Sermon for the Resurrection of Our Lord

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Jesu Juva

“Hearts Up!”

Text: Colossians 3:1-4; Matthew 28:1-10; Act 10:34-43

 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia!

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Set your minds on things above, the apostle Paul said to us today. That’s easy today, right? A high feast day, a holiday, rejoicing in the resurrection of Jesus. This is the day we’ve been waiting for, and fasting for.  

But what about tomorrow? And the day after that? And the day after that . . . with the trials, the struggles, the sorrows and sadness, the strife, the fears, the anxiety, the hurts, the sins . . . when life happens! How quickly the joy of this day can disappear in the rear view mirror . . .

But Paul doesn’t want that to happen. And even more, Jesus doesn’t want that to happen! For the joy of the resurrection to be just a day, or even a season, but then packed away in a box until next year. But that Jesus and His resurrection be your life and joy, your confidence and hope - everyday. Everyday of the year and every year of your life, until it is yours for eternity.

Set your minds on things above. Oh, how we’d like to! But we keep getting dragged back down, the things that are on earth filling our hearts and minds and lives. Now, the things of earth, the things of our lives, are not bad things, but good gifts of God, for us to use and enjoy. They only become bad when they push out the things above, the things of God. When they insist on ruling our lives and being our gods. When they take over, either capturing our love or causing us fear. For we are to fear and love only God.

So living in this world 24/7, setting your minds on things above is a challenge, isn’t it?

As it was for the women who went to the tomb that first day of the week. Set your minds on things above? Yeah, right! We did, and look how it turned out. We did, and they crucified Him. He took care of us, now we go to take care of Him.

And then, Matthew tells us, there was an earthquake - a great one. Did the women feel it? If it was great - how could they not? And it happened because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven. Did the women see that? See him descending? And he rolled back the stone. Did the women see him do that? The guards did! The big, strong, fearless, vaunted Roman soldiers - rendered small and weak, frightened and helpless. And they became what Jesus had been - like dead men. 

What Jesus had been . . . for then the angel, sitting on the stone he had just rolled away, said to the women: Do not be afraid! Look! Jesus is not here, for He has risen, just as He said He would. See the place where He had been laid . . . but was no longer. That’s why I opened up the tomb for you. So you could see it. That it is empty. That the once full but now empty tomb, fill your once empty hearts with joy.

And it did! For after seeing all this, the women departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy. And then as they were going, to find the disciples, Jesus met them. Alive Jesus! He said only one word to them, Greetings! But that was all that was needed. Sheep know the voice of their Shepherd (John 10:4). They took hold of His feet, for they had fallen down before Him. And yes, His feet. Because ghosts don’t have feet. Spirits don’t have feet. But risen from the dead bodies do!

So what these women could not do for themselves, was done for them. The angel, the Word of God, the empty tomb, and the risen Jesus set their minds of things above. It’s where their minds should have been all along, but as with us, they had gotten dragged down in fear and sadness. They had seen Jesus crucified! They saw His dead, lifeless body and the sealed tomb. That was real. The next day, the Sabbath offered no relief, but was filled with numbness, confusion, deep sorrow. The future, which had been so filled with hope, was now uncertain. They were stuck in Good Friday. Would they ever know joy again? Was life even worth living, in such a cruel and sinful world? Some of you have felt that way and asked that question, I know.

But what we are unable to do for ourselves, with broken lives, stuck in the midst of this broken world that inflicts such pain on us . . . what we are unable to do for ourselves, the Word of God, the empty tomb, and the risen Jesus do for us! For Jesus is here for us and with us, just as surely as He was for the women that day. No, we cannot see Him, as they did. And no, we cannot take hold of his feet, as they did. But we do and have even better - we eat and drink His risen Body and Blood. And He sets our minds on things above. Hearts up! is the cry in the liturgy. And we respond: we lift them up to the Lord. Yes, we set our minds on things above, for the one above has come down to us.

That’s why we come here every week. Not because we have to, but because we need to. It is sometimes said that every Sunday is a little Easter. The day we come burdened with all kinds of junk from the week - the fears and worries and sins and hurts that have accumulated during the week - so that Jesus take them, lift them from us, lift up our minds, and fill our hearts and minds that had been so full of that junk with His forgiveness and joy and hope. Just as He did for the women that day, that first Sunday of Easter.

