Mark 16:1-8; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; Job
19:23-27
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“Why do you
seek the living amongst the dead?” the women were asked. And, so are you asked.
What are the daily pursuits and goals that you strive and toil to achieve, and
worry and fret over with anxious hearts that you will not achieve, or that you will
lose? Do you not seek the living amongst the dead, too? That is to say, do you
not seek life, and comfort, and security in fleshly and worldly things – in a
career, a marriage, a home, a family; in your children’s careers, marriages,
homes, and families; in your health, in your health insurance, and in a well endowed
and diversified IRA? Do you not think, at times, that these constitute life and
make life worth living? Do you not seek the praise, admiration, and envy of
men, and appraise your worth and value by the estimation and admiration of
others? These things do not give life. They cannot extend or preserve life. In
fact, they are lifeless, dead, or dying. Careers are ruined by old age, or by skills
becoming obsolete. Marriages are temporary and transient, dying for loss of
love and life. Homes need continual repair and lose their initial appeal and
value. Families drift apart and hurt each other and separate. Money can’t buy
happiness, and it cannot extend life. All things decay, die, and are dying.
Truly, you can’t take it with you. The decline of your own body and life is
living, and dying, proof of that. Why do you seek life and living amongst such
dead things as these?
The women
weren’t looking for life either. They weren’t looking for the resurrection. The
thought never crossed their minds. They came to the tomb looking for the dead.
That’s what you expect to find in tombs, after all, isn’t it? The living,
they’re at work, at table, or at play. No, they came seeking the dead. They
came seeking the dead body of Jesus, to do for it what they failed to finish
doing Friday night, to prepare His body for burial. If there was a glimmer of
hope when He was alive, after the events of Friday, it was extinguished. For
them, Sunday was just another day, the beginning of a new week of hunger and
thirst, struggle and toil to put food on the table, clothing on the back, and a
roof over the head; a new week of hopes diminished, dreams shattered, and
laughter and smiles mixed with grief and sorrow, suffering and pain; a new week
of aging and illness and death – that’s what the women woke up expecting on the
day of our Lord’s resurrection. They weren’t looking for life. They weren’t looking
for the resurrection. And, too often, neither are you.
“Cleanse out
the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For
Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” Truly, each Feast of the
Resurrection of Our Lord, each Easter Sunday, is an opportunity for you to
cleanse out the old leaven of malice and evil; of cynicism, resentment, and
unbelief; of indifference and self-righteousness and self-security; of pride
and contempt, and more. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Those
things are of your sinful past. They are dead and buried. They died with Christ
and were buried with Him. They can no longer bind you. They do not define you.
Why do you seek the living amongst the dead?
Job had it
all. He had great wealth, a large family, a devoted wife and children. He was
respected in his community and had many friends. Moreover, he was righteous in
the sight of the LORD. Job was righteous, not because he was perfect, sinless,
and holy, but because, like Abraham, he believed and trusted in the LORD, and
the LORD credited his faith to him as righteousness. Still, the LORD permitted
Satan to afflict Job and to take everything from him – his wealth, his family,
his respect in the community, his friends, and, finally, even his personal
health and well-being. And, let’s face it, sometimes the LORD permits Satan to
afflict you and those you love, and to take from you wealth and family, respect
and friends, health and well-being. Therefore, receive Job as an example. For,
in the midst of all his suffering and affliction, Job refused to curse God and
die. Job refused to seek the living amongst the dead. Rather, in faith, Job
confessed, “The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away; blessed be the Name of the
LORD.” Job did not look for nor find life and the living amongst the dead, but
he looked for the resurrection, confessing, the bodily resurrection of his Lord
and Redeemer Jesus Christ, and his own bodily resurrection in and through Him,
over 1,500 years before Jesus’ birth saying, “I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus
destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my
eyes shall behold, and not another.”
Yes, truly,
Job shows you what it means to look for life and the living amongst the living.
Job looked for life, then, and now, in the Word and promise of the LORD, not in
his wealth and family, his reputation and friends, or in his personal health
and well-being. He knew that these were but transient, ephemeral, and temporary
things – here today, and gone tomorrow. Those things were passing away, even as
his own life was passing away. But, Job looked for life, then, and now, that
does not pass away, in the LORD of heaven and earth, who created all things and
provides all things necessary for your body and your life, just as He has
promised, and who will preserve and keep you through life, and through death,
unto the resurrection to life that never ends.
“This is the
day that the LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” For, we are not
merely remembering that Jesus was raised from the dead on this day, but we are
remembering, and we are celebrating, and we are renewing, and we are
reconfirming that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, then, now, and
always. Jesus was the resurrection and the life promised by God the Father to
our First Parents in the Garden just after they rebelled and sinned, plunging
themselves, us, and all of creation into sin and death. And, Jesus was the
resurrection and the life confessed by Job even in the midst of his suffering
and affliction. And, Jesus was the resurrection and the life for the Apostles,
and Stephen, and Ignatius, and Polycarp, and all the Christian Martyrs who
would die, and are still dying today, for their confession of Christ. And, Jesus
is the resurrection and the life for you, today, and tomorrow, and for as many
tomorrows as the LORD may grant you.
So, why do
you seek the living amongst the dead? Why do you look for life in things that
are dead, or dying, and that are passing away? Seek the living, yes! But, seek
the living with intention and expectation. That is, do not be like the women
who came to the tomb early that first Easter morning. They were not seeking the
living, but they were seeking the dead. But, Jesus is not dead. He is risen! He
is risen indeed! Alleluia! And, that has changed everything! In His
resurrection, Jesus has cleansed you of the old leaven of malice and evil, selfishness,
and self-righteousness. You are a new lump. Jesus has removed the leaven of sin
from you and from all who trust in Him.
You are a
people called to seek the living with the intent searching and firm expectation
of the woman who lost her coins, or the parents who found their boy in the
temple. You are called to look for resurrection. Acknowledging the death in all
created things, you are to seek, and even to expect, the restoration of
relationships, the rebuilding of ruins, provision in sickness, blessing from
burdens, and life after the grave. For, after the resurrection, there is life
in the world to come, and a promise that seeds, dying now in the ground of the earth,
will spring up to new life in the fields of Eternity.
“You seek
Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the
place where they laid Him.” Now go, not in fear and trembling, saying nothing
to no one, but go and live and tell. Go and seek the living, go and seek the
resurrection, not in the things that are dead or dying, but amongst the Living
One, Jesus. He lives. He is not dead. He is risen! He is risen indeed!
Alleluia! And, you live in Him. Your life is hidden with Him. Therefore, the
life you live, you live to Christ. Your life is a new life, a life that will
never die.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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