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Easter Sunday, 2010
Rev. Brian L. Kachelmeier
Isaiah 65:17-25
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Easter is so much more than a phrase found on a greeting card that says, “Happy Easter!” It’s as if you are wishing some one to have the feeling of happiness for one day out of the year. Such a phrase puts the celebration of Easter in the same category as the celebration of other days throughout the year. Happy New Year, Happy Mother’s Day, Happy Father’s Day, Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and Happy Birthday. What is the difference between one greeting that says, “Happy Birthday” and another card that says, “Happy Easter!” For this reason in the church, we learn to greet each other in this season by saying, “Christ is risen” with the response, “He is risen indeed.”
Easter is so much more than just a wish of happiness. Likewise, Easter is so much more than just a slogan that can be printed on a T-shirt: “Jesus lives.” In fact, Easter is so much more than me and Jesus and my T-shirt. In this life, it is difficult to understand the bigger picture. I connect to the internet, and it is me and my computer. Yet, there are millions of people on the internet at the same time. Just think of how many people could be looking at the very same website that I am looking at. I turn on my television set, and it is just me and my television set. Yet, there are millions of people watching their TV. at the same time. Just think of how many people could be watching the same program.
There is so much more to Easter than just a stone rolled away from an empty tomb. At the cross, we have the crux of all time. In fact, from the Latin the words crux and crucial come from the word cross. The death of Jesus on the cross is the crucial point from which all other points in time are changed. From the cross we get a new heaven and a new earth. He makes all things new. The resurrection of Jesus means more than just the resurrection of the individual. Jesus is the first fruits. From His resurrection comes the renewal of all things.
Thus, our Old Testament text on this Easter Sunday is found in the sixty-fifth chapter of Isaiah which says, " “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind." (Isaiah 65:17, ESV) By tying this passage to the Resurrection of Jesus, we begin to get the bigger picture. Throughout the Bible, the central theme of the restoration of all things is tied together from the beginning to the end, from creation in Genesis to recreation in the book of Revelation. The theme of building, destroying, and rebuilding is seen again and again: Paradise lost and paradise gained, the promise of the land and the life of slavery in Egypt, the Exodus out of Egypt and the arrival back in the land, the rejection of God and the removal from the Promised Land, the exile to Babylon and the return to Jerusalem, etc… At the center of this great work of God is the cross, the crux, the crucial point: the atoning death of Jesus on Good Friday and the defeat of death on Easter Sunday.
In the book of Isaiah, the people of God are brought low with the destruction of the Temple and then they are exalted once again with the rebuilding of the Temple. Yet it is so much more than just a change of address moving from Babylon to Jerusalem. But in their renewed lives as God’s people they have a foretaste of the life to come. To those in exile, these are amazing words, "But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress." (Isaiah 65:18-19, ESV) With these wonderful words, the people of God will have hope in the midst of tribulation. In the restoration of Jerusalem they will no longer remember the former things. When the city is rebuilt they will no longer live in the sorrow of the past. They will not dwell in the year 587 BC. Their mourning and sorrow will be turned into singing and rejoicing. Once again they will be God’s people.
In the first half of the book of Isaiah, they are referred to as “this people.” They have broken the covenant with God and have rejected Him. “Those people do not act like God’s people.” Starting in chapter forty of the book of Isaiah there is shift in which the LORD says, “Comfort, comfort, my people says your God.” Now they are known as God’s people and he will not remember their transgression and He will rejoice in them. Thus, they will not remember their punishment and they will rejoice in God. No longer will weeping and cries of distress be heard. Instead, the sound of rejoicing will ring forth.
Yet, there is so much more for the people of God than just rebuilding the Temple and the city. On Good Friday, the Temple, that is the body of the LORD, was destroyed. On Easter Sunday, the body was restored. Mourning was turned into rejoicing. Those Gentiles who were not the people of God are becoming His people. The New Jerusalem is being built. There will be a renewed heaven and a renewed earth. In the return from Babylon, the people of God get a sample of what is to come. For them every thing has changed it is a restart, a renewal, a new heaven and a new earth.
We can understand the tasting of a mere sample. For instance, we you go to the grocery store and take a sample bite of a single food item. That is just a small taste of the full meal. You don’t go to the grocery store to eat samples. You go to the grocery store to obtain the food needed to make the whole meal. You can’t live on the free samples. There is so much more than a one ounce serving.
Thus, Isaiah uses Hebrew poetry to give the people a sample of the feast to come. In this sample, there will not be an infant that only lives a few days. In sample, a man who lives to be one hundred will be said to have died at a young age. We were originally created to live forever. The abundant life that we have now is a taste of the life to come. The promise of a new heaven and a new earth is so much more than the extension of life by a few days or even one hundred years. The original purpose of conception and birth was to bring forth life and not death. Sin brought death. Thus, sin must be removed to bring life.
In the sample of the people being brought back to the land in order to dwell in God’s presence we look forward to paradise renewed. In this sample, they will build house and they will dwell in them. They will plant vineyards and they will enjoy the fruit. The curse is being reversed.
In this sample, the order of creation will be reordered. The wolf and the lamb will dwell in peace. The lion will not shed blood in order to eat; it will eat like the ox. And the serpent, who brought upon this whole mess, will eat dust. There is so much more than just a new diet. The devil will be locked up forever. He is defeated.
In our days, we are getting a taste of what is to come. Each of us has a cross that God has individually given. Sometimes they are small and sometimes they are large. In our samples of joy, peace, and comfort that we feel in this life we get a taste of the life to come. In that life, every tear will be removed, there will be no more mourning, crying and pain. The former things will pass away and we will not remember them. Death shall be no more.
There is so much more than a temporary relief from suffering. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have an eternal weight of glory waiting for us that can not be measured. As we eat from this altar, we have a foretaste of the eternal feast to come.
