St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Easter Sunday, March 27, 2005 Exodus 20:8-11

⁸ "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Jesus Christ is risen today. He is risen indeed!

Let there be no doubt. Let there be no confusion. After the Sabbath, at dawn, on the first day of the week—Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earth quake—for an angel of the Lord came down from Heaven—and going to the tomb rolled back the stone and sat on his. His appearance was like lightning—and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Fear not—for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He is risen—just as he said. Come and see the place where he laid. Then go quickly and tell his disciples he is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you. The women hurried away from the tomb--afraid—yet filled with joy and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings!”, he said. They came to him. Clasped his feet and worshiped him. Jesus told them, too—don’t be scared. Don’t be afraid! Today is about the simple historical fact and truth—Easter Sunday morning—Jesus of Nazareth—Son of man and Son of God—rose from the dead. That changes everything!

Aaaaah! That’s what you say when you rest. When you push back in the recliner and your feet come up—as you sit in the soft comfortable daddy chair with the remote control in one hand—and a chilled beverage with one of those little umbrellas in the other hand. That’s rest—when you put on your most comfortable play clothes and relax. Rest is when you make a big bowl of hot buttered popcorn and build a fire in the fire place and watch a really great movie. Rest is when you go out to eat at a really nice restaurant with your closest friends—and the food is really good—and the company is even better—and you talk and talk and laugh and laugh. Rest is when you climb into your bed—and your pillow is made from the softest feathers from a whole bunch of goose tummies—and your sheets are flannel soft—and your quilt is filled with more feathers from more goose tummies. Rest is a cup of rich coffee with butterscotch and caramel and hazelnut—or a cup of tea or a cup of hot chocolate with melted marshmallows or a glass of fine wine. Rest is curling up with a good book. Rest is beautiful music—where you close your eyes and dream the sweetest dreams. This Easter morning Jesus gives us rest—the most profound rest for heart and mind—rest for soul and conscience.

This Lenten Season we have looked at Old Testament shadows of Jesus’ sacrifice to save us. This Easter morning we look at the sweet results of Jesus’ redeeming work. We see that rest in the shadow of the Old Testament Sabbath. The third commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” Sabbath literally means rest! The LORD gave his Old Testament believers a day of rest every week. Saturday—the Sabbath was not business as usual. It started technically the night before—Friday night when the sun went down. And it lasts until the sun goes down on Saturday. It was one day—every week—when the LORD reminded his people—you belong to me. You are not like everyone else! You do not worship lots of gods—one for the forest and one for the meadow and one for the wheat field. You know the LORD your God is one! You don’t curse or swear. You don’t work all day every day—racing and chasing after the things of this world. Your children will respect their parents and everyone in authority over them. You won’t let anger or lust or selfishness or jealousy fester in your mind and in your thoughts. You will love one another—including those who count you their enemy! You will make time—each week—to worship—to give thanks and praise and honor to your Savior and your Redeemer!

¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. In six days of 24 hours—just like the days we have today—it was evening—it was morning—the next day—the LORD made everything! Out of nothing he made light—this huge muddy watery egg—the planet earth—our solar system. From the soil—the earth—he made animals and Adam. From Adam’s rib he made Eve. I read the other day—one man’s list of the greatest inventions of all time. The mechanical clock—for telling time. Much more precise than—where’s the sun in the sky about now? People invented clocks? The LORD invented time—the passage of time—days, months, seasons—the movement of planets—the sun at the center of our system of planets—moons around planets that we didn’t even know existed until recently! Plumbing! Now there’s an invention—all that we have—water, wastewater, sewage—the sanitation we so take for granted. The LORD made the human body—capable of drinking milk and turning it into muscle and bones and energy. The human body that can sleep and work and give birth—can put pipes together so we have hot and cold running water—filtered water and crushed ice from our refrigerator door! We could talk about printing presses—and the LORD gave us God’s Word—to be printed and translated and shared. People have antibiotics and the LORD has cured the deadly infection of sin. We have phones and electricity and cars and TV and computers—all these inventions gifts from the LORD to be used to glorify him. And what is next? Some new use for the Internet—or genetic engineering or virtual reality? All that is new is not really new. All that we invent and celebrate—without doubt attacked by Satan. All that we invent and celebrate—opportunities for us to give glory to the LORD—who made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. All that we have and all that we are—and all that is around us—to be used to glorify him—in light of the Easter Gospel!

¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. One of the odd side-effects of the Tsunami—was the fact that deep sea creatures were washed up on shore—when the killer wave went back out to sea. Trapped in all sorts of places were fish that had been designed and engineered and built for the first time thousands of years ago—and yet so far—nobody had ever actually seen one. And now they were in puddles and ponds—inside homes and hotels—in cars and trucks and wheel barrows. These fish look like an angry Dr. Seuss invented them. A lizard fish—looks like a baby barracuda. The blob fish—well the name blob says it all. The umbrella mouth gulper—well that name pretty well says what is the unique and defining characteristic of that fish too. The tongue sole fish looks like a tongue—with little white hairs all a round the edges. The black dragon fish—looks like that fish on finding Nemo—with the little light dingle dangle—except it hangs from the bottom of the head—not the top. The Oreo dory fish—looks like it has Oreo cookies for eyes! It’s really remarkable. In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth—the sea and all that is in them! The LORD made all those creatures that people up to now have never even seen! What does that tell you about God? We have to say with the Psalmist: What is man that you are mindful of him? Stand on your deck and look at the billions of stars in the sky. Stand on the shore of the ocean—different oceans—the ocean down by Peru—where in warm water there are bunches of penguins! If all these things don’t make you feel insignificant—you have to get out more! Yet we are not insignificant! We count. We matter to our Heavenly Father. We matter because Jesus died and rose again—to wash away all the sin and guilt that once separated us from our Heavenly Father. We matter—not because we loved Him—but because he first loved us!

Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Rest—rest for your heart and mind and soul and conscience! How priceless is that? Peace and rest from forgiveness is something we like to claim for ourselves. But what about for other people? There is a young man who was moved the other day to San Quentin prison—to death row—to wait for what will most certainly be years—to be put to death for the murder of his wife and unborn son. They showed this young man being loaded into a van to be taken to San Quentin. You know how when the police load people into a squad car—people who are handcuffed—they are always very careful—putting their hand on their head—so they don’t bump their head getting into the squad car? Well—this guy was climbing into a van—and it was like—I don’t need any help—I can do this. And bonk—he smacks his head on the roof of the van. If I saw that film once I’ve seen it 20 times—every time—smiling, smiling, step, step—bonk! And there is something in my sinful heart that says, “Good!” And you know what? That’s wrong! It’s wrong to look at anyone else and think like the Pharisee-at least I’m better than that tax collector and sinner. The fact is—we are all saved by God’s amazing grace alone. We have rest and peace for Jesus’ sake. Jesus’ holy life—his tortured death and his triumphant rising from the dead means all my sins are paid for—and so are the sins of everyone!

Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Saturday, the Sabbath—a day made holy—that is set apart—belonging to the LORD. There is a very real sense in which every day belongs to the LORD. That means every moment of every day dedicated to the LORD. We were at the movies the other day. I like to stay for the credits—that long list of names of just about everyone that had anything to do with making the movie. Sometimes—not often but sometimes—there’s a little part of the movie—after the credits. Sometimes we’re the only people who get to see it. Sometimes—there’s something actually in the credits that’s worth it. Like this last movie we saw. There was a guy in the credits named Bob “Nice” Arandono. “Nice”—now there’s a nickname to be coveted. How nice would you have to be—to have people call you “nice”? This has to be more than—holding the door—or bringing a treat to work once in a while—don’t you think? Do you know people that are really—I mean really, really nice? I do! I know lots of people that are so nice—you have to be really careful what you say around them—because if you even suggest that you might like something—the next thing you know—they are going way out of their way to secure it for you! And I don’t just mean poppy seed or “milk and cookies”—although those are good examples! The truth of God’s Word is—nice—isn’t nice enough. Our Heavenly Father requires perfect—flawless—and we aren’t. We may be nice but we fall far short of holy. The Sabbath was a day to think about it. The painful reality of how far short we fall—of the holiness that our Father expects. Only Jesus could supply that holiness and he did. You can know that for a fact—when you see Jesus’ empty grave!

Jesus is on the cover of Newsweek this week. Did you see that? Inside there are lots of classic paintings—gruesome paintings of the crucifixion—a gruesome painting of the fall of Jerusalem—a gruesome painting of the Christians thrown to the lions and tigers in the coliseum—the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. What surprised me—quotes like, “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.” What surprised me—statements that say again and again—no one seemed more surprised by Easter than Jesus’ disciples. The women went to the tomb to put more spices on Jesus’ dead body. The disciples didn’t believe the women when they saw the risen Christ. Thomas didn’t believe the rest of the disciples—until he could put his hand in the wounds of the nails and the spear. The disciples were so slow of heart to believe that Jesus had fulfilled all that was written about him my Moses, the psalms and the prophets! None of this makes sense unless—unless it’s all true! That Jesus did rise from the dead—just like he said he would. When you understand the Easter Gospel—no wonder God’s people gather here this most wondrous day. And not just today—but Sunday after Sunday—until we too see Jesus—our risen Savior and King. Amen!

To God alone all glory!

Rev. Anthony E. Schultz