Manuscript for the Easter Service

 EASTER ACCLAMATION

P Alleluia! Christ is risen!

C He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

458 CHRIST JESUS LAY IN DEATH’S STRONG BANDS

5 Here our true Paschal Lamb we see,
    Whom God so freely gave us;
He died on the accursèd tree—
    So strong His love—to save us.
See, His blood now marks our door;
Faith points to it; death passes o’er,
    And Satan cannot harm us.
        Alleluia!

6 So let us keep the festival
    To which the Lord invites us;
Christ is Himself the joy of all,
    The sun that warms and lights us.
Now His grace to us imparts
Eternal sunshine to our hearts;
    The night of sin is ended.
        Alleluia!

7 Then let us feast this Easter Day
    On Christ, the bread of heaven;
The Word of grace has purged away
    The old and evil leaven.
Christ alone our souls will feed;
He is our meat and drink indeed;
    Faith lives upon no other!
        Alleluia!

Tune and text: Public domain

 

P In the name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit.

C Amen.

 

 

COLLECT OF THE DAY

P Let us pray.

Almighty God the Father, through Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, You have overcome death and opened the gate of everlasting life to us. Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of our Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by Your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

OLD TESTAMENT READING Job 19:23–27

²³“Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
²⁴Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
²⁵For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
²⁶And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
²⁷whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!”

A This is the Word of the Lord.

 

EPISTLE 1 Corinthians 15:51–57

⁵¹Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. ⁵³For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
⁵⁵“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

A This is the Word of the Lord.

 

HOLY GOSPEL

P The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the sixteenth chapter.

 

¹When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ²And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” ⁴And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. ⁵And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. ⁶And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. ⁷But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” ⁸And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

P This is the Gospel of the Lord.

 

CREED

 

SERMON

 

Mark 16

“And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mark 16:3)

As the sun was rising, it dawned on them: “There is a big stone covering the entrance to the tomb, blocking our way. How are we going to get in? How can we anoint Jesus’ body?”

It’s no wonder that they were frazzled, scattered in their thoughts. They were going through a lot. It was a horrible time. The unimaginable had just happened. Jesus their rabbi, teacher, hero, friend had been killed. They had so much hope in what He might do for them, for their nation, for the world. But now he’s dead. There’s this debilitating mix of grief and fear. What will the authorities do next? What trouble is coming next? These women and all the other followers of Jesus don’t know what to do. One thing they think of that they can do, is to make sure his body is decently cared for, properly buried according to their custom and traditions. They saw that Joseph of Arimithea and Nicodemus had done some preparation of the body with linen and spices, but it was hurried. “We should finish it. But, oh! No. we can’t. There’s that stone. Who can we get to move that stone?”

They couldn’t get to Jesus. I would have you consider this: What’s in your way? What would block you from your Lord and Savior? Do grief and fear frazzle your mind and scatter your thoughts? There’s so much to think about, so much to worry about, so much to do and plan for doing, who will roll away that big bulky stone of your worries and preoccupations that block the way for you to worship, to love, to trust your Savior Jesus Christ. Do the fears of life and death get so big that they block your way from the only one who can relieve them, the only one who can save you from them.

Other sins can become immovable impediments to your life with the Lord. Especially those ongoing sins, the sins you get comfortable with and you put off addressing them, or trying to fix them. When you don’t repent of sin, the way of faith is blocked. Who will roll that stone away?

Well in the case of Mary, and the other Mary, and Salome, someone had already rolled the stone away. They shouldn’t really have fretted about it so. At some point earlier that morning an angel rolled the stone back. He opened the way for them to get into the tomb, not so that they could find the dead body of Jesus and anoint it.  No, the angel opened the way to the tomb so they could see that it was empty and so that they could hear the good news that was being preached inside, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here.”

So also, when you think about whatever may be blocking your way, whatever big stones you have to contend with. There will be much that is bigger than your strength to move it. Your help must come from heaven. Believe that. Count on that. 

