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᛭ INI ᛭

Alleluia! Jesus Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Lynn (and Shelly), Lori (and John), Becky (and Travis), and everyone else gathered here today: hear the Word of the Lord, the Word given to your dad, to Harold, at his confirmation, a Word full of comfort in the face of death:

“Christ died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”

He died for all. All means all. As we just heard: “All tribes and peoples and languages.” There are those, like Harold, who “washed their robes in the blood of the lamb.” They washed them by trusting in His blood washing them. Only “the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins.” They by faith are brought into His washing. As Jesus says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…You are clean by the Word I’ve spoken to you.” “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Rom) Those who trust in Jesus, when they come out of the great tribulation of this life are now “standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes.”

He died for all, died for His sheep. Sheds His blood for them. He brings them new life by speaking His Word to them. Only His blood cleanses. Only His Word gives life. He gives His blood and life to all His sheep scattered across the world: from “all tribes, peoples, and languages.” Languages: good gift. Harold thought them “fun.” I think that’s the word he used. The Lord will use any of them to bring His sheep to Himself. Whether that word is “Ich taufe dich” instead “I baptize you,” or as it was the other day, “I forgive you all your sins” instead of “Ich vergebe dir alle seine Sünde.” Doesn’t matter to Jesus. He’s the one using that word to wash and cleanse and forgive and save His sheep, because “der für sie gestorben und auferstanden ist”—“He died and is risen for them!”

He was raised! An endless comfort in the face of death and the grave! That Jesus is alive right now gives peace and confidence as you trek toward your grave, like it did for Harold, or for you as we will soon journey to his graveside. Forgiveness because Christ “died for our sins according to the Scriptures,” “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.” But then Jesus’ graveside was overturned. His grave was then empty—He wasn’t dead any more! He was brought back to life three days later, according to that same eternal plan of God the Father and Jesus Christ, His eternal Son, that He would have a holy people.

For without His death, His dying for all, dying for the sake of sinners, they would remain sinners, remain unholy in His sight. Without His resurrection, His rising for them, they would not be justified, innocent. They would remain guilty. “If Christ is not raised, you are still in your sins.” Without His dying and rising for us, without trust in such a death as the eternal Son of God’s death, without trust in such a resurrection as Jesus’, we would have no hope in the face of death and the grave. Grief would be almost insurmountable. Life also gets turned on its head.

Without Christ making you His own, without faith in Him, suddenly you’re living apart from Him. Living on your own terms. Making people live and do on your terms. Living as if life has no meaning outside of the right here, right now, because in that estimation, that opinion there is no lasting life, no resurrection from the dead. They suppose that when someone dies, that’s it! They’ve closed their eyes for the last time. They’ve breathed their last breath. They’re dead and gone forever. The world has lost another good one. This, as far as the Bible is concerned, is being dead while living, and this life is just a prelude to the eternal second death. An eternity separated from Christ—the very thing they wanted, proved by how they lived their lives.

This is living as if Jesus is still dead. “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’” “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” And if Christ is raised, then the dead are raised! If Christ is raised, you aren’t still in your sins. If Christ is raised, it means that the dead aren’t dead. That those who believe in Jesus don’t go off into oblivion, but rather they depart to be with Christ, to await, at least from our perspective, “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”

You see: “Christ died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.” They live for Him, to Him, from Him, toward Him. That is how Christ over turns everything. No longer mine and yours, tit for tat, even-steven, or whatever other games we play living for ourself. No, Jesus ends all that. Kills it in His own body, and then He brings us into what’s real and true: His resurrection from the dead.

All that is the hope that your dad, your grandpa, great grandpa, had. “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” A hope not just for him but for you: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” “I will raise you from your graves, O my people.”

“For their sake died and was raised.” For your sake, for his sake. And they live! You live! Christ’s dying and His rising are yours. Made yours in Holy Baptism. These great Words from the start of the service: “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” The gift and promise and life and resurrection given again and again in preaching and His Word, in Absolution, and His Holy Supper.

“Christ died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”

He was raised unto everlasting life. Jesus isn’t dead any more. Those who die with faith in Him, like Harold, depart to be with Him, those without faith depart to be without Christ. But for those in Christ, baptized into Him, with faith in Him alone, at the resurrection of the dead on the Last Day Jesus will resurrect them, bring the, back to life to live forever with Him, “in righteousness and purity forever.” For death is Zái jián, bis Später, “see you later” only in Christ Jesus for

Alleluia! Jesus Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

᛭ INI ᛭