{"id":2851,"date":"2019-04-21T14:22:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T18:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2851"},"modified":"2019-04-21T14:22:55","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T18:22:55","slug":"easter-sunday-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/easter-sunday-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter Sunday Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Easter Morning<\/a>
Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23 (24)
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20:1-9
April 21, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our gospel reading this Easter morning\ntells the story of how Mary of Magdala went to the tomb early in the morning of\nthe first day of the week.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon\narriving, she finds \u201cthe stone removed\nfrom the tomb.<\/em>\u201d  We know this must be\nimportant because \u201cshe ran<\/em>\u201d to Simon\nPeter and the other disciple.  Upon\nhearing the stone has been moved they ran to the tomb.  They enter and we are given a description of\nwhat they saw.  We are told that the\nother disciple \u201csaw and believed<\/em>.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We aren\u2019t\ntold much else.  If this is all you ever\nheard, it probably won\u2019t mean much to you. \nIn these nine verses, we are not told whose tomb it was, how long the\nperson had been buried, or the significance of tomb being empty beyond it being\na surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hearing these\nnine verses alone would be akin to picking up a book and reading the next to\nlast chapter and nothing else.  You don\u2019t\nknow what happened before and you don\u2019t know the very end of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, in\na way that is exactly what we do when we read this one passage.  It is part of a bigger story.  There are nineteen chapters before these\nverses and a chapter and a half afterwards. \nAnd that\u2019s if you just look at the Gospel of John.  There\u2019s also the whole Old Testament before\nthat tells the story of Salvation History, and Acts of the Apostles and New\nTestament letters that tell what happened after the tomb was found empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t tell\nthe whole story now.  I encourage you to\nread the Bible to hear it all.  For\ntoday, let me offer a very brief summary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the beginning<\/em>\u201d, God created\neverything from a \u201cformless wasteland<\/em>\u201d\n(Genesis 1:1-2:2).  God brought order to\nthe universe.  The last \u201cthing\u201d He\ncreated was human beings but were not just another \u201cthing\u201d for God created\nhumans \u201cin his own image<\/em>.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then,\nGod has always been watching over his people. \nHe cared for Abraham.  God rescued\nthe Israelites from slavery in Egypt through Moses.  God gave them a great king in David.  God sent them many prophets like Isaiah,\nJeremiah, and Ezekiel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem?  The people often didn\u2019t listen.  They did not follow God\u2019s Word.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nsinned.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

God provided\nthe perfect remedy for sin.  He\nsent us his Son Jesus.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Christmas,\nwe celebrate Jesus\u2019 birth.  Jesus was Son\nof God but willingly \u201cemptied himself<\/em>\u201d\nbecoming one of us yet obedient to the Father even to death on a Cross\n(Philippians 2:6-11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Jesus\nwent to the Cross, He went around teaching what it means to be God\u2019s disciples\nfor He came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also cured\nmany people who were ill and drove out evil demons so people would know that He\nhad the power of God at work in him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately,\nnot everyone listened.  In fact, there\nwere those who directly opposed Jesus. \nHe wasn\u2019t doing what they expected or wanted.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their\nview, since He didn\u2019t do what they expected, He couldn\u2019t be the Messiah.  So, they sought to have him killed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus went\nthrough much suffering.  That was what we\ncelebrated on Good Friday.  Ultimately,\nHe was crucified on the Cross.  This was\nintended as humiliation.  (Deuteronomy\n21:22-23).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To someone\nwho doesn\u2019t know the whole story, it would seem like Jesus was defeated by his\nenemies.  He wasn\u2019t.  His life was not taken from him.  He willingly gave it up as a sacrifice.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you read\nthe Old Testament, you will find stories of the people offering sacrifices in\natonement for their sins.  Those\nsacrifices were imperfect.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus is the\nSon of God, \u201cwithout blemish<\/em>\u201d (Exodus\n12:5), and so He is the one who offers the perfect sacrifice in giving his own\nlife.  He is crucified for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He died on\nthe Cross and was laid in the tomb.  It\nis his tomb that Mary of Magdala goes to. \nIt is his tomb that is empty on the third day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Good\nNews!  Jesus Christ is Risen Today.  His Resurrection shows us that not even death\nhas power over him.  If you read the end\nof the story, you will hear that Jesus appeared to his disciples after his Resurrection\nso that they, so that we<\/em><\/strong>, would know what happened to him and know of eternal\nlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we hear\nmany different voices telling us how they think we should live.  Which voice should we listen to?  I choose to listen to Jesus. He is the one\nwho died for me.  I trust him and I make\nhim the stone that is the foundation for my life.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hearing what\nJesus did for us should lead us to change our priorities from earthly things to\n\u201cThink of what is above.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rejoice for\nJesus Christ is risen today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Easter MorningActs 10:34a, 37-43Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23 (24)Colossians 3:1-4John 20:1-9April 21, 2019 Our gospel reading this Easter morning tells the story of how Mary of Magdala went to the tomb early in the morning of the first day of the week.  Upon arriving, she finds \u201cthe stone removed from the tomb.\u201d  We know this must …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Easter Sunday Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29,82],"tags":[127,589,590],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-JZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2852,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions\/2852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}