Your Body Will Rise From The Dead| Easter Sermon
Scripture Reading: Matthew 28:1-10
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Christ Is Risen: The Resurrection of the Body and the Life of the World to Come
A sermon by James Huenink | Easter Sunday
Hallelujah, Christ is risen! It is a joy to be here with you to celebrate the highest and most important day of the Church — the day of our Lord's resurrection.
Over the past several weeks, through the season of Lent, we have been working our way through the Nicene Creed, talking about all the wonderful and amazing things contained therein. During Holy Week, we looked at the work of the Holy Spirit. On Good Friday, we talked about how Christ created the one holy Christian and apostolic Church from the blood and water that flowed out of his side. On Holy Saturday, as Christ lay in the tomb, we acknowledged one Baptism for the remission of sins. And today, we are looking forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
This is why we sang that beautiful hymn with the refrain: "Jesus is risen, and we shall arise. Give God the glory, alleluia."
Jesus's Resurrection Is the Pattern for Our Own
Our Gospel reading for today shows us exactly what is going on in Christ's resurrection — and what it means for us. That's because Jesus's resurrection is the pattern for the resurrection that is to come. Jesus Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep; he is the firstborn among many. And so Jesus himself shows us what the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come will be like.
Why the Women Grabbed Jesus's Feet
Matthew's Gospel gives us some great details that you might miss if you were just reading through it casually.
The first detail is one that most people overlook. It says: "And they came up, took hold of his feet and worshiped him."
Have you ever wondered why Matthew makes a point of saying that they took hold of his feet? It's a rather odd detail. He could have simply said they fell down and worshiped him — but he didn't. They grabbed his feet.
Why does that matter?
In the ancient world — and in our imagination today — ghosts don't have feet. Spirits don't walk around on the ground; they float. Think about Odysseus, who descends into the underworld and meets all the dead heroes. None of them have feet. The same was true across other cultures. Even today, if you watch a horror movie where a ghost is haunting a house, it is usually a figure in a tattered white dress with no feet — because she's floating. Spirits don't have feet.
This tells us something profoundly important about Jesus's resurrection: he is alive, not as a spirit, but with body and soul together. Jesus is a living human being.
You Are Not Just a Soul — You Are Body and Soul
This is a vital part of the promise of the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, because it means that you too, in eternal life, will have a body.
Many of us think of the "real me" as our consciousness — our spirit or soul. You may have even heard people say, "You are a soul that has a body." But that is not what the Bible says about being a human being.
A human being is just as much physical as spiritual. We are body and soul. The only way to have the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come is to be alive — body and soul.
If Jesus did not get up bodily out of the grave, he did not defeat death, because his body would still be there. And if the resurrection of the dead did not include a body, then death would not be fully defeated for you — it would still hold half of you. The only thing Jesus might save then is your spirit, leaving the rest of you in the ground.
But that is not the story.
The story is that God raised Jesus from the dead — truly and fully. He got up, body and soul, and is alive. The women fell down and grabbed his feet, showing us he is not a spirit. He is a real, living human being, and he is risen.
The Same Body That Was Buried Will Rise
Jesus's body also tells us something about what our bodies will be like in the resurrection.
When the angels announce Christ's resurrection, they say to the women: "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay."
"Come, see the place where he lay."
If you had walked into that tomb, stone rolled to the side, there would have been a spot where Jesus had been — but he was no longer there. The body that had the nails driven through his hands and feet, the spear thrust into his side — that very same body got up and was alive again. The dead Jesus was now living.
This is another crucial part of what we look forward to in the resurrection of the dead: the very same body that goes into the ground when we die is the body that Jesus Christ will call forth from the dead.
Your body — the one you are in right now, the one sitting in the pew, perhaps holding a bulletin — that body will rise from the dead, just as Jesus did. Our graves will be opened, and when the Savior comes with power and might, he will call you from the dead to live forever. And it will truly, really be you.
What Will the Resurrection Look Like?
One of the things I get to do as a pastor is officiate at funerals. And no matter how many years I have been here, I was never around when our oldest members were young. At funerals, we often see many photos from their youth — pictures of men in World War II uniforms, looking healthy and vigorous; wedding photos with 1940s hairstyles, people looking beautiful and joyful. When you look at those photos, you can see it: I can recognize that person. Maybe they were a little older when I knew them, but that was them — healthy, happy, in the prime of life.
That is what the resurrection will be like.
You will be you. You will look like you. You will remember yourself — your facial features, your body structure. You will be you. But new. And perfect. Raised to new life, like those beautiful wedding photos from decades past. Maybe more hair. Because our resurrection bodies will not be brand-new creations that have never existed before — they will be the bodies that went into the ground, raised and glorified.
That is what happened with Jesus. His body — the one that died for you, that suffered and was buried — that body came back. He conquered death. He came out of the tomb no longer bearing the weariness of Holy Week, no longer burdened by hunger, no longer exhausted from the sleepless hours of Thursday and Friday. He felt no weight of the cross, no lash of the whip, no sting of the crown of thorns. He was raised to perfection, never to die again.
And that is what will happen for you.
The Promise: Death Is Defeated
The resurrection of Jesus is the promise that death is conquered — that it is defeated — that even when we go into the ground, Christ will return to make the grave a prison no more.
You will be raised from the dead.
This is the joy we confess at the end of the Nicene Creed: "I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."
Alleluia, Christ is risen.
In Jesus's name, Amen.