Which is what also happened to Cornelius and his household. We heard part of that story in the reading from Acts. God miraculously brought Peter and Cornelius together, so that Peter preach Jesus to them, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Everyone Cornelius. No exceptions. That means Cornelius and his household, and us and our households. Gentile or Jew, little sinner or great sinner, important or unknown - there is life and forgiveness for you in His name. His life and forgiveness poured on you in His Name in Baptism, His life and forgiveness pronounced on you in His Name is the Absolution, and His life and forgiveness fed to you in His Name as food and drink in the Body and Blood of His Supper. That what you do not have and cannot do for yourselves, be given to you by your Lord Jesus Himself.

We come here every Sunday because we need that, after another week in a world hostile to Christ and His truth. Which is why, every Sunday, satan wants you anywhere else but here! To set your minds anywhere else. To take your eyes off the cross, off the empty tomb, off the words and promises of God, off your Baptism, off the altar . . . and set them onto yourself, your sin, your weakness, your unworthiness, and make you think it’s all on you . . . and look at the mess you’ve made, of your life and faith. And he’s laughing, while you’re dying.

But even that can serve Jesus. Because if you’re dying . . . dying to yourself, dying to what you can do and accomplish . . . well, you are right in Jesus’ wheelhouse! For as we proclaim especially today, Jesus specializes in giving life to the dead! Risen to life Himself, He now comes to raise you up from the death of sin and fear and hopelessness, to a new life in Him. The grave is deep and dark and fearsome, but Jesus’ love and light and victory even greater. Victory not only for the Last Day, but given to you even now. To lift your minds and hearts back to Him. To set your minds on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, and ruling all things for the good of His Church and His Christians. 

So while you may not feel the earth move, you may not see an angel, you may not see your enemies fall down as dead, or see the dead raised . . . Jesus is still risen! And He is still here for you, and still triumphant, and you still belong to Him, and He still forgives you, and He still has gone to prepare a place for you to live with Him forever (John 14:2-3). Set your minds on that, and everything else is small potatoes!

For Alleluia! Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] 

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Congregation at Prayer

For the Week of the Resurrection of Our Lord (April 5-11, 2026)

Invocation: In the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Speak the Apostles’ Creed. 

Verse: 1 Peter 2:2-3 – “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation - if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Hymn of the Week:  Lutheran Service Book #470 “O Sons and Daughters of the King”

Hymns for Sunday: 466, 470, 637, 472 (tune: 426), 486, TLH 202

Readings for the Week: [The readings for Thursday-Saturday are the Scriptures for this coming Sunday.]

Monday: Exodus 15:1–18

Read these verses and think about how they are true for Jesus in His victory over sin, death, and the devil!

Tuesday: Luke 24:36–49

Jesus proved His resurrection in three ways – what were they? Which was most important? Which is here also for us today?

Wednesday: John 21:1–14

Read Luke 5:1-11. What did Jesus tell His disciples then? How might this same miracle be connected to and the start of that?

Thursday: Acts 5:29–42

Why were the Jewish leaders enraged? Why weren’t the apostles enraged when they were flogged? What caused this in them?

Friday: 1 Peter 1:3–9

What has Jesus’ resurrection done for us? Why must we also suffer trials? How are these good for us?

Saturday: John 20:19–31

Why was Jesus’ peace so important to the disciples? What was Thomas like without it? How will the apostles now give this peace to others? How do we receive it today?

The Catechism - The Ten Commandments: The Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbors wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that do not entice or force away our neighbor’s wife, workers, or animals, or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and do their duty.

Collect for the Week: Almighty God, grant that we who have celebrated the Lord’s resurrection may by Your grace confess in our life and conversation that Jesus is Lord and God; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son. Amen.

The Prayers:  Please pray for . . .

+ yourself and for all in need (remembering especially those on our prayer list).

+ God’s blessing, wisdom, and guidance for our congregational recording secretary, Caroline Trundle.

+ the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia, for God’s wisdom, blessing, guidance, and provision.

+ God’s blessing, guidance, wisdom, and provision for Lutheran Braille Workers.

Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer and Luther’s Morning or Evening Prayer from the Catechism.

Now joyfully go about your day (or to bed) in good cheer, child of God!

Collect for the Week © 2018 Concordia Publishing House.

