Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel of Matthew, the 28th chapter:
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.”
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! This glorious Easter Day we have now the resurrection of our Lord! This is an amazing thing. Though all the world were against Him, though He became sin on our behalf, though He was wounded for our transgressions, though He died for our iniquities, this God-man Jesus was vindicated by His Father and was raised from the dead for our justification! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
This morning, there are earthquakes and angels, there are soldiers who get faint, and there are feet. Feet. I had a professor in seminary who pointed to this passage as definitive, eyewitness proof that Jesus had actually risen from the dead and was not just some disembodied spirit. After all, these women saw Jesus face-to-face, and what was the first thing they did? Fell down, grabbed His feet, and worshipped Him. This same professor was alright with changing our Easter greeting, too, from, “Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia,” to “He has feet!” He has feet, indeed. Alleluia!
Now, perhaps you think that’s just silly, and that’s okay. It could be that we’re all just hopped up on Easter candy sugar this morning. Maybe the pastor is going to be hopping around the altar like the Easter Bunny in a minute. Well, no, I won’t. But maybe this feet thing is just silly. I mean, He has feet, who cares?
Well, you should. You see, we have travelled these last forty days with Christ on the way to His cross. We have been with Him as He taught, as He raised the dead, as He faced accusations, as the soldiers mocked Him, spit at Him, pulled out His beard. We’ve been with Him as they lead Him to Golgotha, we’ve seen the nails pounded into His hands and feet, we’ve watched the lifeblood trickle out of Him, we’ve heard His last words, heard Him breathe His last.
We’ve seen all this, and we’ve seen Christ, God in human flesh, have all this done to Him. Like a sheep lead before His shearers, Christ was silent, He was passive. There was nothing that He did to stop any of it, nor did He do any of it to Himself. He would be crucified for sinners, and He was going to be crucified by sinners. This happened all according to His flesh. As a man, Jesus Christ, God, died. He died. All of Him. It was all of Him. They took His physical body and put it on the cross. They took His physical body and speared His side. The physical body of Jesus is dead. They took His physical body down from the cross. They took His physical body and put it in a tomb. And now this Easter morning, the physical body of Jesus has been raised from the dead!
If all of this was some show, if all of this was some trick by God to put these thoughts of some spiritual type of resurrection out there, then it’s an awful trick. But it’s no trick! Christ has feet! He has feet, indeed! Alleluia!
Christ is raised bodily from the dead. He is even now living, for in 40 short days, He shall ascend to heaven. From there He reigns until He comes again to dwell with us bodily forever.
You see, this is why the bodily resurrection of Christ matters. This is why it matters that Christ has feet! If Christ is raised from the dead, and we have been buried with Christ and raised from the dead with Christ in our baptisms, then we, too, shall rise from the dead! And we’re not going to be raised as just some spirits who wander around heaven mumbling Kum-ba-yah under our breaths. We will be raised from the dead with our bodies, these bodies.
Yes, I know, you’ve got your complaints. Yes, I know, some may feel old, though you look great! Yes, I know some don’t like your shape, your height, your weight, your vision, your lack of hair… But, Christ tells us that we shall be raised in new bodies, or perhaps we should say bodies made renewed in Christ.
You see, because of our sin, we have death. We have death in this life. Praise be to God that He sent His Son to die for the punishment for our sin, the atonement of our sins, yet still, as we sin in this life, in this body, we shall still die, for this flesh we have is corrupted. It is dead flesh. From the moment you were conceived, you have been dying.
Yet, not for eternity. Remember this day that your eternal punishment was given to Christ, so do not fear that. Yet, you shall still die in this life lest Christ returns first. At this death of yours, something happens that was never intended to happen, something awful. Because of your sin, at your death, your soul is taken away from your body, it is separated. You see, in the Scriptures, your life is your life. You are body and soul, together. You are not a soul with a body, or a body with a soul, but you are both together. You have life. They should not be separated. What happens to the body affects the soul, and vice versa.
But when you die, your soul is taken away from your body by the angels, the Scriptures say. This is not a good thing; this is not what God intended in His perfect creation, but it is only now an effect of our own sin. But do not worry now, for this soul is guarded in Christ. When you close your eyes in this life, you shall open them and see your Savior, for His angels have borne you to Himself, and you will be with Christ until His return.
Yet, that is not all of you, for you have left your body here. While you are in heaven, worshipping at the feet of your Jesus, the rest of us here are mourning the loss of your life, with you, your body here with us. It is you here; it is your body; it is you. Do you see why this awful? You are separated body from soul. This must be made right. You must be made whole again.
And so, the Holy Spirit, who gave to you faith in your baptisms, who guided you into all truth, and who preserved you into everlasting life, He shall keep watch over your body, guarding it until the day of Christ’s return. This is why Christians care what happens to their bodies, for their bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit, being indwelled by Him, being preserved by Him. And this is why Christians even care for their bodies and the bodies of loved ones after their deaths, for the Holy Spirit will continue to guard those bodies until Christ’s return.
And what happens at this return? The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, and they shall be raised incorruptible, imperishable, sinless, whole, remade, renewed. Your dead body is now alive again. You are the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel. You are the stinking, four-days-dead Lazarus. You are the widow of Nain’s son. You are the daughter of Jairus. You are dead and Christ shall raise you to new life forever.
This is a glorious moment, for with a word, Christ will speak and He shall bring the world into new existence, He shall remake the heavens above us, the earth below us, and He shall bring with Him in the sky our souls. And He shall guide these souls to our resurrected bodies, where we shall step out of our graves as Christ did this Easter morning. We shall see the brightness of a new sun, smell the freshness of the air, and finally realize a life without sin. We shall be rejoined with our bodies, and like our souls, washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, our bodies will be sinless.
I know that my Redeemer lives! And in MY flesh, with my OWN two eyes, I shall see God, Job says. We shall be made incorruptible. But we are as yet corruptible. We are still sinners, though we have been made and declared saints in Christ. Our bodies still will bear the effects of sin. We shall suffer, we shall cause suffering, we shall die. This is not good, dear friends. But have no fear, Christ has feet! Christ has feet, indeed! Alleluia!
Our Christ is among us now, but soon He shall walk among us bodily. We shall be able to grasp hold of His feet, kissing them, washing them with our tears of joy, drying them with our hair. And we shall worship Him in His presence.
For this Christ, the Christ who even today comes to us in His true body and His true blood in, with, and under the bread and the wine, this Christ is the Lamb who was slain, whose blood set us free to be people of God. This Christ is the Living One, the one who truly was dead but now lives among us! This Christ is the Lion of Judah, the roaring Savior of Israel, His Chosen Ones, the Church. This Christ is the firstfruits among many brothers, for He shall raise all His people from the dead unto life everlasting. This Christ is the head of the Church, for He shall guide His people in the paths of righteousness. This Christ is Immanuel, the One who ransoms captive Israel, who because of our sin, mourn in lonely exile here, until the day the Son of God appears.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel has come to thee, O Israel, O Church! Your Immanuel, your God with Us, is here! He is risen from the dead! He has conquered sin, death, and the devil for your sake. He is with us in His Word! He is with us in His Sacraments! He is with us forever! And He is real. You will soon see Him, my friends, you will soon see Him, and you shall hold Him, embrace Him, love Him, all to His face… and His feet. Christ has feet. Christ has feet, indeed! Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia! In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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