The early followers of Jesus greeted each other by saying ‘The Lord is risen!’  To which the reply was ‘The Lord is risen, indeed!’

            ‘The Lord is risen!  The Lord is risen, indeed!  It is a particular joy to be here this morning and proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

            I confess that for most of the last few weeks, I have agonized over what message to bring this morning.  After all, this is Easter!  The greatest day in the Christian Year!  The day we celebrate the very thing that sets us apart from all other religions of the world – the very thing that assures us that the promises Jesus made are true  and the promises Jesus made are sure.

            And I wondered, ‘What new message can I bring to a story we all know so well?’  What new insight?  What new thought?  What new meaning could I find that would make the message of Easter as new and wonderful today as the first Easter day?

            And then a couple of weeks ago they started showing all those Easter-themed shows on the Discovery and History channels and they started playing all those Bible-based movies on TV.  You all know the ones, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, ‘King of Kings’ – even ‘The Ten Commandments’,  ‘Exodus’ and the like.  I watch them whenever I can – and I have watched them all for so many years that the dialogues have almost been committed to memory.  And I still watch them.  I watch them because I never get tired of hearing the story.  I never get tired of seeing the life of Jesus portrayed – the teachings, the miracles.  I never tire hearing about how God has worked throughout history to teach people about who God is and how we should live – and that teaching was never more visible than in the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

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            But if all God did was to teach us about who God is, that would leave us pretty empty.  If God’s work throughout history allowed us to see perfection and have no way to attain perfection, then God would condemn us to lives of wretchedness and failure.

            I love watching stories about Jesus because it reminds me that in a very real way, God became incarnate – became flesh and blood – and lived among us as a real person – at one time both completely human and completely God.

            He healed the sick.  He comforted the sorrowful.  He lifted up the down-trodden.  He accepted the outcast.  He forgave those who wronged him.  He even played with children.  He loved everyone.  His view of how we should live with one another was radical – and joyful – and life changing – he showed us what perfect lives look like and he showed us that it can be done.

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            But if all the life of Jesus did was to teach what us how to live and show us how to love, our lives would still be pretty empty.  We would try so very hard to follow his example – we would fail so miserably at it that we would spend our lives looking at our failures and not daring to cast our eyes toward heaven to see God.

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            But Jesus did more than that.  Jesus didn’t just live with love, he died with love.  When Jesus died on the cross he showed that love is greater than hatred.  He showed us that mercy is stronger than cruelty.  That justice triumphs over tyranny.  He showed us that lives lived in obedience to God are of more value than lives lived pleasing ourselves.

            But if the death of Jesus only did that, life would still be a pretty depressing affair.  The world would still be a pretty desperate place where we would try to do all the good works we could – but it would still be empty and cold.

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            When Jesus was raised from the dead, when he fled the empty tomb, leaving behind his grave clothes, Jesus showed us that there is resurrection – that there is life after death and that we will live again just as he does – and he gave us hope for the future.  The resurrection gives us the certainty that with Christ and by the grace of God, life and light will triumph over death and darkness.

            The resurrection of Jesus demonstrates the assurance that we too will be resurrected to eternal life just as Jesus said.  It is the sure promise that we too will rise to have glorified bodies and recognize family and friends.  But even the resurrection leaves us empty and alone in the world – we might hang on to this life because we fear dying, but we would simply hang on, waiting for the joy of the next one – and if that was all that the resurrection did for us, we still wouldn’t have much to celebrate this morning.

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            But we do have much to celebrate, don’t we?  And that is because Jesus is not just walking around in a glorified body.  Jesus ascended to heaven to return to the Godhead.  While Jesus was walking on the earth, yes, we could see and hear and touch him, but he was limited by having a physical body that could only be on one place at one time.  He would always be somewhere speaking to someone, but it would be just that – one.  The reality of Jesus would still seem far away and for someone else.

            As much as I love to watch all those Bible movies – as much as I love to hear and see the stories again and again, this might be where they fall short.  We could watch those movies all day every day and Jesus would still be far away and for someone else.  We might long for the days when Jesus walked the roads of Galilee, but his life and work would still be distant and not part of our lives today.

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            But there is more to the gospel story.  Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim his presence in his stead.  This is the real power of Christianity and this is something those movies just can’t show us.  The very real presence of Christ is still in the world.  By the power of the Holy Spirit we can reach out and touch the Holy.  By the blood of Christ, by the atoning work of Jesus, we can live lives acceptable to God.  And this is not because we work so hard to always act and think perfectly.  It is because through Christ and the indwelling presence of the Spirit that we have God in our hearts.

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            This is what makes all the difference!  The life of Jesus is not just some ancient fairy tale.  The story of resurrection is more than some interesting life story of a Judean prophet who died on a cross.  It is the story of God coming into the hearts of all who seek the Holy Face.  It is the power of God to transform just plain folds like you and me into heroes of faith who move mountains with our determination to love God.

            And all those movies, as much as I love them, just can’t do that.

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            The resurrection is real – not because I saw it in the movies, not because I read about it in the Bible and not even because there is no grave for Jesus.  The resurrection is real because the resurrected Christ ascended to heaven and lives not just in heaven but in my heart – and in your heart.

            We know the resurrection is real because we live new lives in Christ, because we live as redeemed people, delivered from lives as slaves to sin, saved from lives spent trying to please ourselves and the dark emptiness that comes from realizing that it is never enough.

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            And then I realized that sometimes, we don’t need a new insight.  Sometimes we don’t need a new thought and sometimes we don’t even need a new message.  The resurrection speaks for itself.  The reality of Christ: alive, glorified and ascended needs no interpretation, no embellishment, no holiday trimmings.  It is communicated not just with words, not only in movies but it is communicated directly from the heart of God to the heart of persons – and not to those who think they are worthy, but to all who will come to the cross in repentance and love.

            Christ not only died to save sinners, he rose from the dead that we might live in him, that we might not just long for eternal bliss, but that we might live in the here and now as children of the most high God, blessed, redeemed, forgiven and alive in Christ– and so we believe and so we celebrate on this beautiful Easter morning.

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            It’s an old story and we’ve heard it a thousand times before, et we never tire of hearing it again!

The Lord is risen!  The lord is risen, indeed!  Amen.