“He Is Not Here”

He is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The women came to the tomb very early on the first day of the week, after the Sabbath of the Passover. They had bought the spices necessary to do for the body of Jesus according to the custom of the Jews. They arrived, and were thrown into a tailspin. Instead of a sealed tomb and a dead body, they found a rolled-away stone and a young man dressed in a white robe.

The women had come to the tomb, expecting to do for the body of the Lord according to the custom of the Jews, to do for Him what was fitting for the dead. They had good intentions. They were seeking to perform a last act of kindness for Him who had shown them such great love throughout His life.

But Jesus is not there. They come to the tomb and find it devoid of a dead body, and instead an angel showing them the place where Jesus had lain. They have seen the signs and wonders that Jesus performed. They have witnessed the things He has done, and the things He has endured, through the past week. And yet, they do not understand. Where is the body of the Lord?

“You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen.” Strange words from the mouth of the angel. The Lord, whom you seek, is not in the tomb where you left Him. The one you saw give up the Ghost on Friday is no longer dead. The one who was crucified is risen. He is not here. You will not find Him in the grave, or in Sheol, or in Hades, or in any of the places one looks for the dead. Because He is not dead.

According to St. Luke, the angel asked those at the tomb, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5). Do not look for Jesus in the tomb, because He is living. Death is finished. Death is defeated. Jesus is no longer in the tomb, because death no longer has dominion over Him. Death swallowed Him up and carried Him down into the depths of the earth. But it could not hold the Lord of Life. The tomb was broken open and death was rent asunder. The Light of the World shone forth from the darkness. The power of death is broken. The gates of hell are destroyed. The bondage of sin is cancelled. You do not look for a lamp under the bed. Neither should you look for the living in a grave.

Rather, the angel instructs the women, go and find the Lord where He has said He will meet you. “Go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.” He has appointed for you the place and manner in which you will find Him, and you will see Him in His glory.

But what do the women do? Nothing. They ran away and kept their mouths shut. “They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” With fear and trembling, the women hide what the angel had told them, and they do not do what the Lord commanded.

You are not so different. You often do not go where He sends you. Like Jonah, when the Lord says go east, you go west. Or, perhaps more likely, you sit on your duff at home and do not go anywhere. You are comfortable right where you are, and not wont to go where the Lord sends you, especially since the devil's harassment is never far away from those who come in the Name of the Lord.

You, like the women, do not do what He tells you to do. He says, care for the least of these your brethren, and you look the other way when your neighbor is in need. He says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy,” and you stay home in bed. He says, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and you keep as much as you can to yourself rather than help and support your neighbor in his need. He says, give generously to build up the whole Body of Christ, and you horde your mammon for yourself.

Just as the women shut their ears in fear and did not listen to the word of the angel, so too you fail to listen to the Word of the Lord. He says, “I will be Your God and you will be My people.” He says, “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.” He says, “Take, this is My Body... This is My Blood.” Yet you act as if you have no god. You say you have no sin, and no need of the gifts given to you in your Baptism. You do not draw near and take the Body and Blood of the Lord sacrificially out-poured for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.

Nevertheless, the Lord comes to you anyway. He arranges it so that you will meet Him, one way or another. After all, the women kept their mouths shut, and yet the disciples still ended up in Galilee to rendezvous with Jesus. He is risen from the dead. He has suffered all, even death, for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.

And He is not angry about it. He is not bitter that He had to give up His throne, His honor, His life for you, even when you deny Him in thought, word, and deed. He is none of those things. What He is, is gracious. He is full of mercy and steadfast love. He is rich in blessing. He is anxious to forgive your sins and enrobe you with His blood-bought righteousness and innocence. He does not begrudge you the forgiveness, but gives it richly and daily, as abundantly as the flood flowed from His pierced side.

The angel instructed the women, and thus the disciples, to go to the place where the Lord promised to be, and “You will see Him, just as He told you.” Go to where He has promised to be, and He will be there, waiting for you. The same is true for you. But what did He tell you?

What He told you, where He has promised that You may find Him without fail, is the same as what He told the disciples on the night when He was betrayed: “This is My Body... This is My Blood.” You will find the Lord Christ indeed. You will find Him not in the grave, but in the place where He has promised to be – upon His holy altar, offering Himself to you to eat and drink. You will find Him in the breaking of the bread, in the wine out-poured and poured into you. This is where you will find the Lord, because He has promised that it is so.

You will find Him here, because this is the place and manner that He has chosen, that He may come to you and forgive your sins. Great or small, sins of omission or commission, they are carried away. They were left on the cross on Good Friday, and they have evaporated in the light that shines out of the darkness. You now shine with the light of the resurrection, because you bear about in your body the death and the life of your risen Lord. He is not in the tomb! He has risen! He is risen for you!

Then let us feast this Easter Day

On Christ, the bread of Heaven;

The Word of grace has purged away

The old and evil leaven.

Christ alone our souls will feed;

He is our meat and drink indeed;

Faith lives upon no other! Alleluia!

He is risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.