Lutheran Service Book Hymn License: 110019268

Homily for Easter Vigil

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Jesu Juva

“Who Swallowed Who?”

Text: Numbers 16; Romans 6:3-11

 

The Old Testament has much to teach us about Christ. That’s why we read so much of it every year on this night of vigil. These stories about how the Son of God was providing for and rescuing His people of old, and how these stories pointed to the greater rescue He accomplished for us this night. This night. The night of our life. 

For God is life. God gives life. He wants life for us. So God creates life, cleanses life, rescues life, restores life, redeems life. 

It is sin that robs us of life. Makes our lives less than God created them to be. Kills us. Enslaves us. Entombs us. Because our sin thrust all of creation into sin, the ground God created to bring forth life, the ground God created life from, forming Adam from that very ground, opens its mouth and swallows us up in death. Six feet under, as we say. Life ended.

There is an interesting story about this in the Old testament, in the book of Numbers. A man named Korah, along with Dathan, Abiram, and On, led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and so against God. They claimed a holiness and life for themselves, apart from God. But of course, nothing apart from God is holiness and life - only sin and death. So the ground opened its mouth and swallowed them up, they and all their households. And all Israel feared and fled, saying: Lest the earth swallow us up (Numbers 16)!

Well, the earth is going to swallow us up. Maybe not as dramatically as that, but just as surely. Because that’s the wages of sin. And we are sinners. We have inherited a sinful nature, and so seek life apart from God and His Word, too. And so children die. Parents die. There is sudden death, and long-suffering, drawn out death. There is intentional death, accidental death, natural death, and unnatural death. But all of it, no matter how it comes, evil death. Death that was never meant to be. Dust you are, and to dust you will return (Genesis 3:19). 

But tonight . . . that all changed. Tonight, the earth that opened up its mouth and swallowed up Jesus in death, was forced to open its mouth again! To release the one it swallowed, but had no right to. The earth would not open again for Korah and the others, and it would not open again for us, for we are guilty. But when it swallowed the sinless Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, its mouth is now forced open from the inside out. It cannot hold Jesus. It must relinquish its prey. So we have hope. 

For this is the night the tables were turned - and the swallower, death, was swallowed. This is the night of life and light. 

And so in a moment we will remember our baptism - the water of God that broke the grip of sin, death, and the devil on us. The water where we die and rise with Christ, the dust of death is forced to release us, and the flames of the fiery furnace of hell cannot touch us. For this is what Paul says, as we will hear: For do you not know, he says, that if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. United to the one who broke death and the grave for us. 

So we will remember that truth tonight. We renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways - his darkness, sin, and death. And we confess the life and light of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who has given us new birth, and a new heart, and a new spirit. And baptized into Christ, in the ark of Christ’s body, we are safe.

This is the night. The night when the light scatters the darkness. The night when joy scatters all sadness. The night the grave was broken. The night when the earth was forced to open its mouth, and life returned from the dead. As it will for you, too. And all who are in Christ. 

This is the night. It is done. Thanks be to God.

Sermon for Holy Good Friday

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Jesu Juva

“A Hill Worthy Dying On”

Text: John 18-19; Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12

In the Name of (+) Jesus. Amen.

Is that a hill worth dying on? You’ve heard that question. You’ve asked it yourself. It means to pick your battles wisely. The cost may be too high; greater than the reward. Is that battle, that argument, that conviction worth the risk of ruining your career, your reputation, a friendship, or a relationship? 

Think about all the times you answered that question yes, and pressed on. And maybe it was worth it. Or maybe later you found it was not. You regretted that decision, and wished you had let it go.

Think about all the times you answered that question no, and didn’t fight that battle. Maybe that was wise, but maybe not. Maybe you were later filled with regret and wished you had battled.

And how do you make such decisions? Maybe it is wisdom. Or maybe it is your sinful, selfish nature asserting itself. Maybe it is pragmatism. Maybe it is pride or anger or bitterness. But maybe it is because you know the cost of not fighting is too high. That the truth, that the faith, is worth fighting for. 

Well, tonight we heard a number of people faced with that very question. And they answered it in different ways and for different reasons.

Judas decided that betraying Jesus was a hill worth dying on. And in the end, he did, at his own hand. 

Annas and Caiaphas decided that crucifying Jesus was a hill worth dying on, even to the point of denying God as their King, and pledging allegiance to Caesar. Not a good choice.

