Did you ever notice how some things we say have to be punctuated with an exclamation point? For example, "It’s a girl!" "It’s a boy!" Or how about this? "I just saw my doctor. He doesn’t know how, but my sickness is gone! Completely gone!" Or even this. "I just won a new car in the drawing sponsored by the local chamber of commerce!" I don’t see how you could say any of those things in a cold, bored monotone.

On Good Friday, just before Jesus died, he said, "It is finished." By that, Jesus meant he had finished his work as Savior of the world. He had "paid in full" for your sins and mine. If ever there are words that deserve to be punctuated with an exclamation point, they are the words "It is finished." But that hardly seemed to be the case when Jesus first spoke them. With darkness covering the land like a death shroud from noon to three? On Golgotha, a place perhaps littered with the skulls and bones of past executions? Moments before our Savior bowed his head and gave up his spirit?

Yet the exclamation point did come! Three days later! With an earthquake! A rolled away stone! Angelic messengers! From the very place where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had laid the lifeless body of their master after wrapping it with spices in strips of linen. The exclamation point for our Christian faith came on Easter morning. Can you hear it?

Some years back, I remember watching a television movie about Jesus. I don’t remember its title. I don’t even remember its content. All I remember is the ending. Jesus on the cross. Darkness over the land. Our Savior in agony. And then the screen faded to black. The movie was over.

First I was shocked. Then I was angry. I screamed at the television set. I wanted to throw it out the window. I felt cheated, because I knew there was more to Christ’s story. There was Easter. There was the empty tomb.

But what if Jesus’ story had ended on Good Friday? What if there were no empty tomb? Wouldn’t you and I be plagued by a lot of nagging questions? Questions like "Did the Father really accept Jesus’ payment for my sins?" "Do I really have a living Savior who will come back one day to take me home to heaven?"

Nagging questions? No, much worse. If there were no empty tomb, then you and I would have a God who doesn’t keep his promises. Like the promise in Isaiah 53:10,11: "Though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied." We understand this verse to speak about Christ. But, if Christ has not been raised, was the prophecy just a pipe dream?

Or what about Psalm 16? "I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay" (vv. 8-10). Another prophecy. This one we believe contains the confident prayer of our Savior Jesus. But, if Christ has not been raised, was this nothing more than a bit of prophetic whistling in the dark?

Jesus himself said, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days" (Jn 2:19). If Jesus has not been raised, was this nothing but a boast?

More than once, our Savior told his disciples, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise" (Mk 9:31). What’s up with that? If Christ has not been raised, was the master just trying to shield his students from the truth?

What if there were no empty tomb? St. Paul covered that "what if" scenario almost two millennia ago. The apostle came to this inspired conclusion: "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins" (1 Co 15:14,17). In other words, without the exclamation point provided by Easter, our Christian faith falls like a house of cards. Without the empty tomb, Jesus’ word "It is finished" is nothing but a whisper. Maybe even a whimper. If there is no empty tomb, maybe all Jesus meant was "My life is over. My hopes and dreams are finished. I have lost." Then we would have to be pitied more than all men, because then we’d be living a lie.

But, thank God, Jesus’ story didn’t end on Good Friday! All the eyewitnesses agree. There was an earthquake. A rolled-away stone. Angels. There was an empty tomb that stamped an exclamation point on Jesus’ Good Friday words "It is finished!" On Easter morning, Jesus Christ, the carpenter’s son, was once and for all "declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead" (Ro 1:4).

On Good Friday, Jesus Christ said he had paid in full. On Easter morning, the Father issued us a receipt for the payment of his Son. That’s what Paul is getting at when he assures us, "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" (Ro 4:25). Jesus’ empty tomb shouts that our sins have been paid for in full! And it shouts, our eternity in heaven is guaranteed.

There is an old adage: Two things in life are inevitable: death and taxes. Jesus’ empty tomb pretty much smashes that saying, doesn’t it? Pay your taxes, but know that death, our last great enemy, has been destroyed!

This is what the empty tomb shouts to us: "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive" (1 Co 15:20-22).

This is what the empty tomb shouts to us: "Because I live, you also will live" (Jn 14:19). Jesus’ promise is guaranteed.

This is what the empty tomb shouts to us: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another" (Job 19:25-27). The victory chant of Job can be our own.

This is what the empty tomb shouts to us: "It is finished!" Hold that confidence in your head and heart the next time you sit in a funeral home, shoulders slumped, handkerchief in hand, staring at the open casket of your loved one. If Satan uses that casket to whisper his lies, "Your loved one is gone. You’ll never see him again," send the devil packing with the confident confession of St. Paul: "We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. . . . We will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words" (1 Th 4:14,17,18). If at the graveside doubt and fear well up when the pastor sprinkles sand on the casket and says, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," roll the doubt and fear away from your heart. Let them lie next to the stone rolled away from Jesus’ tomb.

"It is finished!" It wasn’t just the empty tomb that shouted this message that first Easter morning! Angels shouted it, when they told the women who came to pay their last respects, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!" (Lk 24:5,6) The gospel writer Matthew tells us there were believers raised on Good Friday who came into the city after Jesus’ resurrection. They "appeared to many people" (Mt 27:53). I’m guessing their appearance alone added quite an exclamation point to Jesus’ work.

Jesus himself added an exclamation point to his work when he appeared to Mary, to the women, to Peter, to the Emmaus disciples, to the Twelve, to the five hundred, to James, and later to Paul. Every time our Lord shared the greeting "Peace be with you," his words from the cross shouted once more.

Then came the disciples’ turn. "With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all" (Ac 4:33). Another exclamation point!

Then came Stephen. When on trial before the Sanhedrin, Stephen saw the Lord Jesus seated on his throne. Even as his enemies stoned him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Ac 7:59). Another exclamation point!

Then came Paul and the powerful resurrection chapter that is 1 Corinthians 15. Then came John and the dazzling visions of heaven contained in Revelation. Then came countless other believers down through the centuries. By their simple faith, by their devotion to their Lord, each one in his or her own way used Jesus’ words from the cross as the victory shout of faith: "It is finished!"

Now it’s our turn. Shout it with me, "It is finished!"

Now it’s our turn. Live it with me. Amen.