"The Place Where They Laid Him" Easter Vigil April 19, 2014 Mark 16:1-8
You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. A vigil is something we do. Not the women. They weren’t holding a vigil. In their profound sorrow they were caring for the body of their Lord. Only, there was no body. “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.” In their profound sorrow they had forgotten, but actually had simply not believed, that what the angel was telling them now was what their Lord had been telling them all along, that Jesus would not stay dead. That He would rise. You seek the one who was crucified, but He’s no longer here. He has risen. See the place where they laid Him. They were not holding a vigil. We do this because we know after the fact the fact of what happened. Would we have believed unlike the women? It’s doubtful. They were no different than the rest of the disciples. Even the Eleven, whom Jesus was calling to be apostles, did not believe. They were not holding a vigil but hiding out in fear. A vigil is something we do. We know the outcome. We know that following the evening on Saturday and through the night Jesus came out of the tomb early on Sunday morning. We know this and we believe it and so we hold a vigil. We wait for a few more hours to hold the joyous celebration of Easter victory. Even as we do we can’t help but already take hold of the joy. We know what happened. We know He rose. We know the truth of the words of the angel. We have heard the countless promises of God and His salvation. We have seen how they all have come about. We have seen that it is through the Son of God. Jesus of Nazareth, the one who was crucified. The one who is no longer in the grave. The one who has risen. The one who will come again. And so our vigil takes on the form of a life lived in expectation. We are looking forward to Him returning in glory. As He rose on the third day so will He come again on the Last Day. As He promised to suffer, die, and rise, He has promised to come again. Our vigil takes the form of seeking Him where He is. We don’t seek Him in a tomb. We don’t seek Him in our hearts. We don’t seek Him in good works or other religions. We seek Him in the Word. In the Gospel and in the Gospel enfleshed in water and bread and wine. We seek Him in other places and we get the message, “He is not here.” We seek Him where He has promised to be found and we get the message, “He will go before you and will come again on the Last Day.” Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
