Christ Is Risen! Alleluia!

When you think about it, the whole reason we’re here this morning is because of three little words.  Three little words that were spoken some 2000 years ago. 

In fact, the whole reason the church exists, and the bible was written, and the whole reason Christians have been getting together every Sunday morning for the last 2000 years is because of these three little words.

 

Three little words spoken by a handful of obscure men & women some 2000 years ago which have acted like a pebble cast into a pond.

From the first time these words were spoken they have rippled further and further out echoing across the centuries and around the world, until once again they fill our ears this morning.

And of course, those three little words are, “Christ is risen!”

The grave couldn’t hold him.  Christ is risen from the dead!

And on that first Easter morning 2000 years ago, as soon as the women had heard the angel speak these words and seen the empty tomb, they raced back to tell the other disciples.

And the rippling-effect began.  “Christ is risen!” they told them.

And at first, the disciples didn’t believe them.  They thought the women were telling idle tales.

But then Peter decides to go check it out And once he’d run to the tomb and seen that it was true.  Then he started to echo those words,   “Christ is risen!”

And over the course of the next few days, more disciples met the risen Christ; at the seaside, inside the locked room and on the road to Emmaus.

And each time they saw him, they repeated these 3 little words to their friends, “Christ is risen!”

And then their friends told their friends, and their friends told their friends, and on and on it went down through the centuries until finally their friends told your friends and your friends told you.

And now here we are today echoing these same three words the angel said to Mary some 2000 years ago, Christ is risen!

And once we get past the sheer surprise of the whole thing the whole idea that someone who was dead isn’t dead anymore, the question is, What does it have to do with you and me?

Well, I think the best way to answer that question is to ask a different question first.  What did it mean to the first disciples?

What did those 3 words mean to Peter and James and John and all the rest?

Well, think about where the disciples were when Jesus died.  They were as far away as they could possible get!  They’d all abandoned him.  Judas had betrayed him. Peter denied him.  And everyone else had fled.  They’d left Jesus to die alone.

And so of course it would be good news to them; to hear that he is risen!

They wouldn’t have to live with the bitter taste of shame in their mouths.  They could beg his forgiveness and be reconciled with him.

And then who were the first people the disciples told about the resurrection?  Of course, all the people who were in Jerusalem.  The same people who’d demanded his blood who’d shouted, “Crucify him!”

And so it would’ve been good news for them, too to hear the Christ is risen!  Because they could be reconciled with him, too.

And so what we begin to see is that the first people who heard these words were the very people who’d had a hand in Jesus’ death in the first place.  And so the words had a personal connection for them.

They were words of hope. But more importantly, they were words of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Because again only a risen Christ could offer these folks the one thing they could never have found on their own; his forgiveness.

In fact, his very first word to the disciples after the resurrection was, “Peace.  My peace I give to you,” he said

And again, like that stone splashing into the sea those words of peace and forgiveness also began to spread.

And folks began to realize that the forgiveness offered wasn’t just for the sins of those who’d been in Jerusalem when Jesus was killed.  No, the peace and forgiveness he was offering were for the sins of the whole world.

“Everyone,” Peter tells us in our first lesson this morning, “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”  That’s the good news contained in these 3 little words.

And there’s even more good news.  Not only do these three words mean the forgiveness of our sins, they also guarantee our resurrection, too.

Christ’s resurrection is our resurrection.  Because as Paul says in our second less this morning, “All will be made alive in Christ.”

And in fact, those of us who have been baptized are called to live in newness of life now.  We’re called to live a new life in which all our words and deeds declare these same three words: Christ is risen! Sin is forgiven. Death is destroyed.

And so now, 2000 years after that first Easter we gather here to celebrate the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of our eternal life.  And to be reminded of the fact that it’s now our turn to share these 3 little words with others.