CMLC 2026-04-05 Sermon (Traditional - Easter)

He is risen. And what an important phrase that

is. I know we sometimes push through that, indeed.

But what an amazing thing to be able to say.

This is not supposed to be normal. This is not

something that we are supposed to look at and

say, oh, it's just another religious phrase.

This is the thing that is meant to stand apart

from everything else. Nothing else about anything

we do as the Christian church means anything

without Jesus coming back to life. This is the

moment that the entire story has been pointing

toward. All year long, every reading, every hymn,

every reflection, everything in the rhythm of

our church calendar has led us here. Even the

events of Christmas. are meant for this moment.

We begin by remembering the prophets, the proclamations

of what it is that God desired, that He wanted

His people to follow Him, and that over and over,

the people constantly fell short. And over time,

to begin to almost give up, is there anything,

is there any hope other than failure and wondering

if God could ever love us? how often it is to

hear the very people saying, can you be merciful

to me, a poor sinful being? And God says yes.

Because we arrive at the Christ. We see His birth.

We see His life. We see Him begin to change everything.

To speak about the Kingdom of God. To show us

the radical teaching. God might someday be with

us if we could somehow get everything in our

act together. But rather that He has chosen to

be with us because He loves us. To restore everything

that we have broken by His love, by His grace,

by His life, by His light. And with that... we

begin to see that we are no longer bound to the

old expectations, the old pressures, the old

systems, the old ways of trying to measure up

to something that we were never going to fulfill.

Jesus didn't come to add more rules to make us

feel like we could never measure up. He came

to show that the old system is gone. But then...

Those who wanted to hold on to the old way take

him to the cross to be done with this crazy fanatic

who was trying to relieve people of the pressure

of never feeling like they could ever add up

and It looks like that is the end as they have

put him on that cross and he has died Right in

front of them. There is no doubt that his life

is gone as the spear has plunged inside of him.

But what do we see? As he is saying, it is finished,

complete, done. This does not mean the end of

the story. Because death, it would not hold him.

And now He has risen and everything after this,

everything we do as the church, everything is

about what that means instead of running from

God. And you know how many of you have been running

from God. And I know so have I. We are drawn

back to Him with forgiveness, with grace, with

life renewed. with the open arms of the Father

to the prodigal. It is all here. And yet, even

knowing this, even when we hear it, how often

is there still that moment for so many of us

when we listen and we say, wait, what? Where

did that come from? He already said it was finished

when he died. Wasn't the sacrifice the whole

point? Isn't that supposed to be it? The resurrection,

it can still surprise us. We've heard the stories.

We've read the prophecies. We've been going through

this for months at a time. But in the moment,

it's almost unbelievable. See, sometimes it feels

like the story took a turn that we did not expect.

And here's the thing. Sometimes, stories end

in ways that may make us think that that came

out of nowhere. How many of you? Raise your hand.

How many of you watched Happy Days back in the

day? And you're wondering year after year, where

is this even going to go? Fonzie with his leather

jacket standing at the jukebox, hitting it and

making sure the song plays and flirting with

some girl nearby? And then all of a sudden, you

see him on water skis literally jumping a shark.

Because the writers have no idea what to do with

the next part of the story. And yes, that is

exactly where the phrase comes from. And if we're

not careful, that's what many people may think

the resurrection is in the Christian story. Some

last minute twist to try to avoid feeling defeated.

after the religious leaders had gotten Jesus

killed. Like adding a final section to the Gospel

of Mark and thinking it was added just because

they wanted some better story. Because they didn't

like the way that it was ending. But no, that

is not what this is. Because the story is going

exactly where it was always supposed to go. From

the very beginning. It's not going off. the rails.

It's more like how I met your mother. And spending

nine years wondering why it seems to be all about

Robin instead of the mother. And finally, the

conclusion comes and it all finally makes sense.

