Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Quincy, IL
Rev. Larry D. Troxel
The Resurrection of Our Lord
The First Sunday of Easter - Easter Eucharist
Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 10:15 a.m.
“You Have Been Raised with Christ.”
(Colossians 3:1–4)
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Today joy reigns in all who trust in Christ Jesus. For this truly “is the day the LORD has made;
we will rejoice and be glad in it!”1 Today we celebrate the death
of death, the defeat of Satan and hell, and our emancipation from the enslaving power of sin. Gloom
and fear are banished; peace with God is an accomplished fact. Today we celebrate the greatest victory
of all, the resurrection of Christ Jesus, our Savior, God, and Lord.
And when all the hymns have ended, when we have feasted both at our Lord’s Table and at our
family gatherings, when all the Easter eggs have been found, and gifts have been opened, and the mood
of celebration has mellowed into relaxation, what does it all mean? When we close our eyes in sleep
tonight and awaken to another workday tomorrow, what does it all mean?
The answer lies in the Word of God and in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism which it has been our privilege
to celebrate with great joy this morning. For what God the Holy Spirit did for Layne this morning is what He
has done for every baptized child of God.
In his Letter to the Colossians, and in his Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul makes known the great connection
between Christ’s resurrection and our own baptisms. He wrote: “Having been buried with
[Christ Jesus] in baptism, … you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God,
who raised [Christ Jesus] from the dead.”2 In and through Holy Baptism,
we have died with Christ Jesus, been buried with Him, and have been raised to new life in Christ Jesus. That is
what God did in Layne before our very eyes this morning. And that is what God has done in every baptized child
of God.
Since that is the case, Saint Paul wrote, “since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are
above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things
that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life
appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”3
We have been and continue to be full participants with Christ Jesus in all that His resurrection accomplished.
Death no longer can threaten us. For those who are in Christ Jesus, death is now the open door to life eternal
in the glorious presence of our Savior. For those who are in Christ Jesus, Satan is a defeated enemy. In his
well-known hymn, Martin Luther rejoiced over this fact with the words, “He can harm us none. He’s judged;
the deed is done; one little word can fell him.”4 Hell holds no terrors for
those who are in Christ Jesus, for, by God’s grace, we never will experience it. We live in the triumph of Jesus’
victory over the enslaving power of sin, for now we have received both the ability and the motive to say, “No”
to every temptation and sin. And we live under the complete forgiveness of all our sins which our Savior has won for us.
These and the other rich treasures of God’s grace for us in Christ Jesus are “the things above”
of which Saint Paul wrote, the things which are to the priorities of our lives and the consciously decided focus of our
thoughts and attitudes. Because Christ Jesus has ascended and possesses and exercises all authority and power
in the universe, because Christ Jesus rules all things for the benefit of His people, His church,5
because He has done all this and continues to do all this graciously for our benefit, we consciously decide to set our minds,
our values, and our lives on things that are above. We highly value and concentrate on what matters eternally.
Now this does not mean that we overlook the joys and good things of this life. Because Jesus is risen and reigning
for our benefit, we who trust in Him truly can enjoy the good things of this life in ways that are God pleasing. But we
do not set our hearts and minds on them as though they were the only things that matter.
Today we will enjoy some of the good things of this life — Easter egg hunts, Easter foods and Easter feasts,
and family fun together — as gifts that God has given us, with thanks to God for them. But just because Easter
candy is consumed and gone, because Easter foods become leftovers and they soon are gone, because Easter
clothes are no longer new but instead wear out, and because all of the good things of this life are temporary, we
hold them lightly and are not possessed by them. And with minds and eyes opened by God the Holy Spirit, we
deliberately choose to turn away from allure of sinful temptations. Instead, we know where our true life and our
true joys are to be found, in all that Christ Jesus has done for us and won for us and gives to us through His Word,
through Holy Baptism, and through the Lord’s Supper.
When temptations and sin come knocking on the doors of our lives, when they come creeping into our thoughts,
when they are aroused by what we see and hear, we reject them, saying, “The person you want no longer
lives here. I died, and I have been raised to new life in Christ through Holy Baptism.”
When troubles and hardships and losses threaten us, we remember that we have been raised to new life with Christ
in Holy Baptism. In Christ Jesus we have true security that no enemy can overcome, true riches that never decline in value,
a peace which nothing can destroy, a confidence that never grows weak. For our Savior is risen from the dead. In Holy
Baptism He has linked Himself to us and promises, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”6
Because Jesus is risen and reigning, we face the future with confidence. Unbelievers look at all the troubles and
conflicts which fill our lives, our society, and our world and wonder how anyone could dare to bring an infant into a
world such as this. Those who trust in Christ Jesus live in confidence because Christ Jesus came into our world
and living among us as one of us. He died in our place, and rose in victory for us. Because He is risen and reigning,
we rejoice at His gift of an infant. David and Leslie, you can face Layne’s future with confidence because Christ
Jesus has linked Layne to Himself as His own dearly loved child and has given to Layne all the treasures of Jesus’
resurrection victory. And when Christ appears at the End of Time as King and Judge, then everyone will see Layne and
all of us who trust in Christ Jesus appearing in heavenly glory with Jesus. This is the future which our Savior promises
to all who trust in Him.
Truly “this is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it!” Amen.
1. Psalm 118:24 NKJV
2. Colossians 2:12; see also Romans 6:3–4
3. Colossians 3:1–4
4. Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, composite translation, from Lutheran Service Book
(Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006), hymn #656, verse 3.
5. Ephesians 1:20–23
6. Hebrews 13:5, quoting Deuteronomy 31:6, 8; Joshua 1:5
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