Archive for April, 2025

He Is Risen!

(Note: This is my last Easter sermon as full-time pastor.)

Herod, king of Judea married and unceremoniously divorced the daughter of Aretus, King of Petra. Her enraged father marched his army up the region west of the Dead Sea and encountered the army of Herod which he decimated.

When the time of the Jewish Passover arrived Herod lacked sufficient forces to adequately supervise the festive. The lack of military governing forces was compounded by the furor over the resurrection of Jesus. Therefore, when the Jews involved in the crucifixion came asking for a guard to be placed at the tomb Herod said, “You have a guard, go and make the tomb secured.” His reference was to the Jewish Temple Guard. The guards at the tomb were Jews not Romans.

I hasten to acknowledge this is in no was a condemnation of the Jewish race. All associated guilt was related to those involved at the time with no generational guilt.

It is the commemoration of an incomparable impossibility defied by an unsurpassable reality. As a confirmation of His divine nature and transformative role Jesus’ lifeless corps was reinvigorated with vibrant life and He arose from what His Roman executioner pronounce Him as dead.

“He is risen” reverberates through the corridors of the centuries, and rests like a memorable mantle on the celebration called Easter which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is called Easter because the Romans wanted to divert the worship of the sun god Estra into a Christian festive occasion. Estra was the goddess of light. The fact the sun appeared at a certain point on the horizon they associated it with her and called that direction east. To overshadow this fading tradition the church declared the time an occasion to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

The date of His resurrection cannot be fixed for certain but the day can. It was on the first day of the week, Sunday. For many of His followers every Sunday is a celebration of His resurrection. Thus, it is the only holiday celebrated 52 days a year.

Jews have their meaningful Passover celebration and Moslems Ramadan. These are times in which they commemorate meaningful events in their faith.

The concept of a dead man coming back to life is as radical as the sun rising in the west. When it was first preached 5,000 who had been in Jerusalem at the time professed their belief in the fact and were baptized. Within the first century history records that over 5,000,000 were martyred because of the faith in the fact.

When it was first reported in Jerusalem the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of the day, appointed a brilliant young jurist, an intellect of renown, from their ranks to investigate the rumor. He gleaned more information on the case than anyone of the time. It was by him most of the first person facts were recorded. He was Saul from the town of Tarsus. He came to be known as Paul.

At the peril of his life he reported what the investigation revealed. It was contrary to the bias with which he approached the case. He believed it so fully he died in defense of his report.

Inductive reasoning supported his conclusion. Christ was dead. The official death certificate was prepared by His executioners who knew death. His lifeless body was placed in a tomb. Three days later it was gone. If so, it had to be stolen. If stolen by His enemies all they had to do to stop the resulting revolution was present the lifeless body and make a mockery of the sham. If stolen by His friends all they had to do was present His cold dead body and relieve themselves of the resulting persecution. A wave of martyrs has followed those of the first century gaining hope of an afterlife because of their belief in the bodily resurrection. If not stolen by friends or foes there was no one who could have taken it.

The court of man condemned Jesus to death. The appellate court of heaven reversed the decision.

The best news the world ever received came from a grave yard just outside Jerusalem: “He is risen.”