The resurrection was not some last minute improvisation

to try to save the story. It's the fulfillment

of God's plan. The angel doesn't say, hey, I've

got a new story for you. He says remember how

He told you. We see it in all of the prophets

that had come for centuries. God had left these

breadcrumbs for us in Scripture. Psalm 16, you

will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your

Holy One see corruption. God's Holy One would

not stay dead long enough to decay. Or Isaiah

53 describing the suffering servant. After he

has suffered, he will see the light of life,

because death is not the final word. Or Hosea

6 -2. After two days, he will revive us, and

on the third day, he will raise us up. Jonah's

three days in the belly of the fish became a

sign of Christ's own time in the tomb. The descent,

the confinement, the return to life. And Psalm

22. which begins with despair and ends with vindication

for the suffering servant. The story of suffering

becomes a story of hope and proclamation. Even

for those who are standing at the cross though,

all of this was hard to see. Could we blame them?

Life. Life is overwhelming. We struggle to see

the forest for the trees. What is right in front

of us oftentimes makes us forget what is happening

in the larger picture. How could they remember

every prophecy, every word, every sign, every

teaching that pointed to a resurrection? They

had just lost someone they loved. And when we

lose someone we love, how often it is that everything

else just falls apart. They got busy. We need

to go to the tomb. We need to bring spices. We

need to stay in hiding since we might be next.

Life keeps moving even when everything feels

like it shouldn't. And sometimes we don't face

what we need to face because we just don't have

it in us. And then there is grief. There is fear.

There is stress. There are all the things that

take our minds off of the things that are larger

and more important. They weren't careless. They

were overwhelmed. And sometimes you're just too

close to it. They were in the crucifixion, not

reading it like a story in a book. They were

living inside of the story. You can't always

see clearly when you're that close to it. So

could we really blame them for not putting it

all together? for not seeing how every prophecy,

every teaching, every moment was pointing right

here. That He would suffer. That He would die.

And that He would rise on the third day. When

we think about it, aren't we the same? It's easy

for us to forget even the everyday things in

life, isn't it? In the midst of life, of our

routines. We forget the things that matter. The

friendships in the loved ones that drift away.

We forget to care for ourselves. The exercise

plans that we swore was going to work three months

ago. The sleep we're supposed to be getting.

Eating better. All the things. We forget our

patience. We forget our integrity. We forget

our character and even the moral compass that

we were raised with so often. We are so caught

up in other people's anger and issues, telling

us how we're supposed to constantly be not only

angry and mortified and completely frustrated

with our neighbor, but also telling us which

people are our enemies and that we should turn

on them and constantly look for battles to fight

that are not actually there, forgetting the very

character that Christ Himself displayed. As believers

in Christ, we still end up forgetting what matters

the most. The resurrection. The new life. The

old being buried. The new coming back again.

Fulfilled. Restored. Whether we were baptized

as an adult and said, hey, this is the beginning

of my new life, and then we slowly start to forget

it. Or maybe we were baptized as a child and

never had the memory of it, and it doesn't stand

out the same way when we confirm our faith up

here. Whichever it may be, it's not that there

is no sincerity there. But it's not active the

same way it once was. We don't remember what

type of people to be ourselves when life gets

loud, when life gets busy, when life gets heavy.

Yet even when we forget what matters most, when

we forget God's will, God does not forget us.

God's plan unfolded exactly as He had promised.

Even when the people were too close to see it,

God had been writing the plan all along. This

was not an afterthought. This was not an oops,

this went the wrong way. Let's fix it. The cross

was never meant to be the final chapter. It was

always meant to be the one that came before the

resurrection, because the tomb was never the

last page. Jesus did not pause until everyone

understood though. He didn't delay until everybody

could finally be ready. He went to the cross

and fulfilled what He had promised to do for

us, resurrection and life. And if this had been

about proving a point, It could have looked so

very different. He did not die just to guilt

us into obeying better. You didn't obey enough,

so I will allow myself to die, and now you're

going to feel bad enough that you're going to

do it. He didn't die to show off how righteous

He was so that we would have to prove ourselves.

The Gospel is not, look how righteous Jesus was

and He got punished. Now feel bad and try to

live up to Him. And it's not even Jesus died

for you. The least you can do is live for Him.

Sounds great, right? But that was the old religious

system that Jesus came to challenge and to destroy.

Everything they tried, mocking Him, shaming Him,

killing Him, could not stop God's plan. Evil

could not, would not have the last word. The

Gospel is about life. Life that triumphs over

death. Life that defeats sin. He died to defeat

death, to destroy sin, and to bring everlasting

life to all who trust in Him. Life that is given

to us freely. Because God said, I will conquer

evil with good. I will end death with life everlasting.

