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Alleluia! Jesus Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
᛭ INI ᛭
The Lord IHS Christ goes the way that you I must go. He went that way to save you, though it wasn’t necessary for Him to do so. He went the way of death. He died. We deserve it because “the wages of sin is death.” We receive that sentence justly because we sin, but He took that sentence upon Himself for your sake. He died in your place.
He went through suffering, death, and grave ahead of you. He also when the way of resurrection, too. He came back to life on the Third Day. He goes that way ahead of you, too. He rises from the dead, and “because He lives, we shall live also.” (Jn 14) He blazes a trail not into death and grave, but a trail through death, through the grave, into resurrection—coming back to life.
Christ constantly assures you of this path. He carries you along it. He baptizes you into this reality. His Holy Supper is indeed the “medicine of immortality, the antidote so as not to die but to live in IHS Christ forever.” But it’s not just that you will come back to life. It’s not that you get to live forever with those you love who died in the faith. No, you will live forever with Christ, you will see Christ face to face, and all the faithful, along with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven, will laud and magnify Christ’s holy name forever.
Christ, risen from the dead, walked this road. He brings you onto it. And now for you it will be like it was for the disciples that first easter. It’s what the angels told the women: “You seek IHS of Nazareth who was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go tell His disciples and Peter that He goes before you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He said to you.” As it was with them, so it will be for you.
THE RISEN CHRIST GOES BEFORE YOU AND THERE YOU WILL SEE HIM, JUST AS HE SAID.
(I. Like He said, Christ went before His disciples to Galilee and there they saw Him.)
What the angels told the women happened. The disciples returned to Galilee and there they saw the risen IHS. (They saw Him before that, too.) But they also saw Him in Galilee. Many times. In fact, the Gospel reading for Easter Monday is the great catch of fish, when Peter took a few other disciples fishing on the Sea of Galilee. In Galilee the Lord appeared to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to cherish all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt 28)
Christ went to Galilee after His resurrection not because the angel said He would go there, but because Christ had already told them He would go there ahead of them. “After they sang a psalm, they went out to the Mount of Olives. IHS said to them, “You all will be made to stumble, because it’s written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered,’ but after I am raised, I will go before you into Galilee.” (Mk 14) The Lord kept everything that He told them. He died. He was raised. So, He’d go before them into Galilee. But even because preachers forget the Word of the Lord sometimes, the angels sent the women with the same message as Christ: “You seek IHS of Nazareth who was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go tell His disciples and Peter that He goes before you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He said to you.”
(Transition)
The Lord always keeps His promises. When He says He’s going to do something, He does. When He makes a promise, it’s true. When He gives a Gift, institutes a Sacrament, it is what He says it is. He’s faithful to His Word. And again, the Word spoken to the Apostles was faithful and true. But as it was for them, so it will also be for you. Because this is what the Lord has promised you, too:
THE RISEN CHRIST GOES BEFORE YOU AND THERE YOU WILL SEE HIM, JUST AS HE SAID.
(II. THE RISEN CHRIST GOES BEFORE YOU AND THERE YOU WILL SEE HIM, JUST AS HE SAID.)
The risen Christ has gone before you through death and grave into resurrection. There’s no reason to fear death! There’s no reason to grieve at a graveside “like others do who have no hope.” (1-Th 4) The dead it Christ will rise first! Christ rising from the dead was the first-fruits, the first harvest, of those who die with faith in Him. On the other side of death and grave is resurrection. You will also come back to life. You, too, will climb out of your grave like Lazarus walked out from his, like Christ came out of His.
But that’s not all, Christ has blazed a trail not only through death and grave into resurrection. He’s also gone on into everlasting life. There He lives and reigns with His Father and the Holy Spirit to all eternity. He’s gone before you there. “In My Father’s house are many mansions. I go there to prepare a place for you.” (Jn 14) And when you die, you will “depart to be with Christ, which is far better.” (Phil 1) For by faith in Christ as it was for Paul so will be for you. “The Lord, the righteous Judge, will give, the Crown of Righteousness to all those who loved His appearing.” (2-Tim 4) On that great and final day, “Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.” (1-Cor 13)
THE RISEN CHRIST GOES BEFORE YOU AND THERE YOU WILL SEE HIM, JUST AS HE SAID.
That’s His promise to you. It’s His promise in Holy Baptism, where He makes you one of His disciples, a disciple united to Christ’s death and resurrection for you. “As many of you as were baptized into Christ IHS, were baptized into His death. We were there buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” (Rom 6) The dead in Christ, those in Christ through Baptism by faith, will rise and already dwell with Him as they come out of the great tribulation of this life.
The Lord in many and various ways promises that He’s gone BEFORE YOU AND THERE YOU WILL SEE HIM, JUST AS HE SAID. It is the promise lived out by the Israelites who were brought out of Egypt to live in the Lord’s Presence and His Promised Land. In His Word He promises: The ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Is 35) It’s the promise announced by the messengers He sends to preach sermons. Like the angels preached to the women. Of His Word Christ also says, “Assuredly I say to you, whoever cherishes My Word, will never ever see death forever!”
Finally, this is the Promise of His Sacrament, that THE RISEN CHRIST GOES BEFORE YOU AND THERE YOU WILL SEE HIM, JUST AS HE SAID. Christ promises: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will resurrect him on the Last Day.” (Jn 6) A promise received by faith: “Whoever looks upon the Son and believes in Him has eternal life, and I will resurrect him on the Last Day.” (Jn 6) No sin or doubt keeps you out of His presence or out of eternal life with Him, for His body and blood are given to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins. The “bread” we break “is the medicine of immortality, the antidote so as not to die, but rather to live in IHS Christ forever.”
Even Communion confesses that THE RISEN CHRIST GOES BEFORE YOU AND THERE YOU WILL SEE HIM, JUST AS HE SAID. We know this because we gather around the altar not only “with angels, archangels,” but also the whole company of heaven,” that is, “the spirits of just men made perfect.” (Heb 12) Here we receive “the blood that speaks a better word than Abel’s”—Christ’s blood for the forgivenss of all your sins.
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