Sermon for Easter Vigil

Tonight, we have heard some of the greatest stories and promises that God has given his people. You heard about how God has worked in this world from the beginning of creation. You heard about how God tested his servant Abraham, saved his people from slavery, protected those who believed in him from death and promised his people peace and salvation one day. These are not new stories, in fact, they are all quite old. These were probably familiar stories and promises for most of you.

For centuries, that’s all that God’s people had—stories and promises. Good Jewish people, like Peter and Mary, waited for their coming Messiah expectantly every day of their lives as the one who would be the fulfillment of these promises from God. You can see how close these promises are to the front of their minds when, as John says, they see an empty tomb and “believe”. They suddenly understand the scriptures that they have been reading all those years in a brand new way.

Their God hasn’t changed, but they now know him in a new way; not just as a God of stories and promises, but as a God that they have a relationship with. Their friend, their teacher, Jesus died and is now no longer dead. If Jesus had just died and stayed dead, that would be just another story about how God worked in the world, like so many other stories they knew. How many times had God sent a prophet to shock the Israelites back into a good relationship with him then promised them that one day everything would be different. If Jesus had died and stayed dead, it wouldn’t have meant that God didn’t love his people, or care for his people, just that God was still working at fulfilling his promises. But when the disciples see the empty tomb, they suddenly realize that everything has changed. No longer was God simply a God of stories and promises, they realized that they had known God face to face.

This past week, I was watching a TV show I like called LOST. One of the characters, John Locke, had recently died and then came back to life. Another character, Ben, had played a role in making this resurrection happen. When Ben saw John alive, he said, “I knew it. I knew that this would happen.” John replied, “Then why are you so surprised to see me?” Ben responded, “Because it’s one thing to believe it John, it’s another thing to see it!” It’s one thing to have a relationship with a God who promises to send his Messiah; it’s something quite different to see that Messiah with your own eyes. It’s one thing to have a relationship with Jesus who says he will be raised from the dead; it is something quite different to see Jesus’ empty tomb. And, for Mary, it is something even more astounding to speak to the risen Jesus face to face.

Paul says in Romans that “Faith comes through hearing and what is heard comes through Word of Christ.” However, that does not mean that just because you hear about Jesus, about his death and resurrection, that you will suddenly become a Christian and “believe”. In fact, as Martin Luther points out quite clearly, “I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.” “But,” he says, “the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel.” You can read or hear God’s promises about peace and salvation all the time if you look through the Old Testament. You can read or hear about Jesus Christ, his life, his death and his resurrection by looking through the New Testament. You can come to church and say the prayers, hear the words and sing the songs, but that’s doesn’t necessarily mean you believe in Jesus Christ as so many people and churches have discovered out throughout the ages. Faith doesn’t come from you, faith comes through hearing, and not just hearing some stories or some promises, but hearing from Jesus Christ himself—finding out that you have a new and personal relationship with him.

A theologian once wrote about how Jesus’ death changed everything. The curtain of the temple, that was supposed to separate the holy of holies for the rest of the temple, the place where God promised to abide set apart from the everyday folk, was torn in two. From this time forward, as this theologian put it, “God was on the loose!” Well, the same thing happened when Jesus was raised from the dead. The tomb that was supposed to hold him was open, “God was on the loose!” God is present here tonight not just so that you might believe in him through his stories as a very impressive God, or so that you might believe in him through his promises to be a Savior, but so that the Holy Spirit might give you faith to believe in him as YOUR Savior and YOUR God. Reading your Bible, praying and even coming to church is meant to give you the opportunity to hear from God again and again until his Holy Spirit makes the resurrection real for you, makes the promises fulfilled for you, gives you the eyes to see Jesus not as just some pipe dream, but as REAL in your life.

Mary had seen Jesus face to face, she had watched him die, she had seen the empty tomb, she was even looking at his resurrected face, but she couldn’t believe anything without God doing something amazing. God opened the eyes of her faith to see that she didn’t just have a relationship with a dead Jesus, but with a living Jesus. And Jesus tells her that their relationship will change again one day. Jesus is going ahead of her to prepare a place for her; he is ascending to the Father.

I pray that tonight God blesses you with faith. Not just a faith in a God who tells great stories or who makes great promises, not just faith in Jesus who rose from the dead, but faith in a God who died and rose from the dead for you. A God who won’t stay dead and won’t let this life have the last word. A God who keeps promising that there is more—more to life than death and more life to come. If you don’t believe, or have lost your faith, keep coming, keep praying, keep reading, and keep listening. God knows your name and will open the eyes of your faith to all the glory that he has promised just for you. One day you won’t have to just believe in Jesus Christ; one day, you’ll see him face to face. One day, you will hear him call out your name. Jesus is Risen. He’s on the loose again! Amen.