Easter; March 23, 2008; Bethel Lutheran Church, Rochester.
Matthew 28:1-10.

Dear Friends in Christ, Grace to you and Peace, from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. AMEN.


It was the most exciting finish to a football game I have witnessed. Forgive my hometown and even familial bias, but when Mayo High School scored three touchdowns in the last five minutes to win a sectional tournament game against Rosemount five and a half years ago, the crowd was electric with excitement! The last of the touchdowns came on about a 40-yard pass from one Bethel kid to another Bethel kid with no time on the clock.

It was an improbable set of events. Mayo had been overmatched for most of the game, but they caught fire in the fourth quarter. With 12 seconds on the clock, they got the ball back needing sixty-five yards to win the game. A pass down the middle of the field got about 25 yards. By the time the clock stopped for resetting the sideline chains, there were less than two seconds. The team lined up and was ready to go when the official started the clock. Single coverage on the left side. Good protection for the quarterback. Ball in the air forever. Receiver cut to the inside—touchdown!

Oh, my familial bias? The receiver was my son, Tim. When people in the stands realized what had happened and the game was over, they began congratulating Kathy and me as if we had accomplished the impossible. More than that, they began to pound on us, they were so delirious. I presume that Doug and Karen Nelson of Bethel were getting the same pounding since their son, Ryan, had thrown the ball. The pounding wasn’t so good. That summer I had broken my back seriously, and I was in a body cast at the time. Kids at Mayo still remember, “the catch.” Oh, yes, one final detail. That wide receiver now teaches at Rosemount, and they remember, too…

Have you ever been so excited, so electrified by what is happening to you or in front of you? Last fall Bethel hosted a Kids Against Hunger event that drew over 500 volunteers putting together about 135,000 meals for the hungry. People of all ages took part, even children. One girl, so small that she needed to stand on a chair in order to measure out her rice and get it into a bag was excited about what she was doing. She said, “This is the best day of my life.”

Oh, how we could learn from children. The best day of her life wasn’t her last birthday or a day at Disneyworld or the Christmas she got her first bike. Her best day was making sure that other people, other children had enough to eat. Her eyes gleamed.

Are you excited about Easter? I am not talking about Easter eggs or Easter dinner. I’m not talking about the loved ones with whom you worship this morning. I’m not even talking about the thrilling music at our worship—tympani, brass, organ, choir, voices of the congregation. I’m talking about the message of today. Are you so excited that you would be willing to pound on a man with a broken back?

Clonsider a video clip from a movie that is now over twenty years old—I can hardly believe that. Many of you will remember “E.T.”, the extra-terrestrial who is tragically left behind on earth when his spaceship had to leave before risking exposure or capture. He is befriended first by a young boy named Elliot, then by Elliot’s entire family and his friends. But earth’s environment is not friendly to E.T.’s health, and he grows sick to the point of death. Beyond that, government scientists are trying to capture E.T. in order to study this life form from another planet. Take a look, and watch the flower…(minutes 1:32 to 1:36)

“He’s alive!” You would have to be absent all your senses not to feel Elliot’s excitement. Do you remember his words? “Look at what they have done to you.” Can’t you hear the disciples saying that of Jesus on the cross? Elliot continues, “I’m so sorry, you must be dead… I’ll believe in you all my life. Every day.” Clearly Elliot is speaking for those who loved Jesus.

But you noticed the flower. As E.T. is renewed in vigor, so is the flower. And Elliot immediately knows the significance. He runs back to the tomb—excuse me—the electronic chamber and begins to scream. The one whom he thought was dead is alive. Finally he meets his brother in the plastic air chamber and screams four words: “He’s alive! He’s alive!”

Those are words that we have heard at Bethel frequently in the last weeks as The Promise was celebrated amongst us. When Jesus rises from the dead, the women and others begin to scream, “He’s alive! He’s alive!”

Are you excited about that today? Are you so excited that you would pound on a man’s broken back? Are you so excited that you might say, “This is the best day of my life”? Are you as excited as a little boy who watches his friend, whom he thought was dead, come back to life?

If you are, you have probably appropriately and accurately heard today’s message of resurrection. You understand the significance of the cross and the wonder of the empty grave. You can appreciate the joy with which the women at the tomb ran to tell the disciples that they had seen Jesus!

If you are not excited about the Easter message, there are two possible answers. You may not understand the significance of what God has done in Christ, or you may be so accustomed to the story that it just doesn’t strike any particular chord of joyfulness in your heart and spirit.

In either of those cases, a fresh look at the cross and resurrection may change your heart. What God is offering to you today isn’t some football victory. There are some of you who have longed for 47 years as I have for a Vikings Super Bowl win. So what? God wants to give you more than a Super Bowl.

God isn’t offering you a chance to watch a friend come back to life. Ten days ago my son emailed me to relay the very bad news from his school, that a 16 year old had stabbed a 17 year old to death in a squabble over a girl who evidently had been in a relationship with the older boy. I don’t know the family. But I do know that a mother or father looking at the dead body of a daughter or son is one the cruelest events I have witnessed. Do you think that mom or dad wanted a son to sit up, to come back to life from the casket in which he lay? But God is offering that mom and dad something more today. God is offering life which can’t be snuffed out with a knife—or a gun, or a nuclear bomb. Can you be excited about that kind of life?

God isn’t offering you the best day of your life. This might be the best day of someone’s life in this church today. God bless you for that. But God has something more. God doesn’t want to give you one best day, God wants to give you a best and a blessed life!

Confirmation students once in a while ask what heaven will be like. We have some clues in the Bible, but really, we don’t know. We simply know it will be an eternal place of joy, worship, light, and happiness. I tell those students to think of the best day they have ever had. Multiply that by 100, and they still couldn’t touch the wonder of the new life promised us in Christ.

Can you be excited about that? Can you be excited about the fact that, because Christ lives, we shall live also? Would you jump up and down and yell, “He’s alive! He’s alive!”

He’s alive! Alleluia! AMEN!