Facing the Future

The Resurrection of Our Lord (Easter Day)
St. John's Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
Luke 24:1-12; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26

“Facing the Cross: Facing the Future”

The future is now.

The future is now, and so many things are possible that were once impossible. In 1913, who could even imagine traveling from one side of the country to the other in under half a day? But now you can head over to Dulles Airport and hop on an 8:00 a.m. flight to get to Los Angeles at 11:00 a.m. that same morning. Only fifty years ago in the early 1960’s, being able to go to your local supermarket for fresh fish and vegetables from around the world probably seemed pretty much a dream. Today you could just head over to Whole Foods Market and get organic starfruit to have with Easter brunch. In the past twenty-five years, medical care has developed so much that medicines and surgical procedures can address previously untreatable conditions, promising improved quality and length of life. Some of the youngest of you have seen times change over the past ten (or even five) years with all the advancements in technology that have become part of everyday life. You can now carry a vast music collection with you wherever you go, either stored in your smartphone or streamed to you on demand. You can video chat with your friends down the street or family on the other side of the globe. If you enjoy books or magazines, an entire library’s worth of content can be at your fingertips on a tablet or e-reader. In another time, people once had to place orders from a paper catalog and then wait six to eight weeks for their purchase to arrive; today, you can go online and buy most things for delivery in one or two days – and companies like Google, Amazon, and Walmart are working to make same-day delivery a reality. The impossible isn’t so impossible anymore.

People have looked forward to a better future for as long as there’s been a future. The future promises hope. The future promises a tomorrow that’s better than today. At least, sometimes it does. It’d be nice if the future was all good news and inventions that improve the day-to-day lives of people around the world. It’d be great if you could look ahead to next month or next year and know that you wouldn’t need to worry, that the future will be bright. But that wouldn’t be very realistic, would it? Somewhere, a country is making preparations for war, striking out to get attention or to deliver punishment against people they believe have wronged them. Somewhere, people are dying from malnutrition and a lack of clean water, while yet others enjoy so much food and drink that they don’t even think about where it comes from or how long it will last. Somewhere, someone is sitting next to a hospital bed, wondering why all those medical advancements and experimental treatments of the past century have not brought healing to their loved one who lays dying. People have looked forward to a better future, and despite all the bright changes that have come along, the darkness of death remains.

You will die. Despite what they say about death and taxes, death is the only experience that everyone will have to face. You will die, and so will your parents and your children and your spouse and your friends and your enemies. Death lurks around the future, clouding it – sometimes to the point that it seems to be the only thing left out there. Death is scary. It fills the future with fear. What will happen when you die? Some people ignore it, pretending that it’s nothing that could happen to them or their loved ones. Others just say that death is the end of existence – and if nothing comes after it, why worry? Death isn’t just a fading away: it’s the future that you and I deserve.

St. Paul calls death our “enemy,” a pretty good way of describing something that exists only to destroy us and all the relationships that we have. This enemy, though, is just finishing the job that we have started. Human beings are meant to love God and love each other, but we don’t do either very well. Fearing the future, fearing death, fearing loss, we look to ourselves for hope. Despite all our advancements, we make choices that are based on self-interest over sacrifice for the benefit of others. We each do it, every single day. Our self-interest turns us away from God. And turned from God, there’s no hope to be found. Death, the great enemy, is the consequence of our sin, our separation from God. It’s what we deserve. It’s the only possible future left for us, and that is an impossible burden to bear. Unless you’re God.

What do you think your funeral will be like? Do you expect that your friends and family will gather to remember your life and your time together? What color will the flowers be? Will the sun shine down as they place your remains into a tomb? The women who went to Jesus’ tomb early on Sunday morning knew that he had not received those customary farewells when his body was taken down off the cross in the waning hours of Friday. They went to honor him by properly preparing his remains for burial, and probably to prepare themselves for a future without him. Upon arrival, these women found the stone that had covered the tomb rolled away, but they did not find Jesus’ body. Angels appear to clear away their confusion, reminding them that Jesus had told them that he would be betrayed, die on a cross, and rise on the third day. Remembering Jesus’ words, they returned to tell the rest of the disciples what had happened – indeed, a funeral unlike any other! We hear that Peter went to the tomb to investigate their claim, only to see the empty grave and be left wondering. Was the impossible now possible?

The forty days of Lent have passed. In that time, God’s Word has called us to face the cross, the place where Jesus of Nazareth went to carry the impossible burden of your sin and my sin, all the selfish choices of a selfish world. Jesus gave himself up as the perfect sacrifice for taking away our sins. He was buried when his friends laid his lifeless body in a new tomb. And if that were the end of the story, then we would have no hope for the future, because a dead savior is no savior but merely another person to fall before our enemy, death. But Jesus rose from death as he had promised, defeating the enemy and declaring that it held no power over him. Jesus would go on to show himself alive to many – St. Paul notes earlier in 1 Corinthians 15 that he even appeared to more than 500 disciples at once. Jesus’ resurrection is a true fact, grounded in history. It is a basic element of what Christians believe and the foundation of hope for the future.

You will die. That’s a fact, too. But because of Jesus, you can live. The life that Jesus gives is life that comes through the cross. Through the cross, Jesus reconnects humanity with God, the source of life. In the waters of Baptism, God takes the dark future of death that we deserve and exchanges it for the bright future of life in Christ. Death no longer has the final say. Starting next weekend, come back and join us for our new {SJLC@9:30} Sunday morning course, “Death… Then What?” We’ll explore what else God’s Word has to say about what happens when we die and hear more about what hope we can have as people who have been called to face Jesus’ cross.

The new life that you have through the cross doesn’t begin at your grave. If you have been baptized, you are already living it. Unbound from a future that leads only to death, you are now an agent of God’s grace. You bear the true hope that Jesus’ resurrection brought into our world. Like those women at the tomb – the first evangelists – you have been given the good news that life need not be about self-interest. How will that shape your future? How will your choices change, knowing that God has chosen you to reflect the light of Christ into the dark world around you? He hasn’t just disappeared, leaving an empty space to keep you wondering as Peter did departing the tomb. This Easter morning, our living Lord is here for you, to feed you and equip you. At the table that he prepares with his own body and blood, you will get a glimpse of what’s to some. Here, you will get a taste of the future that belongs to you as you receive God’s gifts. Here, you will share in the fellowship of all those who know the joy of Jesus’ resurrection life. Here, our Lord offers you strength, patience, peace, and forgiveness as you face the future.

This Easter, we celebrate that, through Jesus, what was once impossible is now possible. Facing the cross, see the empty tomb beyond it. Jesus lives, and he has won the future for us – a future with God.

The future is now.

Amen.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!