Through Death to Life

In the movie “Wall Street” the character Bud Fox says a famous line just before he goes into Gordon Gekko’s office for the first time. He says, “Life all comes down to a few moments, this is one of them.” The crossing of the Red Sea is one of those few moments for the children of Israel. Pharaoh had finally relented after the death of all the first born of the Egyptians and let the Israelites go. But now they were between a proverbial rock and a hard place: the Red Sea was in front of them and Pharaoh’s army was racing toward them from the rear. They were facing certain death – either by drowning in the sea, or by the sword. In the middle of that panic, here is what Moses says to them:
Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.

“Don’t be afraid.”? “Stand firm.”? What is Moses thinking? (Or not thinking). But the same God who had demonstrated his power over the Egyptians with the Ten Plagues demonstrates his power once again. And the rest of this story is pretty familiar. God parts the sea, and the Israelites cross the sea without even getting their feet wet. And once they are all on the other side, the sea collapses on the Egyptian Army – destroying all of them. Israel didn’t have to save itself from the Egyptian Army. God saves them. This is God’s moment and their moment – the moment God demonstrates his power and his love for his people. When Israel crosses the sea and the waters return again behind them, they leave behind who they were: slaves – and a future death in Egypt. They come through the water and now have a new identity as one’s who are no longer slaves. Their old way of life – slavery – is dead. Instead, they are God’s people – a free people – a people alive with a future life with their God – a great moment in Israel’s history.
So you might be thinking to yourself. What in heaven’s name does the Crossing of the Red Sea have to do with Easter? It has everything to do with Easter - because this incredible moment in history pre-figures your salvation in Christ. Like the Israelites in Egypt, we were slaves – not bound to a taskmaster, but bound to sin. And just like the Israelites, we too were stuck between a proverbial rock and a hard place. Just as Israel could not save themselves we cannot by our own reason or strength save ourselves from our slavery to sin. And just as Israel did not have to save themselves, we do not have to save ourselves. God saves us.
Just as Israel went through water under God’s care and coming out the other side a free people - you too have gone through the water under God’s care. You entered the water of your baptism a people in slavery, but came through that water under God’s care – the care of his Word – his very name. You have come out of the water of baptism with a new identity, no longer a slave, but free. No longer a future of death, but a future of life with your God. All of this is made possible through the risen one, Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s pivotal moment in all of history – when in a very real way he demonstrates his power over death by raising his son – a dead corpse in the tomb – back to life. This is God’s moment and your moment.
While we have been declared saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we still sin. And the consequences of our sin is still death. We have times when we are between a rock and hard place – nowhere to go and no way out of our predicament. When sickness, or injury or death or pain or loss happens in our life, we can relate to those Israelites – no way out. But because Christ is risen, the way to the Father has been opened through him. The words of Moses are words of encouragement even for you today. “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.”
On Easter we rehearse once more that moment of salvation: Christ’s resurrection from the dead. This rehearsal is also a rehearsal for our own resurrection. The moment when Christ will save you from death in the grave and bring you back to life for eternal freedom and an eternal future with your God.
Like the Israelites, you have come through death to life. It’s what Jesus has done for you and to you. Just as Jesus dies and rises, we too have died to sin and risen again to life – now in baptism, and in its fulfillment on the Last Day. Christ is risen, he is risen indeed.

Good Friday

Death rubs us the wrong way. We don’t like it. It’s like it shouldn’t happen. When someone dies unexpectedly, it just seems wrong. When a loved one dies it definitely seems wrong. And when we think about our own mortality – the fact that we are going to die – we can’t even begin to fathom the idea. Death just seems wrong. By and large, Humanity has come to think that death is just a natural process – that “death is just a part of life” because we see it happening throughout nature. But when God created all things he didn’t design death into his created order. He didn’t design into the fabric of creation that death would be a natural part of life. Death only happens because of our sinful nature and the curse of our sin upon the natural order itself.
On Ash Wednesday, we began the season of Lent. We heard that there’s nothing we can do about our sin and consequently, there is nothing we can do to stop death – “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” But we also heard the good news: “Our death caused by our sin does not have the final word - Jesus does.” On Good Friday we see that word in action as our savior slowly dies on the cross. And we hear his final word from the cross, “It is finished.”

On Good Friday, we once again rehearse the events of that day. We listen once again to the written testimony of those who witnessed first-hand what Jesus did – who saw for themselves the expensive price paid for those simple words of absolution we hear after confession of sin. We see someone else pay the “wages of our sin.” We see someone else pay the debt we owe by dying the death we deserve. We see something we don’t want to see. We see something that isn’t very pretty. We see that the “someone else” is God himself - a dead corpse on a cross. And this death seems very wrong. He was innocent. Yet he went willingly. The events that we will hear were all unfolding completely under his control. And it seems very wrong to us. “Why does he have to die?” “It just seems wrong!” And you would be right. It is wrong. God does something for us that he doesn’t have to do. But he thinks it’s worth doing, for you. He puts himself under the demands of the law that you cannot keep. And he has done this on your behalf. That’s the Gospel. And that’s the expensive cost of the Gospel.
The Gospel is that the power of sin that leads to your death – dies in the Christ who dies on the cross. Your sin dies with him and is gone forever. And you and I participate in that death through baptism. The font is a tomb into which you have died through water and Word. And there, through water and Word, God does his work. And just as Christ rises from that grave on that Sunday morning, you too rise. In baptism, you have now already died and risen just as Christ has died and risen. The power of sin is no more. It is finished. Jesus has the last word in his death and in yours.
We call Good Friday "good." It’s good because of the great good Jesus has accomplished by his death for you. Good Friday is a rehearsal, not only of Christ’s death, but our own death as well. Listen again to the story, and by his word, his last word, you have life.

The Moment

Today, I was thinking about what the first moment of the Resurrection of all flesh when Christ returns will be like(which is trying to imagine the unimaginable). This is what I thought of today:

The moment might be like the first breath of Adam as he breathed in the sweet, fresh air of a brand-new world and universe created just for him. And then, the next moment will be like that breathless but incredibly satisfying moment just after the orchestra has triumphantly played the final chord and that deeply satisfying, wonderful chord is still resonating through the concert hall and remains with you in your mind - that moment will be the moment when you see your Savior Jesus for the first time with your own eyes and just begin to experience the fact that the joy promised throughout the Scriptures and believed by you in faith has now become a new, physical reality. This will be a moment that, in that forgotten time before, would have brought tears of joy to anyone, but now produces that huge smile you get as you begin to laugh.

...So we pray today, "Come Lord Jesus."