VICTORIOUS over Death

I love Peeps.
 
There’s something about gooey, sugary, artificially dyed animal shapes that really get a person hyped for Easter.
I enjoy trying to smoosh them together and see how many I can fit into my mouth at once.
And usually…they are the first thing to remind me that Easter is on its way.
Suddenly, they appear in a giant display at Food Lion visible as soon as I enter.
 
Not this year.
 
This year when I went to Food Lion?
Hand sanitizing stations.
Plastic gloves.
And plastic barricades.
 
Doesn’t it feel a bit like Easter has been overshadowed?
 
To be fair – this pandemic is still scary.
 
There have been 1,577,360 cases of COVID-19 and 93,637 deaths.
6.6 million Americans filed for Unemployment last week.
The stock market continues to volatilely jump up and down.
Experts warn that the curve hasn’t slowed down yet.
 
So…
When do we get a victory?
When do we get a win?
 
Right now.
 
Today we’re going to look at the very first Easter and remember the victory that’s ours Before we begin, a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth. Your Word is the truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; open our ears to hear what you want us to hear; and open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. The Sadness of Easter
 
The lesson this morning chronicles a group of a women who were very close to Jesus. Their story doesn’t start on Easter, but on Good Friday:
 
Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last...But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
 
They saw the nails pierce his hands.
They saw the thorns break his skull.
They saw him bleed.
They saw the soldiers mock him.
They saw the religious leaders mock him.
They saw random travelers mock him.
 
They saw him face.
They saw him weaken
They saw his life slowly slip away…
 
Until…
 
He was no more.
 
Instead of Jesus, there was a cold lifeless body.
 
What ensued next was a bit of a hurried event.
It was Friday afternoon.
By 6 pm, the Jewish Sabbath would start.
It was against religious law to have a dead person exposed and unburied once the holy evening began.
(Granted, you might expect it to be against religious law to kill the Son of God, but…who’s keeping track really…)
 
So…
 
The soldiers took his body down.
They quickly carried it to Pilate.
Pilate gave it to a volunteer,
who quickly wrapped up the body.
 
Linens around the head.
Linens around the body.
Linens around the feet.
Skip the ointments.
Skip the oils.
Skip the perfumes…
 
There wasn’t much time left.
 
Grab some soldiers.
Carry the body to a tomb.
Put it inside.
And roll a giant stone in front.
Get home in time for supper.
 
While all of this was going on, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. (v.55-56)
 
And…
On that day of rest…
 
I imagine they couldn’t help but think of what they’d seen.
Flashes of the horrors that Jesus went through interrupting their daily thoughts.
 
Every door shut triggering the memory of that hammer.
Even the red liquid of the tomato soup matching the red of his blood.
Every unpleasant smell generating a nausea at what they’d seen.
 
They tried to busy their minds by busying their hands.
Crushing some herbs.
Mixing some ointments.
Heating things to the right temperature.
 
They needed to properly bury his body.
To do the things that time had not allowed them to do.
To give him the respect he deserved.
To get some closure on this death that was hanging over their heads.
 
Hmmm…
Death over their heads.
On the very first Easter.
 
I can’t help but notice that this year’s Easter and the first Easter have that in common because…
Like Easter 2020, the very first Easter began with DEATH hanging over the day.
 
But…
 
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. (v.1)
 
“Mary, you pour the myrrh on his feet.”
“I’ll take some frankincense to his head.”
“Other Mary, you put sprinkle some of your special blend near the torso.”
 
“Salome! How are we even going to do this? There’s that giant stone. It must weigh hundreds of pounds. Do you think the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb will even be willing to let us insi-”
 
They stopped.
They gasped.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. (v.3)
 
The women looked at each other.
Their question changed from who WILL roll away the stone to who DID roll away the stone.
 
Was it the soldiers?
Was it those nasty pharisees?
Was it some kind of grave robber?
 
But inside, they found nobody.
And no body.
 
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. (v.4)
 
Angels!
Messengers of the most high!
Divine servants of the All Mighty.
 
Holy.
 
The women fell to the ground with their faces in the dirt.
Because…
 
The only things more terrifying than DEATH is facing the one who CONTROLS it.
 
Angels were from God.
God hated sin.
They had sin.
Were they about to be struck down?
 
But the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!”
 
You came here searching for a tomb.
A body.
Death sealed within.
 
But there’s no death here.
There’s no DEATH in Jesus’ tomb. He LIVES.
 
Stop being sad.
Start being joyful.
Jesus lives.
 
II. Victory Truths
 
Because Jesus lives, the Bible has some important truths for us to consider.
 
(1) When it comes to Death, Your Level of FEAR Depends on whom You’re TRUSTING to Defeat It
 
I remember growing up we had a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Beforehand, we divided up into teams in order to go and find as many Easter eggs as we could and put them in our basket. My team? We had Jon Lindloff on our team. Jon was the fastest kid on the block. He was the most athletic. He could jump the farthest. Whatever team he was on would end up winning whatever athletic contest he was in because he was that impressive. He was like the 7-year-old, small midwestern town version of Lebron James.
 
