Return and Rise Mark 16:1-8

He is risen!  He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you, from God our Father, and our risen Lord, Jesus Christ, to whom we return and rise! 

Our Lenten series has been, Return to the Lord, based on Joel 2:13:  Return to the Lord, Your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

We returned to the Lord in ashes, with repentance; we returned in prayer with Jesus at Gethsemane; we returned from betrayal by Judas; we returned from false witness by Jesus’ enemies; with Peter we returned from denial; with our Lord before Pilate, we returned to the Kingdom that is not of this world; we returned to the Table of our Lord’s body and blood, given and shed for us; and we returned to Calvary, where He gave His life for us.

It all comes together this morning, as, with the women and the disciples, we return to the tomb, and see our Lord alive again! 

What a difference a year makes. Last Easter this was a pretty empty place. How good it is for us to return, and again, celebrate our Lord’s resurrection together.

How good it is every Easter, and every Sunday, and every day, in our worship and in our hearts, to return to the empty tomb. 

Return and rise is our theme today. We’re going to talk about Jesus rising up over sin and death, that we might rise in faith with Him.

What is it in life that you need to rise up from? What’s trying to keep you down? 

Sin, death, the devil, and this fallen world all do their best to keep us down and out, to drain us of our Easter hope.

But thanks be to God, their best isn’t enough. God’s Son is better. His resurrection overpowers their deadly intentions for you. 

The reason we know that Jesus is greater, is because the women went to the tomb on Easter morning, and saw… nothing, at first. 

Our Gospel says When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

But God had it taken care of. When they looked up, Mark says, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled away. 

Matthew tells us that an angel came from Heaven, and rolled away the stone, causing the ground to shake. The opening of the tomb of the Messiah triggered an earthquake. Think about that. That’s amazing.

Perhaps, when Jesus comes again, and opens the graves of all, and raises the faithful in glory, maybe it’ll also cause the earth to quake. 

Matthew tells us that when Jesus died: The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. It was a prelude to Jesus’ resurrection three days later.

Perhaps in the same way, the whole world will shake when Jesus opens the  graves of all, and raises us on the Last Day. 

Or maybe not. We’ll find out. Either way, it’s going an awesome sight; an amazing, one of a kind, once in a lifetime experience; a once in an eternity experience!

Back to Easter morning, with the tomb opened, some of the women peaked inside, and Luke says they saw… nothing, to start with.

What a glorious sight, to see that by the power of God, the tomb had been emptied. They didn’t quite understand it at the time, but later, looking back on it, they understood what glorious sight the empty tomb was.

What a glorious sight it will be, when God raises you, His faithful follower, and you look down back down on your grave, where your body had rested for however long, and you see it empty, abandoned, never again for you to return to death and the grave; always for you to live in your new and perfect heavenly home! 

Looking into the open tomb of Christ, at first, Luke says, the women saw no one, but then, when they looked again, Mark says, 

They saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. They were startled, understandably so.

What appeared to be a young man was an angel, maybe Gabriel. He said to them, Don’t be alarmed… I know who you’re looking for… Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. Look at where they laid him.

John tells us that Jesus’ grave clothes were laying there, neatly folded. 

Then the angel said, Go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

Luke tells us that Peter then came to the tomb to see what was going on. John tells us that he went with Peter. 

They saw the stone rolled away, and graveclothes neatly folded, but Jesus was nowhere to be found. He had already left, but they would see Him later, a number of times, and they would believe and rejoice!

How down and out the disciples were that Friday and Saturday, as they watched their Lord die, and saw Him buried. It must have seemed to them like the whole world was lost.

As down and out as they were, it didn’t compare to how far down and out Jesus was. On the cross, He bore the weight of the sin of the world, crushing the life out of Him. He was laid in the tomb, with the world’s sin holding His body down, while His soul waited in Paradise. 

But then, His soul returned from Heaven to His body on earth, and in a moment, with a surge of glory and power, Jesus threw off the weight of sin and death, rose, and walked out of His tomb, alive and well, never to suffer, never to die ever again. Always to live and reign in glory, and to rule His Church in grace.

From His place of glory on High, Jesus will return on the appointed day, to do for you what He did for Himself, to raise you in glory, never again for you to suffer or die or grieve or sorrow.

Now, back to our original question: what in life is keeping you down? What in this fallen world would have you act and think as if you’ve already been buried? What would keep you that far down and out? 

Well, I have good news for you: you have been buried. 

Not in the way that sin, death, and the devil would have you buried, down and out, with your spirit crushed, but in the way that the Holy Spirit has buried you in Baptism, for a good and holy and happy result.

As Jesus was buried to rise, so in Baptism, you were buried to rise, spiritually buried and spiritually raised. 

Romans 6 teaches us that in Baptism we’ve been crucified and buried with Christ, our sins nailed to the cross, our transgressions buried, so that with our sins forgiven, faith might rise up in us, giving us a new and better life with Christ. 

When the Holy Spirit came to you on the day of your Baptism, He gave you a spiritual resurrection, the rising up of faith and godly love in your heart. 

When Jesus comes again on the Last Day, He’ll give you a physical resurrection, the rising up of your body in glory forever.

Every Easter, every Sunday, every day, as we repent in our hearts, and return to cross and the empty tomb, we see our Lord by faith, risen and alive, standing victoriously over everything that would keep us down, and try to steal our Easter hope and joy.

As Jesus shook off sin and death and rose in glory, so let us shake off the sin and temptation that so easily entangle us, as Hebrews 12:1 says, and stand up and stand firm with Christ in faith, hope, and godly love.

When the devil comes your way to tempt you and try to take you down, tell him to take it back to Hell with him, where it belongs. Don’t give him the time of day.

Give Christ your time and your day. Return your heart and your day to Him, and watch Him bless it. That’s what he rose to do!

Jesus died in love and rose in glory for you. May you rise up in faith with Him now, and in glory with Him forever. 

And may the peace that He rose to give you, always guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, our victorious Lord. 

He is risen! 

He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! 

Amen.