I will begin with My Son whom you crucified,

and through Him you will have life too. And if

death does not get the last word over him, it

does not get the last word over you. This is

the start of everything new. Without the resurrection,

life would be simple. It'd be so ordinary. We

as Christians could just blend in. We could blend

in with all the other religions and say it's

just about being good people and follow the routines

and play it safe and be good people. and move

through the world just acting without thinking

about life beyond this very moment. Just focusing

on the here and now like everyone else. But the

resurrection says no. Our life is more than just

this life now. We have been given life everlasting.

This is the beginning. Even when we die, this

is still just the beginning. And even for those

of us who have lost loved ones so recently, it

is good to know that now is the beginning of

where new life begins. Because death is defeated.

Sin is forgiven. Hope is not fragile. This changes

everything. The sins that we have committed,

the mistakes that we will make, they do not define

us. God has already loved us enough to raise

His Son. He has already seen us at our worst

and loved us so much that when He brought His

Son back to life, that became the beginning of

life for us as well. Because if He could love

us that much when we are in the midst of killing

His own Son, how much more does He love us when

He has now brought His Son back to life and that

death no longer holds the last word. You have

now heard the truth. And there is nothing else

that I can share. Your life so often tries to

distract you from that. So often it is that there

are so many things that will try to pull you

down and away from that message, from that reality,

from that life. And that's why we're here today.

That's why we are here this morning. To bring

us back to what the Gospel truly is. Because

the Gospel is the resurrection. And it's not

just to prove that all things Jesus said was

right. It's not just to try to say, oh, see,

He won. No, it is to bring us into that life

ourselves. It's for us. It is to bring us not

into just the memory of what God has done, something

2 ,000 years ago, but to bring us into a story

of life everlasting today. Because even when

you failed, and even when you will fail again,

and even when you're not sure that you are ever

enough, God has already acted in love. He raised

His Son, proving that death does not have that

last word, and through that same Son, He offers

new life to you. The cross could have been the

end, but the resurrection is the beginning. Your

life now carries this promise. Everything is

new. Every day. Every choice. Every moment shaped

by the reality of Christ's victory. Every grief.

Every fear. Every doubt. Nothing can undo it.

Because you know, it's easy every day to forget

what really matters. It is easy to get caught

up in our work, our relationships, our anger.

our frustration, more than just whether we are

here on a Sunday morning, but even just in our

everyday life. We forget the people who matter,

even those in our own communities. We forget

to care even for ourselves. We forget our patience.

We forget our integrity. We forget what we believe

in. We forget sometimes whom we believe in. But

the resurrection bursts in anyway. It doesn't

wait for us to remember. It doesn't pause for

us to catch up. It is a reality we step into

whether we're ready or not. Because the disciples,

they were also confused, frightened, overwhelmed,

and still the resurrection came. The promises

of God were fulfilled right before their eyes.

We often need reminding just like they did. So

the reminder is this. Christ lives. And everything

is new. Even when we don't understand. Even when

life seems too hard. Jesus keeps His promise.

The good news of Easter is not that we fully

understand God. The good news is that even when

we forget, even when we struggle, even when life

is loud and confusing, And fear feels louder

than faith. Jesus keeps His Word. And He goes

to the cross. He rises again. The tomb is empty.

What looked like loss was actually a promise

unfolding all along. The resurrection reminds

us of God's promises. You belong to Him. You

are His child. And nothing, nothing can take

that away. We belong to Him. We are His children.

Sin does not define us. Death does not have that

final word. Hope is not fragile. Even grief,

even fear, even doubt cannot undo reality shaped

by resurrection and everything Christ has done.

So, let me end with this. I don't know what brought

you here today. It could have been that Easter

is one of those fancy holidays that Christians

do. Why not go check it out? It could be because

you would just love an opportunity to feel something

special today. Maybe the butterflies. Maybe the

children. Maybe whatever we might be thinking

might somehow inspire us. But right now, salvation

is for you. And if you want that salvation, it

is yours. If you trust Christ Jesus today, that

life everlasting is for you. Because He is risen!

Thanks be to God.