First Easter Day (1879)

Mark 16:1-8 "Glorious things are preached to you, you city of God."1 "The great mystery is preached without controversy: God is manifested in the flesh."2 From wonderful, unending love it is preached that the only-begotten Son of God drove in most extreme torture into death and the grave. Even today we have to speak of something quite particularly glorious. The resurrection of Christ from death shows the completion and the glorious keystone of the Christmas and Passion history. Whoever apprehends it in faith, also rejoices today.3 The glory of the resurrection of Christ; we want to try to discern this glory as we consider: 1. how and under which circumstances the resurrection of Christ occurred; a. the resurrection happened in a sealed tomb (As Christ was born a true man of a virgin4, came through closed doors5, thus He also arose in a sealed tomb.6 If the Lord resurrected only after passing the stone, then it must follow at this point according to the words of the report: "The angel of the Lord came down from heaven, came up, and rolled back the stone from the door", like this: "and Christ arose"), b. under great earthquakes.7 (The earthquake [is] an outward sign of large and wonderful works of God8), c. under the appearance of angels9, d. under the terror and flight of the guardians10; 2. how first this was preached about the resurrection, a. who preached there11 (Angels are the first messengers of the resurrection of Christ, as elsewhere in the great works of God.12 The resurrection [is] a confirmed truth by heavenly messengers);
Psalm 87:3. 1 Timothy 3:16. 3 1 Corinthians 15:55-57; 1 Peter 1:3; KELG 97:4. 4 Isaiah 7:14. 5 John 20:19. 6 Cf. Matthew 28:2. 7 ibid. 8 See Haggai 2:7 and Matthew 27:52. 9 Matthew 28:5, 28:2; John 20:12; Cf. Luke 2:9, 13. 10 Matthew 28:4 (Cf. Numbers 10:35. Ark = a type of Christ). 11 Matthew 28:5-6. 12 Luke 1:26, 2:9ff.; Acts 1:10-11.
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b. what was preached13, . The angel first turned away from Christ's passion ("You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified") and then . he preached the resurrection (the resurrection is properly understood only in connection with the passion. In Christ's death we were condemned, in Christ's resurrection we are acquitted14); c. to whom this sermon applies, . mankind in general (As Christ has brought to light an acceptable righteousness before God through His resurrection, so also all men are told about this through preaching15), . believers in particular who think that God must reject them for the sake of their serious sins16 ("Say to His disciples and Peter." The disciples had abandoned Christ out of the fear of men, and Peter had denied Him three times by cursing and swearing. That is why they must believe that Christ would know nothing more of them, than of completely unworthy ones. Franz Pieper

Matthew 28:6. Romans 4:25, 8:34. 15 Mark 16:15. 16 Matthew 28:7.

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