The bigger problem for these women that first Easter morning was that they didn’t believe. They knew Jesus. They loved Jesus. They had high hopes for Jesus. But when it came to the moment of greatest crisis, they didn’t expect He would be there to help them out. They gave up and assumed he was still in the tomb, stone cold dead. He told Him he’d rise. But they didn’t yet believe it.  And that lack of belief, that lack of faith was a bigger obstacle than the stone. It’s kinda strange that they would believe in Jesus for little things, like turning wine into water or healing lepers, but when it came to big things,like death and the life after death, they didn’t trust that he could do that. But that was exactly what He did, that’s the point of all that He does.

The hymn we just sang, Luther wrote it, putting down in verse what we believe:

Christ Jesus, God’s own Son, came down,

    His people to deliver;

Destroying sin, He took the crown

    From death’s pale brow forever:

Stripped of pow’r, no more it reigns;

An empty form alone remains;

    Its sting is lost forever.

        Alleluia!

We believe. I figure I’m talking to people who believe. In fact some of you have believed this for a long time, for many Easters. But as with anything, it can come to be old hat. It can be taken for granted, like an old piece of furniture in the corner, you don’t really use it much any more, but there’s no reason to throw it out.

We’ve got to keep in mind that the obstacles we have to our faith in God, are bigger than our strength to move them. Or in other words, we believe that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ our Lord, or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with his gifts, sanctified and kept us in the true faith.

The Holy Spirit brings us to faith and keeps us in the faith by the means of grace, by the Word of the Gospel and the Sacraments. So let’s keep on having those means of grace. Let’s keep listening to the Word of the Gospel, regularly. Let’s have the feast our Lord gave us for our forgiveness and faith. Let’s use the Gospel regularly, in fact, daily in our life. You can’t take faith for granted. Keep coming back to the Spirit’s means of grace, Word and sacrament.

Don’t take it for granted that everyone else around you believes this Gospel of Jesus. Don’t assume that they have his resurrection in their hearts and are trusting him for their own resurrection and new life. Mary and the other Mary and Salome were so shook by all the drama of their past several days that they didn’t expect, didn’t believe Jesus could be living. So there are people in your lives, people even in your homes perhaps who haven’t thought of it for a while, that they have a Redeemer who lives.

So keep this Easter Gospel at the top of your mind. Keep these things in your heart and in your conversation. Believe it. And act like you believe it. Remain faithful even unto death, because, thanks be to God, He has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

 

 

PRAYER OF THE CHURCH

O God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, we thank and praise you for your mercy and your life. Make us glad in this heavenly Easter message that He who died for our sins rose again for our justification; that because he lives, we too shall live; that death has no power over us; that he has conquered sin, death and the power of the devil, and brought us into life and eternal salvation. 

Order our days by your Word, both law, that we may do what you command, and your Gospel, that we may trust your promises and rejoice always.

Fill our homes with such a sense of your goodness and your many gifts, especially the gift of eternal life in your Son, that Easter may be observed with the solemnity of sincere thanksgiving and celebrated with the joy of the blessed hope you’ve given us.

Be at work in all the nations of the earth. Tear down all that opposes justice and decency and your Gospel.

Grant that all believers throughout the world this day may find that your grace and peace are perfect and complete. Help all to be faithful to death, that they may receive the crown of life. By your Spirit, make us perfect in every good work to do your will, and work in us that which is well pleasing in your sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

LORD’S PRAYER

C Our Father who art in heaven,  hallowed be Thy name,  Thy kingdom come,  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom  and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

BENEDICTION

P The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you.

The Lord look upon you with favor and T give you peace.

C Amen.

 

 

457 JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN TODAY

1 Jesus Christ is ris’n today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!

2 Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
Unto Christ, our heav’nly king, Alleluia!
Who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!
Sinners to redeem and save. Alleluia!

3 But the pains which He endured, Alleluia!
Our salvation have procured; Alleluia!
Now above the sky He’s king, Alleluia!
Where the angels ever sing. Alleluia!

4 Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!
Praise eternal as His love; Alleluia!
Praise Him, all ye heav’nly host, Alleluia!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Alleluia!

Text: Public domain

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Divine Service, Setting One from Lutheran Service Book

Scripture quotations are from the ESV^® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2021 Concordia Publishing House.