So…
When we were about to start the egg hunt challenge, we were pretty confident.
We weren’t afraid of losing.
Because we had Jon Lindloff.
 
As you face COVID-19, where do you find confidence for victory?
 
A latex glove? These can break.
Some sanitizer bottle? They only kill 99.99%
Social distancing rule? What if someone else doesn’t follow it?
 
Doctors? What if they’re so sleep deprived and tired they can’t give you the best care?
The government? What if can’t get along and come to a partisan agreement to help?
Scientists? What if they don’t discover a vaccine before it’s too late?
 
Trusting in an EARTHLY things to defeat death leads to High levels of FEAR
 
Because all those things?
They’re earthly.
Earthly things die.
 
You can’t trust in a thing that dies to defeat the things that causes those earthly things to die.
You need to trust in something that doesn’t die.
 
Back in the tomb, as the women were trying to process what the angels were saying about Jesus, the angels were trying to process how the women didn’t expect this resurrection. They said,
Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words. (v.6b-8)
 
They remembered about the time Jesus said he was like Jonah. Jonah had been inside the belly of a big old fish for three day, then come out alive. Like how Jesus had been in the belly of the earth for three days, then come out alive. (Matthew 12:40)
 
They remembered about the time Jesus said the Pharisees should go destroy the temple, but he would rebuild it in three days. At the time, they had thought he meant the gigantic stone structure in which they worshiped, but he had really meant his body. (John 2:19)
 
They remembered when Jesus said he was the kind of Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. But one who did so confidently, because he had the authority to raise his body back to life again. (John 10)
 
They remembered when Jesus said plainly, “I am going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him. But three days after he is killed, he will rise.” (Mk. 9:31)
 
The truth is that…
Trusting in the HEAVENLY ONE leads to high levels of CONFIDENCE.
 
Jesus trustworthy.
He defeated death just as he said.
 
Jesus is trustworthy.
He’ll get you through what’s going on.
 
(2) Jesus Holds an UNBLEMISHED Record against Death.
 
This is the reason that the angel says to the women: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?”
 
Not just because Jesus is living.
But Jesus is the LIFE.
 
A paraphrase might be:
“You really thought measly old death could defeat Jesus? Ha! Hey, Clarence. Put down your harp. You gotta hear this. It’s a good one.”
 
In fact, Jesus had already proven his power over death.
 
He met a young girl who had died a few hours before he made it to her room. Jesus grabbed her hand and brought her back to life.
Jesus stopped a procession for a young man who had died just yesterday. Jesus touched the casket and the brought him back to life.
Jesus missed the funeral of a friend of his and approached the tomb where his friend had been buried for over four days. Jesus opened the tomb and brought him back to life.
 
Jesus holds an UNBLEMISHED Record against Death.
 
And to the victor goes the spoils!
 
If you win at the Olympics, you get the gold medal.
If you win at the Super Bowl, you get a super bowl ring.
If you win a boxing match, you get the winner’s purse. (Which…I always thought was an actual purse. And I wondered why manly boxers carried purses, but…turns out they just meant money…whatever).
 
To the winner goes the spoils.
 
What are the spoils for Jesus’ victory?
 
Forgiveness.
Peace with God.
Eternal Life.
 
But here’s the thing.
Jesus didn’t take these spoils for himself.
 
He gives them to you.
Jesus’s VICTORY over death means you receive the SPOILS.
 
You have forgiveness.
You have peace with God.
You have eternal Life.
 
This means that when it comes to the Corona Virus, you will get the victory.
Regardless of how it comes.
 
God keeps you safe and you never get COVID-19. You win.
You get sick, but God heals your body. You win.
You get sick. You don’t heal. You die. But then you live forever in heaven!
YOU WIN!
 
(3) With hope in JESUS, there is ZERO reason to fear Death.
 
There’s a pretty fabulous Bible passage that talks about the victory Jesus had over death. It’s found in Corinthians 15:55, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
 
There was a dad who was sitting outside with his little girl. They were playing. Enjoying the nice day.
When suddenly, a bee flew near them.
 
This was a bigger deal to the girl than to most. She was allergic.
Deathly allergic.
 
She began to cry.
She began to wail.
 
So…
Dad wrapped her up in his big bear arms.
He protected her.
 
The bee landed on his bicep and stung him.
 
After the sting, dad let the girl go.
The bee was still flying around, but dad wasn’t worried.
 
Why?
 
The bee’s stinger was stuck in him.
It couldn’t sting his daughter anymore.
 
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (v.56-57)
 
Death has lost its sting.
IT cannot sting you any longer.
It’s no longer separation from God,
But an entrance into the joys of heaven.
 
III. What Now?
 
(1) Share the Victory
 
When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. (v.9)
 
There are others who are fearful.
There are others who are afraid.
There are others who are spending this Easter…with death hanging over their heads.
 
Give them Jesus.
 
It’s what the women were so excited to do. They ran out of the tomb. They left their spices behind.
Because suddenly all that mattered was telling others about Jesus’ victory over death.
 
Do the same.
Put everything else down.
Go to tell a neighbor.
Go tell a friend.
Go tell a family member.
Christ is Victorious!
Amen.