Easter Sunday March 31, 2024
1 Corinthians 5:6b–7a 6bDo you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.
He has Risen! We know that if we are puffed up and boast about ourselves, we are indeed like leavened bread. There are many people in this world who think higher about themselves than they should, and these same people feel they have the right to lord it over others. Jesus says that we are not to be like that, and Paul says do not boast about yourself, rather boast in the Lord. He Has Risen!
I chuckle every time I read this scripture that it asks us to be a “new lump.” But in truth we are nothing but a lump new or old without our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Taking the analogy of the lump we see that we have no worth except for Christ and the Father who created us.
This is worth boasting in our Lord about that we are His creation, and if God is great then what God creates is great too. As a lump we are worthless, but as God’s children we are complete in His greatness.
We are God’s creation and therefore we have much to boast about our God. Which, when you think about it, boasting in our Lord Jesus Christ is better than boasting about the big gaseous bang that smells like sulfur, if you get my drift. I had to word it that way because my grammar check said that the word, I used might be offensive. Living in the law.
1 Corinthians 5:7b–8 7bFor Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
We do celebrate the Passover Lamb each year. And hopefully we continue to celebrate each Sunday and any day that ends with a “Y.” And let us embrace being a people who are not puffed up on ourselves but rather humble and grateful to our Lord for our great salvation.
Jesus, the Passover Lamb, was slain for our salvation. Not that we need to crucify our Lord each year, but that we remember He did this for us, His creation, God’s children. And we should hold our heads up high because we are God’s children. Realizing of course everyone is God’s creation, and marked through our baptism, God’s children, so that we all can boast in the Lord.
Easter is a great day in our celebration. We now move on from the memory of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to His glorious resurrection. Jesus comes to us from the grave and shows us that He has defeated death, and He now lives. This good news is that we too will be resurrected into new life and we most certainly will be recreated as children who will be better than a new lump.
John 20:15 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
How confusing it must have been for Mary and the others who went to the grave of Jesus. Still trying to get a grip on the fact that this person in the grave was supposed to be their savior. The time of morning had just begun and now this; the tomb of the one they loved and followed lay open and empty save two angels.
What was this question the two angles who sat in the tomb of Jesus asked? “Why are you weeping.” Maybe these angels were giving the message to Mary that there is nothing to weep about you are witnessing the power of God. And you will soon realize you are witnessing the resurrection of your Lord and Savior. Know this, the one true God cannot be murdered, death cannot hold the one true God. Of course He is not in the tomb.
Mary turns to see one whom she mistakes for a gardener and asks if he knows where the body of Jesus is. Mary still overtaken by her grief, still confused by her feelings still thinks that Jesus should still be lying somewhere dead. Until Jesus calls her name, Mary is still sleeping in her woe. Like one who was just abruptly awaken, Mary realizes and exclaims loudly “Rabboni.”
John 20:16–18 16Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
Jesus also asks Mary why she is crying, but then He asks her Whom is she seeking. We know she is looking for the corpse of Jesus. Mary does not quite realize she is looking for the living God, Jesus. Jesus knew who Mary was looking for, He knew she did not realize fully who the savior truly is. Jesus was not a savior just in the skin of a man, but also in the flesh and spirit of the one true God. But as Mary hears her name spoken by this stranger everything starts to come into focus. This is the risen Lord, this is Jesus Christ, this is God from whom all blessings flow.
This the one who died has risen from the dead and again walks the ground that He had walked with His apostles and disciples. Jesus now true God shows Himself as the resurrected Savior to Mary and to us. I’m sure the light came on when Jesus told Mary to tell His brothers, the disciples, and apostles of this glorious sight. He has Risen!
Exodus 15:11 11“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”
Amen! He has Risen!
Written by Pastor Curtis A. May