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“And when the Sabbath was over”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“And when the Sabbath was over”—life began anew, as it had never been known before.
Over thirty years ago, I recall working in my study at church and I would hear Teacher Uffelman practicing the organ. It was uplifting. This week that memory was brought to mind as I worked on the Easter sermon, as Diane practiced for this morning. With each tune, the message of Easter became alive: “… with triumphant gladness”; “The victory remained with life, the reign of death was ended”; “He lives triumphant from the grave, … to silence all my fears … He lives and I shall conquer death”; finally she came to our last hymn—which could as easily be our first: “Jesus Christ is Risen today—Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia.” Thank you, Diane. We appreciate your efforts for today.
“And when the Sabbath was over” OUR TRIUMPHANT HOLY DAY BEGAN!
With Jesus “triumphant from the grave,” “with triumphant gladness,” we celebrate “our triumphant holy day.” But as Mark records, only “when the Sabbath was over.”
Why was the Sabbath such an important day? As we all know it was the day God rested after creating the world. But in this holiest of all weeks ever, the Sabbath had an essential purpose that could not be overlooked. Yes, it was a time of rest from the greatest and most difficult work ever done, bearing the assaults of the powers of darkness and the torture of man, carrying our sin; REST from what we learned on Good Friday was most importantly the enduring of God’s wrath against all ungodliness of men. Jesus’ rest declared that He had completed the task of making sufficient payment for the sins of the world and that He had accomplished the goal of quieting God’s wrath against mankind. There was once again peace between heaven and earth, God and man.
And yet the most important aspect of the Sabbath, I would argue, and the reason it is so significant, and indeed, the ultimate reason for its existence, is that it was the time of death for Jesus’ body. I want you to consider something for just a moment: Had Jesus breathed His last, and after His side was pierced showing He was dead, and THEN immediately had Jesus come down from the cross alive, the way He came out of the tomb, this would have raised the eternal question of whether Jesus was ever in fact dead.
“And when the Sabbath was over” declares that Jesus was truly dead and buried, having been handled by Joseph and Nicodemus, and their servants. He was wrapped in linen as the dead are, and sealed away in a tomb. There is no room for doubts or suspicion. Jesus did not suffer a near death experience. He died. The Sabbath rest bears testimony to that. Jesus hung dead on the cross for a couple hours. He then was taken down just before the end of Friday at 6:00 pm and was quickly placed in the tomb with preliminary care. He was touched and handled and carried. His body was packed with spices and then carefully and reverently wrapped. Ample opportunity was given for those laying His body to rest to know beyond all speculation that Jesus was dead. He did not just pass out. He was not faking. He had been nailed to a tree until He breathed His last. His blood was spilt. The soldiers knew it, the centurion and Jewish guard, so that Pilate was fully satisfied. His tomb was sealed.
Then there His body lay for the Sabbath. “And when the Sabbath was over,” Jesus arose from the dead—not from a deep sleep, or from a hypnotic state, but from death. “Christ Jesus is risen! Alleluia!” [He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!]
The women wondered who would roll away the stone. No doubt, they felt and heard the earthquake that happened on the way (reported in Matthew’s Gospel), but until they arrived they did not know what the angel had done in rolling away the stone. They did not know that no one came out of the tomb, that the tomb was empty, but the soldiers knew. The angel told the women, “Don’t be amazed; you’re looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the crucified. He has risen. He is not here.” What the angel knew, what all the souls in hell were already aware of and what heaven knew: Death is swallowed up. Death, hell and Satan are conquered. Man’s sin is covered.
This is what Jesus has done. In Christ’s atoning death, the judgment of God on us is fully executed.
For Jesus is not simply risen, the message is not just that Jesus has been raised, HE HAS BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD. That is what makes this day our triumphant day. The defeat which all people lived under and faced daily, the end of our lives and an eternal death, is undone. Because of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, death and the grave have lost their sting.
When we Christians say that God raised Jesus from the dead, we do not say that it was simply an event in the history of the world. We insist that it was the one event that encompassed all of the world's history in itself. Jesus was not one man among many, but He was the One in whom God was constituting for Himself an entirely new race of men. In the resurrection of Jesus, God has in fact re-created the entire world. He has made a new heaven and a new earth in which there is no death, no sin, and no sorrow, and never will be. It is the new Jerusalem. It is home for us Christians.
Jesus' resurrection has not only affected us inwardly—creating faith—but also outside our bodies and souls by creating a place for us in heaven. We are children of heaven. Strangers here, heaven is our home.
Death is like the Emperor Nero long ago. Living in lust and wickedness, he removed all enemies by poison or dagger. His slogan bore an abundant harvest, “People may hate me, if only they fear me.” While Nero lived in luxury, a poor prisoner in one of the many dungeons of ancient Rome lacked the bare necessities of life. He wrote to Timothy, “Bring with you the cloak which I left at Troas.” As the end of Paul's life on earth drew near, he wrote, “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Death shouts in anger, but the Church drowns its shouts with triumphant “Alleluias.” For through faith in Jesus we have victory over death, “for nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus is the Life, and that Life, which is ours, which we live, is a life of selflessness and compassion, of kindness and consideration, looking upon one another not lustily, but with wholesome hearts, and “living eyes” which are ever concerned with the goodness of the other. Walk in your triumphant day. Reject the way of death and darkness.
By the way, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, from the grave sealed the destruction of the Jewish temple, never ever to be of significance again. For Jesus is the true Temple and He makes this house of worship, Trinity Lutheran Church, a house of the Resurrection. For this is where Jesus comes. Jesus joins us in this house of the Resurrection.
Easter is unlike any other event and celebration in all the world until the end of time: the washing of regeneration in Baptism and the Real Presence of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Holy Supper, with their free flow of the forgiveness of sins are here. For the world it is brief hours of a single day, no recognition of its meaning. For Christians it is a weekly celebration and a daily walk. Charles Porterfield Krauth has written about how the Lord’s Supper relates to the Holy Trinity, Jesus’ coming in the flesh and His saving work. He simplifies it as he describes our Risen Savior:
Christ is the Centre of the system, and in the Supper is the centre of Christ’s revelation of Himself. The glory and mystery of the incarnation combine there as they combine nowhere else. Communion with Christ is that by which we live, and the Supper is “the Communion.”
Indeed, “when the Sabbath was over” Jesus would eat with His disciples again. Peter states that He did. [Acts 10:41] Here we will continue to commune with Jesus in His coming, until our Deliverer comes once more. SDG
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