Risen Eyes

Alleluia! He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our glorious Father, and risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who rose to give us resurrection eyes.

Our message is based on Job’s prophecy of the resurrection, For I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth.And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

My eyes shall behold! Eyes on Jesus has been our Lenten and Holy Week theme. Our theme today is resurrection eyes!

The theme of our Sunrise service would have been, “Angel Eyes”, Easter from the perspective of angels.

Would you rather have resurrection eyes, or angel eyes? They both sound pretty wonderful.

Angels, have angel eyes; they see things people can’t. 

People, specifically God’s people, have resurrection eyes; eyes of faith, born of the Easter Gospel.  

There is a connection, though, between angel eyes and resurrection eyes: the splendid world that the angels now see and experience, we, God’s people, will someday see.

By faith, Job looked into the future and saw his Redeemer risen. And he saw his own body, healed and raised in glory, to gaze upon His living Redeemer.

In Baptism, faith rises up in us, giving us spiritually risen eyes and hearts, so that we can see, and anticipate, and hope for what lies ahead. And we see it’s a beautiful that God has waiting for us.

Worldly eyes can’t see that that far. Sin and doubt cloud our eyes, so that we can’t see beyond today’s troubles, or beyond this world’s natural limitations. 

But Easter eyes can see beyond a flawed and troubled world. Resurrection eyes look to a God who has no limitations. His rising from death proved that. 

Jesus took on our greatest limitation, our own mortality, and he turned it into the gateway to eternal life. Only God’s Son could do that.

And so we look to Him with spiritually risen eyes, eyes of faith and hope, and we see what we could never see before: life everlasting, love eternal, joy never-ending. 

Use your spiritually risen eyes, born of the Gospel, filled with hope, to look into the future, and see a glorious day, when all Heaven will rejoice, and you’ll be right in the middle of it.

Imagine the celebration of the angels on the morning Jesus rose; Heaven resounding with shouts of joy: He did it! He rose! He saved the world! Praise God! Praise His Son!

Now imagine the celebration there will be on the day when all God’s baptized children, rise in glory, and walk, in wonder and amazement, into the jeweled city of God, with angels cheering them on: “They made it! They’re here at last. Aren’t they beautiful, risen in glory? Praise God! Praise the Lamb who was slain for them, and lives again!” 

Can you see yourself in that parade? What a joy it will be, to enter Paradise, as the angels cheer us on. 

What a joy it is to know the angels are cheering us on even now, as we follow Christ, and walk by faith.  

All because the impossible happened one Friday afternoon, when the Son of God died for us; and three days later, when the Son of Man, rose for us.  

I wonder who saw it first? Have you ever thought about that? Who was the first to see Jesus alive?

Mark and John tell us that Mary Magdalene was the first person to see Jesus alive. But did the angels at the tomb see Him before Mary did on that Easter morning? Perhaps.

Early that morning, we’re told, some of the women went to the tomb, intending to anoint His body with oils. 

On the way there, they got to thinking: “How are we going to get inside? We can’t roll that huge stone away.”.

But God had already taken care of it. Matthew tells us that God sent an angel to do it for them. 

It would have been a large, shaped stone, flat on both sides; the angel rolled it back, flipped it over, and sat on it, waiting for the women to arrive.

When they got there, there were startled, and scared. The guards had already run off in terror. 

The angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid of me. I know who you’re looking for: Jesus, who was crucified. He’s not here. He’s risen, as he told you he would. Go inside and see for yourselves. Then go tell the disciples that He’s gone home to Galilee, and He’ll meet them there.” 

Mark tells us that at least some of them went inside, where they saw another angel, who told them pretty much the same thing: “He’s not here. He’s risen. Go tell the disciples to meet Him in Galilee.”

Luke tells us that the angel in the tomb was joined by another angel, probably the one that had been outside. 

It’s very possible that one of them was Gabriel, the angel that God had sent to Mary to tell her she would give birth to Jesus. 

And it’s possible he or both angels were the first living beings to see Jesus alive. What a great honor that would have been for them, as it was for Mary Magdalene, to be the first person to see Jesus alive.

Maybe the reason both angels told the women the same message, is that’s what Jesus instructed them to say. “The women will be here soon to anoint my body. Tell them I’m risen. Remind them that I told them I would. Then tell them to go tell Peter and the disciples to go to Galilee, and I’ll find them there.”.

Maybe the angels helped Jesus take off His grave clothes; maybe they were the ones to fold them. When Peter and John got to the tomb, they noticed that the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head was neatly folded.

Or maybe the first thing Jesus and the angels did was to praise God together; that would make sense. 

Or like we said, maybe Jesus was already gone when the angels got there. 

In that case the first living beings to see Jesus alive would have been the devil and demons of Hell, as He descended, not to suffer, but to show Himself alive, to make it clear to the devil that all his hateful schemes against God and humanity had come to nothing. 

I think it’s fascinating that it might have been the angels to see Jesus first, but it doesn’t matter; it doesn’t change anything; Jesus still rose! 

But when we think about all the little things that might have happened that day, we see how real it all was. It makes us feel like we’re right there with the angels, in the tomb, beholding our Redeemer, as Job says, seeing Him alive with our own eyes, and hearing the conversation with our own ears. 

These are just some of the fascinating things we’ll find out in Heaven. 

For now, we have God’s Word to teach us all we need to know every day. 

We have the Easter Gospel to enlighten our minds and empower our hearts, to give us resurrection eyes to see the world with, resurrection hearts to live by.  

So, as our Epistle says, we set our hearts and minds on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God… in that place of benevolent power, a power our world desperately needs. 

This devastating little virus has reminded us how fragile this fallen world is. We need the power of the One who’s overcome the world for us.

Look to Christ with resurrection eyes, and see Him, risen and powerful for you. 

See Christ over death for you… see Christ over sin for you… See Jesus over the devil and demons for you… see Him over disease for you… see the almighty, risen Christ over this deadly virus for you… see your Redeemer over fear for you… see your Lord over doubt for you… see Christ over worldly thinking for you, Christ over worldly living for you… Christ over despair for you… Christ over grief for you… Christ over a broken heart for you… see Christ over everything that would harm you and the world he died and rose to save.

Look up with resurrection eyes, and see your risen Lord over all for you. Then lift your voice and share the good news: He is alive! He lives for the life of all! Let the whole world believe and rejoice!

Look up to him with Easter eyes; see His redeeming love for the world; then with saints and angels, shout for joy, for Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

May the peace of our risen Lord, which passes understanding, guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, who rose to give you resurrection eyes. Amen.