St. Mark 16:1–8
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
For the past week we have followed our Lord
to Jerusalem and to His cross: from the palms and hosannas, to the instituting
of His Supper, to the agony, suffering, beating, crucifying, and dying. All
this He suffered for us and we have followed the story once again to hear what
our God has done for our salvation. Now, because we have buried the Lord Christ
and have heard how He departed this life, we must also see Him rise out of the
grave again and celebrate the day of Easter. This day we hear again what our
God has done for us, that we might have everlasting life. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in
it (Ps. 118:24). For this is the
day on which He became Lord over death and over all things in heaven and earth.
And yet I wonder if we don’t
skip over too quickly this little phrase in the Apostles’ Creed: He descended into hell. This is actually
the first part of our Lord’s victory, but we really know so little about it. Before
He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven – while He was still in the
grave – He descended into hell so that He might redeem us who lay imprisoned
there. All of us are prisoners of hell due to our sins, unless the Lord rescues
us. And so we know that our Lord Jesus died for our sins and so rescued us from
death and the devil. We can’t say exactly what happened or how His descent into
hell occurred. Scripture doesn’t answer all the questions that we ask, and we
shouldn’t try to probe into the mysteries of God. But we know what our
salvation means to us because God has told us. He has revealed His Fatherly
heart through the death and resurrection of His Son. So faith does not
scrutinize God, challenging Him to explain Himself. Faith trusts. Faith grasps
the simple meaning of the words of Scripture and the simple meaning of the
words in the Creed.
Christ descended into hell,
broke its gates and destroyed them. Think of nothing else than that Christ has
conquered the devil and taken all his power from him. That is the proper,
Christian way to think. So let us fix our hearts and thoughts simply on the
word of faith: “I believe in the entire person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God
and man, body and soul, born of the Virgin, suffered, died and buried, He
descended into hell.” He went there with His banner in hand as a victorious
hero. He tore down its gates and charged into the midst of the devils, throwing
one through the window and another out the door. This is how faith trusts God’s
Word. He is our Father and we are His dear children. So let us keep a childlike
understanding. Believing His Word is the chief thing. As far as we are
concerned, Christ has torn hell apart and the devil’s power has been destroyed.
That is why He died, was buried, and descended into hell. And believing in the
victorious Christ gives us the power so that neither hell nor the devil can
take us captive.
Now I don’t wish to make light
of death. We have all lost loved ones, and so we might wonder, if death and
hell have been destroyed, why are they not alive? Hell does remain hell and
holds unbelievers imprisoned there. And in this fallen world and with this
sinful flesh, death, sin, and all evil still have their day. Nonetheless they
cannot truly destroy us. Those enemies of Christ and His Christians still rage
and carry on because they know they’re finished. Their time is up. Sin, death,
and devil have already lost, but they kick and scream and try to do as much
damage as they can before the Victor returns. We who believe in the Lord Jesus
do not need to fear them. By His descent Christ has quenched all the fires of
hell and He has done away with death also. Because not only our did Lord Jesus
descend. He also came back from death and hell. He was brought again to life,
and He has opened the way to heaven.
On
the third day He rose again from the dead. So death can no longer gobble Him up nor hold Him in its grip.
The devil cannot bring an accusation against Him anymore. And that means
neither death nor devil can do anything against us anymore. Jesus did all this
for us sinners. He is the first to rise and live forever and so He has become the firstborn of the dead (1 Corinthians 15). And because He
lives, we will live with Him. We were once held captive by sin and death and
now we have been redeemed by His blood. And even more, we are already victorious
through faith in Him. This is why we shout these words: Alleluia! Christ is
risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!). We belong in and with these words. They
are about Christ, but because we believe in Him, then they are about us also! And
they are about all our loved ones who have died in the faith and are with Him
now and will rise with us on the last day.
How do we know this? How can we
be so confident? Because we have already shared in Christ’s death and so we
already share in His resurrection. We are baptized! We have already risen in
faith through Baptism, and even though we wait for our little death at the end
of our lives, we know by faith that we already have death over and done with. Christ
is living and so will we. It is no longer
I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2). We are baptized and
so we daily rise with Him through the Word and Baptism. We celebrate Easter
today, but really we have Easter every day.
This is what we sing in our
Introit too. I awake, and I am still with You. Alleluia!
You lay Your hand upon me. Alleluia!
This is the chosen Psalm for today because the first word in Latin is resurrexi – I am risen, or I awake. But
the risen Jesus is not the only One to sing these words – we do too. Our
crucified and risen Lord is with us and so we are with Him, no matter where we
are. If I ascend
to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, that’s hell
or the grave, you are there! Even in the
depths of the grave your hand shall lead
me. Even in the darkness of death your right hand shall hold me. Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. The knowledge of the
resurrection is astounding. It fills us with overwhelming thoughts that are
hard to even put into words.
And still, we should get used to
thinking such thoughts of faith against what our flesh can see. When we look
around and see death everywhere, our body and mind tell us that that’s all
there is. We think death is natural. That there’s no escaping it. But that is
dead wrong. Instead let us fix our eyes of faith on the living Lord Jesus. Let
us fill our minds with the wonderfully high knowledge of His resurrection. And
don’t care if it sounds ridiculous to the rest of the world. The wisdom of the world
can never understand this. God’s Word contradicts our sinful thoughts. “God
dies and mortals live?” It sounds insane. But by faith, we get another point of
view. Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!). Indeed, and
not for Himself only but for our sakes. His resurrection is our resurrection. We
shall not remain in the grave and in death, but we shall observe the eternal
Easter day in our bodies with Him.
It is the knowledge of the
Christian, the knowledge of faith in Christ and His resurrection, that in the
midst of mourning and lamentation, in the midst of this life where we see so
much death, we can draw comforting and joyful thoughts of the life to come. And
even more, the risen Christ Himself is with us, proclaiming His victory, giving
us a taste of the victory feast with His body and blood. He is risen and He is
still with us. Then when our days in this dying world are done, God our Father lets
us be buried in the earth and rot for the winter, so that in the summer, that
is on the Last Day, we shall once again emerge much more beautiful than this
sun. It is as if the grave was not a grave at all, but rather a garden planted
with wonderful carnations and roses that will remain green and blossom the
whole lovely summer through.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
Adapted from Martin Luther’s Torgau Sermon
