Life Overcoming Death: An Easter Meditation on John 20

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, 

when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher,

 and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher.

Easter is not just a Christian holiday, or a secular event for family celebration.  Easter celebrates and remembers the most pivotal and crucial event in human history since the Creation:  the victory of life over death.  In the beginning God spoke the universe into existence, and by the infinite power of His own Word gave life to His creation, His Spirit moving to enliven every creature with the breath of life.  When man chose to cut himself off from God and His Word, he brought death into the whole creation, so that every good thing which God had made now suffered under the knowledge of its own destruction.  Apart from the God whose Word is life, there was nothing to prevent the inexorable end of every creature in death.  And so has every person from that time forward, known that with every birthday comes a day of return to the dust from which we're formed.  Every life born under the curse of sin is bound to death, and death's victory over our first parents in the Garden seemed complete.  None would escape the just consequences of their Fall.

But even in the midst of our Fall God spoke His Word of life to those whose rebellion bought suffering and death to every human soul that would ever enter this world.  There in the sadness of their separation God tells Adam and Eve that He would send His Son, born of a woman, to bring forth His victory of life over death.  So even as every generation after Adam and Eve looked forward in grim knowledge of their own just death for their corruption and sin, there was always alive in the world a hope of the Savior whom the God of Life would send.  This Savior was promised by God through His immutable Word, and those who clung to God in the midst of death clung also to His promise of life yet to come.  No one knew when the Savior would come and accomplish the work God promised, but the faithful knew that God would always keep His Word-- because God and His Word are inseparably One.

Millennia passed one to another, and the household of faith waited in hope.  In the fulness of time God sent His Son, His Only Begotten, born of a daughter of Eve so that He might have a full yet sinless human nature from the Blessed Virgin Mary, and also fully divine of the indivisible essence of God His Father.  Fully human and fully divine, Jesus entered the world as the very Word of God made flesh.  This Word of the Father came to fulfill the promise He made to His people:  the Gospel promise that His life would be victorious over their death, and that every soul who laid down in death by faith would rise by grace into life everlasting.  The Word of Life which brought creation forth would restore creation again, banishing death and evil for eternity.

Of course, those millennia of waiting in hope caused many to doubt.  Just how would God accomplish so great a victory?  Every man who came into the world had lost his fight against death, and the endless series of tombs across the world bore witness to death's dominance over every challenger.  Though Jesus spoke words of life and healing to His people during His ministry in Judea, even calling people back from the dead, the people around Him doubted that He could achieve what no other had.  And if His disciples doubted His ability to defeat death, His adversaries doubted Him even more.  His own people's leaders handed Him over to the Romans for crucifixion, putting God to their ultimate test.  The evil which inflamed fallen human hearts tried to conquer the Word of Life by putting Him to death, swallowing Jesus into the darkness of hell itself.  His disciples watched as Jesus gasped His last breath and His Spirit departed His lifeless body.  They watched the Centurion's spear pierce His side and His still heart, from which flowed forth blood and water, providing solid assurance to the Romans and the Jews that Jesus was fully dead.  Like every man who came before Him, Jesus was now dead, with little left but to place Him in a tomb, where death's victory could be memorialized forever.

What happened Easter morning, however, turned all creation on its head.  Death and hell which swallowed Jesus could not contain the infinite and immortal life of the Son of God.  Rather than victory, death now sat in shambles, and the gates of hell were rocked off their foundations.  The tomb which death thought to be its greatest trophy, became instead the empty tomb of its greatest and most total defeat.  Jesus was resurrected because death could not hold the Author of Life, and out from the tomb He came, never to die again.  The promise was fulfilled and death was swallowed up in life, Jesus' resurrection being the eternal sign of His victory.

Easter certainly is the most holy day in the Christian calendar, but in truth, it is not merely a Christian holiday.  Easter is the first day of the new creation, the declaration before all in heaven and earth that Life has overcome death forever.  For every soul that enters this world from its beginning to its end there is hope fulfilled in Jesus Christ, because Jesus has conquered their death and given life to all who believe in Him.  It is a message for all people, and not just for Christians-- a message that our Creator is also our Savior and our Redeemer, having begun the resurrection of His people on that day nearly two millennia ago.  Every soul that dies in Christ also rises with Him in a new life that death can never touch again, leaving death's minions to know for certain that one day every tomb it thought was a trophy shall be cracked open at the return of Christ.  Every soul that rests in Christ's life will return to their resurrected body on that day to inherit a fully restored creation, free of sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil forever.

We live today in the shadow of two great days, with one more yet to come.  The first great day of the Lord was where His Word brought us all into existence, that we might share his fellowship and life.  After our fall, the second great day of the Lord was His Easter victory over death, where He gives His resurrection life to all who will repent and believe His Gospel.  The third great day of the Lord will be that day when He returns to close out the age, by His Word of Life calling all people from their graves unto the resurrection:  of the faithful unto eternal joy, and of the wicked unto eternal perdition.  On that last great day of the Lord, all evil and death will be forever separated from the new creation, and His people will shine forth with His reflected glory unto ages of ages without end.  From Adam through all the great and ancient prophets, the people looked forward to the victory of Easter where Life overcomes death.  From the Apostles to the last child born into the world, the people look forward to the victory of Christ when all that was won on Easter is brought forth into fulfillment for the whole creation.

And so to you comes the Word of Life which brought you into being, saved you from death and hell, and shall come again for you on the last day.  These three great days are universal and call out to every tribe, tongue, and race.  Jesus calls to you by His Word and Spirit, breathing a new life of faith and repentance into your breast, and uniting you into His eternal and blessed fellowship.  Hear His Word of Life to you, give thanks and praise to Him who seeks and saves you, who raises you up in the new life He won for you this Easter Day, and who promises just as surely to come for you once again on the last day.  All praise and glory and honor be to the Word of Life who has conquered our death, who comes that we may share in His life abundantly, and whose Eternal Word is our victory and our salvation forever.  Amen.