Peter . . . well Peter is a mixed bag, isn’t he? At first he decided that defending Jesus was a hill worthy dying on as he drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant. But then later he changed his mind, and confessing Jesus was not a hill worth dying on in the courtyard of the high priest. 

Pontius Pilate came to the conclusion that giving a just verdict on Jesus was not a hill worth dying on. He knew the truth - three times he said Jesus was not guilty. But the price for that was too high for his career. 

And then there was Jesus. What did Jesus have to gain by dying on that hill called Golgotha? Sinners. Rebellious sinners, careless sinners, deliberate sinners, neglectful sinners, prodigal, profligate sinners, God-denying sinners, God-be-damned sinners, hard-boiled sinners, uncaring sinners, murderous sinners. Sinners like we just heard in the reproaches.

So is that a hill worth dying on? For them? For us? For people like that? Sinners like us? And not just to die, but to die in that way? The most brutal, torturous way invented by man? To be lifted up on a cross to die of exposure, of suffocation? To die a long, slow, agonizing death? Is that really a hill worth dying on?

And Jesus said: YES.

Let that sink in. 

For that’s the message of this night. The unbelievable, incredible message of this night. That Jesus thought you were worth it. You were worth dying for on that hill. You were worth the pain, the mockery, the shame. Even more, you were worth being forsaken by His own Father, and having His Father pour out His just and righteous wrath against you and your sins on HIM. Which was far worse than the physical pain, mockery, and shame. 

And it wasn’t a surprise. None of it was. Jesus knew His Scriptures. He knew the prophet Isaiah. He knew all that was said there, and that it would happen to Him. That He would be stricken, smitten, and afflicted not just by Pilate, but by God. That He would be pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities. That His Father would lay on Him the iniquity of us all. He knew it. He knew it all. And still His answer was . . .

YES.

One of our Lenten hymns, that we sang this past Sunday, puts it this way: Yes, Father, yes, most willingly I’ll bear what You command Me. . . . I’ll do what You have asked Me (LSB #438 v. 3).

YES. 

The apostle Paul would later write: For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you . . . was not Yes and No, but in him it is always YES. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him (2 Corinthians 1:19-20). 

YES. 

It is the Word of the Gospel.

Yes, your sins are forgiven.

Yes, you are Mine. 

Yes, I baptize you.

Yes, today you will be with Me in Paradise.

Yes, this is My Body, My Blood.

Yes, I love you.

Yes, it is finished.

Yes, you are worth dying for.

If you tell me later that you understand that, I will call you a liar. (Lovingly!) For that is love beyond our comprehension. Love not earned or deserved, but freely, graciously given. To you. The love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Or as another one of our hymns puts it: Love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be (LSB #430 v.1).

That’s what this night is all about. 

But maybe I should change the words of that hymn I just quoted . . . just a little . . . to this: Love to the loveless shown that they might loving be. For because of the love of God for us, because Jesus said YES, Golgotha IS a hill worth dying on, FOR YOU . . . that changes you. It changes how you answer that question in your own life. Jesus enables you to answer that question differently - not because the others have changed and suddenly become worth it, but because you have changed and now see them differently. As Jesus sees them. And if HE said YES, they are worth dying for, can we give any other answer ourselves? that the love of God shown to us and then through us, change them, too. 

So we leave tonight changed. Changed by His love. Changed by His forgiveness. Changed by His death and resurrection. Changed by the gift of the Son of God, who said YES, you are worth dying for.

We sit here in darkness now, as we remember what that YES cost Him. But it is not complete darkness. For no matter how dark it gets for us, or in our world, we have always the light of Christ - His YES - to break the darkness, to give us hope. That while darkness will have its hour (Luke 22:53), and sin will have its day, the light of Christ will shine for eternity. For as the book of Revelation tell us, in heaven, there is no sun or moon, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb (Revelation 21:23). The devil tried to extinguish that light this day. He failed. He thought that doing so was a hill worth dying on! And so he will. Forever. Because Christ died on this hill, too. To defeat the devil. To crush his head. And then rise to life again. And because He did, we are forgiven. We are raised. And we will live - because of Him, and in Him, forever.

Because of this hill, called Golgotha. 

This hill worth dying on. 

For you.