than the presence or lack of friends at those gatherings or anything else in this fallen world. I think when I say it out loud, y'all agree, but how often me and each one of us act like we don't believe that, that we'll pick something else over that, that we will think it's more important to show up on time for work than to pray or that we really got to miss this thing because some other person in our house can't miss this other thing that has nothing to do with church.
It's easy, but do not forget because you do have somebody to shoot you every day of your life because you could die today. Each one of us could, if he really is alive and coming again in glory to gather his elect from the four corners of the world, then abiding in Jesus by finding and joining or continuing in the life of a church that teaches not what you want to hear, not what your ears that are itching want to have, scratch them, but teaches the truth according to God's pure word. Finding that and continuing in it is more important than any human relationship, be it family, friend, fiance, or significant other period.
If he did what he said, then it's nothing for you to do, but throw away everything and follow him. And if he didn't, then it's nothing for you to do, but enjoy the few minutes you've got left the best way you can, but know and be convinced and believe in the heart that hallelujah, Christ has risen. He took away every sin.
He has swallowed up all sins and all death forever. He has devoured them in his own death and his own rising from the dead. Every cause for your fear in this life, fear of judgment and wrath for your sin, fear of death, fear of failure, fear of losing friends and family, fear of missing out, fear of losing your job or social standing, fear of losing goods, fame, child, and wife, or any other person, place, or thing, any other person, place, or thing for his sake.
He has taken away fear of any of that losing out on anything in this life. He's taken it away. Every cause for fear in this life has been taken away in our Lord Jesus death for you and his rising from the dead for you, all of it.
There is no reason to be afraid. You're not missing out on anything in this world. It all is going to go up in flames.
It all is. You brought nothing into this world and it is certain that you can't take anything out of it. Hallelujah.
Christ is risen. You have no reason to walk away this day as the women at Jesus tomb. After hearing the announcement that your Lord has risen from the dead to go on in this life, living as if you're in fear of the people and circumstances and present and the present life, as if you hope in this life only.
And if you're risen Lord, whose every last word is the absolute truth tells you, and he does tell you this next thing. It's absolutely true. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it.
And he who loses his life for my sake will find it. And your Lord who died to take away all your sins and rose from the dead to give you a resurrection like his and everlasting life. This crucified and risen Lord makes this promise to you, which he will never break.
Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels who shall not receive a hundred fold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. Hallelujah. Christ has risen.
He really is the men who forsook him and abandoned him in fear when he was put to death. Really saw him risen from the dead, not a ghost. They ate with the God man.
They touched him and handled him. And they stood up on that Mount and they watched his body ascend to the right hand of the father. And they were so convinced of this.
Those men who went away for fear that when they received the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to them on Pentecost, they went out and they preached to the same rulers that murdered Jesus. And when those same rulers threatened to murder them too, that Peter who denied the Lord three times before he rose from the dead said, we must obey God rather than men. And when he left after getting the brakes beat off of him and he went and prayed with the rest of the believers, he didn't pray, Lord Jesus, help us in this time of persecution.
Keep us safe so we can sit here and have our nice little social gathering at this church. It's real nice. And we get to have donuts and stuff.
Keep us safe. He said, Lord Jesus, give us boldness to proclaim your name all the more boldly. And when he was nailed upside down on a tree because he did not believe he was more as worthy of crucifixion as his Lord Jesus, that Lord, that Lord that saved St. Peter, that looked at him when he denied him three times, that same Lord Jesus was with him in his last dying breath.
And Peter went to his death boldly knowing his Lord had really risen from the dead and that he was going to see him face to face and that nothing in this world could take that away from him and nothing in this world can take that away from you. Your Lord is risen from the dead. He is alive and lives and reigns to all eternity.
And he is feeding you right now. And the words that I'm speaking into your ears, and he's going to feed very many of you this day, his very body and blood so that you can know he will raise you from the dead and you will have eternal life. Hallelujah.
Christ is risen. So it's nothing for you to do, but throw away everything and follow him.
Let us pray. Lord Jesus, that which failed your erring disciples is lacking in us as well for our flesh and blood often go astray and hinder the thoughts of faith. We so often forget what it means that you truly rose from the dead and are coming again in glory to judge all mankind. Therefore, come dear Lord, be our companion on the dangerous paths of this life and protect us from error, unbelief and despair. Chasten us through your holy word and speak to us earnestly through the mouth and ministry of all true teachers sent by you that we may recognize the folly and slowness of our hearts, that we cling to you and your word for eternal wisdom, and that we allow ourselves to be reared, comforted and edified through the same onto your praise and adoration for you live and reign with the father and the holy spirit, one true God now and forever. Amen.
Transcribed by TurboScribe.
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