April 21
“If the dead do not rise, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’ Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits,’” 1 Corinthians 15:32-33.
On the first Easter Day, the evangelist Matthew reports that early in the morning there was a great earthquake. An angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled back the huge stone from the door of the grave. Of course, that resolved the concern of the women who were hurrying to the grave and asking one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” Mark 16:3.
Obviously, those women knew that there would not be anyone else by the grave at that hour of the morning who could help them roll away the stone. The gardener of the graves would not be on duty at the rising of the sun. The powerful Roman soldiers who had been authorized by Pontius Pilate to guard the grave and to seal the gravestone at the door witnessed the earthquake and saw the angel and they were scared to death. They hurried into the city and reported to the chief priests and religious leaders what had happened. The religious leaders called an emergency meeting. After a brief discussion, they agreed to give the soldiers a huge bribe if they would lie and tell everyone that the disciples came and stole the body of Jesus while they were sleeping! The soldiers seemingly were not worried about what would happen to them for supposedly sleeping on the job!
The religious leaders, of all people, were engaged in bribery and lying! However, today there also are people in prominent so-called “religious” positions who engage in lying and who deny that Jesus Christ rose from the dead!
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then the words of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians should be followed. If the dead do not rise, then we have a dead Savior, and a dead Savior is no Savior at all! We may as well eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die! If the dead do not rise, then we have no hope for a life beyond the grave!
However, the apostle raises his hand to get your attention: Don’t let anyone deceive you. Be careful of the company that you keep! Don’t associate with people who are spreading lies about Jesus and who are saying something about which they know nothing! Don’t listen to deceiving liars!
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! There is plenty of evidence for that fact. Christians will not be bullied by loud-mouthed atheists and by the ignorant and arrogant followers of Freedom From Religion!
Christians will shout from the housetops the truths of their Christian faith. We believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true Man, born of the Virgin Mary, is our Lord. He has redeemed us, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. We believe that He rose from the grave and conquered sin, death, and the devil. And He promises us, “Because I live, you will live also!” John 14:19. At the death of her brother, Lazarus, Jesus told Martha, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live,” John 11:25. We believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting in the halls of heaven where Jesus has gone on before us to prepare a place for us.
“Jesus lives! The vict’ry’s won!
Death no longer can appall me;
Jesus lives! Death’s reign is done!
From the grave Christ will recall me.
Brighter scenes will then commence;
This shall be my confidence.” Amen.