Easter Sunrise Homily
St. John's Lutheran Church
Sermon on Job 19:23-27
Job 19:23–27: “23“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! 24Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! 25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”
In the Name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Out of all the holidays and Holiday seasons, both secular and Christian, Easter is my favorite. Easter is a time of great change. Easter marks the passing of the deathlike state of Winter to the life abounding state of Spring. We could not enjoy the abounding state of Spring without first suffering the deathlike state of Winter. We know that nature needs to suffer Winter to prepare/enrich the soil for the abundant life of Spring. But why do we suffer?
I think we can all understand that if we do something wrong, we suffer the consequences of our wrong actions. Just like if a person lies, no one will trust that person’s words. If you steal, you may or may not get caught, but no one will trust you with their stuff. Then why do good people, those who have done no wrong, get accused of lying, get blamed for stealing?
Why do good people suffer? This is the question that the Book of Job is wrestling with. The answer to this question would seem quite reasonable. Job state that punishment is brought to the disobedient and reward is brought to the obedient. This is true but, then why do good people suffer? What wrong did Job – who was blameless and upright – do to cause his suffering? What wrong did Jesus do – for He suffered more than anyone.?
God does allow disobedient people to escape temporal punishment – for they will have everlasting punishment – and allows obedient people to suffer. The suffering of a good person is not without reasons, for God punishes no one without a reason. Good people may suffer as a way of God humbling that person, as Paul indicates about himself in 2 Corinthians. St Paul writes: “7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”
The truth is that we may never know why a good person suffers. What is more important than why good people suffer, but how a person responds to suffering.
Job lost everything, his herds, his servants, and his children. What more can a man take! Then Job becomes sick with unimaginable sores all over his body. His wife, out of her own grief of loss, says to Job “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die” – as if that would end Job's suffering. Finally, his friends, some of his most trusted allies, began to accuse him, the victim, saying to the effect “Dude this is your own fault, you must have done some great sin for this to happen”. Job was utterly abandoned by all.
Consider Job's grief, physical pain, and emotional turmoil over being accused and abounded by his wife and friends. It would be understandable to do just what his wife said, curse God and die – if all you thought or knew of God was of punishment for disobedience and reward for obedience. Job understands more of God than that.
Job 19:23–27: “23“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! 24Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! 25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”
How beautiful are these words, “For I know that my Redeemer lives”! Job understands that a redeemer – a Hebrew word that means to deliver, to buy back (from slavery), to save/rescue – will be sent to save him. Moreover, this Redeemer is from God. Because of this Redeemer, Job will be resurrected on the last day and will see God face to face. My heart faints at this thought as well.
Some of you may ask, who is this Redeemer that Job believes and trust in? That Redeemer is Christ Jesus (the Word made flesh) the Son of the living God. Christ was beaten, humiliated, mocked, and nailed to a cross to suffer one of the worst ways to die – by slowly suffocating under His own weight. Christ did not suffer all this out of God's malice, but out of God’s justice; Jesus Christ suffered all of it out of His love for you! Christ, upon the cross took the weight of our sins upon Himself. He suffered the punishment of our sins, that we rightly deserve, so that we may be spared this suffering. And more amazingly, this did not destroy Him, instead, he rose from the dead.
Christ's resurrection, which we celebrate today, was done not only to show His authority over life and death but to fulfill the Old Testament scriptures. For Christ’s death meant nothing without His resurrection as St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4: “3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”
Being baptized in the name of the Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) we can claim Christ's death as our own – has he died in our place – and we can claim Christ's resurrection as our own. Through Christ's death and resurrection, we have victory over sin, death, and the grave. In Christ Jesus, we have passed from the deathlike state of sin to the abounding life of forgiveness, the love of God, and the assurance of life everlasting.
Never forget the depth of God’s love for you, His death and resurrection. Let us look and see an empty cross – the new life we have in Christ, an empty tomb – The new perspective Christ gave us, and a promise joyfully fulfilled – A new desire He won for us over sin, death, and the grave.
Christ is risen! CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED! ALLELUIA!
In the Name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
