There’s a church in Germany that has the image of a lamb carved in the stone over the entrance. It’s there because of an incident that happened during the building of the church. The workers were putting up the steeple of the church when one of them lost his footing and fell to the churchyard below. But he wasn’t seriously hurt. He fell on a lamb that was grazing on the grass in the churchyard. In thankfulness, the image of a lamb was carved into the stone above the door as a constant reminder that not only was that workman saved by a lamb, but also that all of us are saved by the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
That carving is a good device to remind the church goers of this truth about Christ. But there are other things that work as reminders about Christ’s truth as well. We all use reminders every day for things that are important for us. So let me ask you, What, for you is a reminder device or plan or method that’s been helpful? What do you use to remind yourself of important things?
Having a plan to remember things is useful isn’t it? But sometimes there are things we wish we could forget. Or that we could others to forget about us. That reminds me of a story about a woman visiting a church.
For weeks she would come to church but not sign a guest book or give her name. Finally she called the pastor and asked to see him. This is what she said:
"When I was 15 I got a strange illness. No one knows what it was. The doctors said I would die. An elder from my church came to pray for me. He told me to promise God that if I lived through the illness I would never sin again. I prayed that way and I got well…. I never went back to church. For years I didn’t pray. I didn’t want God to be reminded that I existed. I was afraid he would remember the promise that I broke. But now I know my prayer was wrong. I know Christ has forgiven me. It is a joy to go to church again and to pray again."
She thought that being a better person was the price she had to pay. She thought she owed God the cost of being a person without sin. And, if you want to be a better person that’s all fine, well and good. But being a better person won’t restore your broken relationship with God. Our sin is not something we can deal with on our own. You can’t accomplish a restored relationship with God no matter how good you are, how self-empowered you become or how well you’ve raised your consciousness! You can do nothing to restore your broken relationship to God. Only Christ’s death on the cross and victory over the grave has accomplished that.
Yes, a person can reject the gift of His victory if they wish. But doing that leaves a person still dead in their own sin, which is another way of saying, leaving them in their broken relationship with God. Like the woman in the story. Her relationship with God had been broken because she thought she needed to make herself a better person. It is only by grace through faith in Jesus victory that His offer of a new life in Him became her new life. And that same victory is what gives all of us new life and gives us freedom from sin and a restored and a true relationship with God the Father in heaven.
She learned that while she had hoped that God had forgotten about her He hadn’t. He had only forgotten / about / her / sin. That’s what the cross of Christ does; it lets God forget our sins. The Old Testament lesson from Isaiah today talks about that. Read verse 17 with me please, it’s the 1st verse of the Old Testament lesson, it says, Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.
The former things not remembered, those are our sins. In the new thing that God has done in Jesus Christ He’s made it possible to remember us, without remembering our sins.
For us humans however, remembering often times requires some help; like we talked about at the start today. I asked a question about how to remember important things. I’m going to ask you something else, Why are you here today? Why did you come? What did you come here to remember?
I think one of the main things about coming to church on Easter and every Sunday for that matter, is to be reminded of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. You came today because Christ is risen...He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
It’s important to come to church on Easter to be reminded of the Lord’s works and words. Like we said, God will not remember the former things; He will not remember our sin. But what we are to remember is the Lord’s word to us. We are to remember His words. They are to be remembered and to be lived in. It’s the word of Christ and believing that word, that gives us new life.
It is important to be reminded of Christ’s words, that’s why we gather together. And in hearing those words we’re reminded we have new life in Christ. And we have a restored relationship with the holy God, who is our Father in heaven.
It’s like the reminder in the gospel lesson today; the women came to the tomb and found it open. So they went inside and instead of finding the body of Jesus as they had expected to, instead there were two angels. I love the question they ask the women, … Why do you seek the living among the dead?
That’s a great question! It’s as though the angels don’t expect the women to be in the place where the dead reside. But these women had seen Jesus die and be put in this very tomb. The angel’s question has the feel of, ex-cuuse me??? What are you doing here of all places? HellO-ooo?!? Don’t you remember what Jesus said in Galilee?
I mean this sound’s like something my dad would say to me, I can still hear his voice, ‘don’t you remember what I said?’ And when he’d ask that, I was stuck. I was stuck because if I answered, that I didn’t remember, then I was informed that that was because I wasn’t paying attention. So, I goofed up that way. But then, if I did remember I was in trouble because I didn’t act on what I had remembered I’d been told. Either way I was in trouble.
Well, this question from the angels to these women has that same kind of feel doesn’t it? But in the gospel lesson the angels ask the question and then mercifully tell them the only logical answer; He is not here, because He has risen.
And then the angels remind the women of both Jesus’ words and where He said them. In Galilee before heading to Jerusalem for the last time, Jesus made it clear that He would come to Jerusalem, be persecuted and killed and then rise again after three days. Jesus had said this and when the angels reminded the women of it, then, then they remembered.
It was / after / being / reminded that they remembered Jesus words. In the midst of their grief and loneliness at being separated from Jesus, they’d forgotten what Jesus had told them. After all, He’d just died three days before, on Friday, and here it was Sunday and they had begun to settle into the reality that – Jesus / was / dead. They’d put out of mind what Jesus had said; which, since He was dead, would only be a natural thing to do.
And that’s another point to remember today; what Jesus did was not merely natural. He’d been careful to tell them what was coming. But not having any experience with someone bringing themselves to life again after death, they simply missed the reality of what Jesus meant when He told them all this in Galilee.
He really meant exactly what His words said; He would rise again after being persecuted and dying. And He’d even made it clear that His death would be in such a manner that His body would be lifted up for all to see, and that’s what happened on the cross. Jesus meant what He said about His death / and He meant what He said about rising to life again.
And that’s why we have the question from the angels – why do you seek the living among the dead; don’t you remember what He said? One of the things to take away today is this, that being reminded of the truth of Jesus Christ is a good thing. Coming together for worship, like that lamb over the door of the church in Germany, coming together for worship can help us to remember the truth that is ours in Christ Jesus. Today, coming here helps us to be reminded of the reality of what Christ has done for us in dying and rising to life again.
So given that we are together on this glorious day, be reminded of this; be reminded of what’s true in our own lives because of Easter. Be reminded of what of Jesus Easter triumph frees us from.
Jesus frees me so that I’m no longer bound to my sinful ways. Easter means that I will never be all alone in this world.
Jesus victory over sin, death and the devil means that those things, sin, death and the devil, can never, can never again cut me off from God. In Christ and His Easter victory I am never alone again. Like the woman in our earlier story, she finally came to understand that she wasn’t alone, because she knew Christ had forgiven her of all her sins.
Let me close by giving you a suggestion from Martin Luther that might be helpful in remembering that. Luther once suggested that on the wall at the foot of the believer’s bed should hang, side by side, the cross and that person’s baptismal certificate. As the Christian goes to bed at night the last thing they see is the cross of their savior and the baptismal certificate by which they’ve been made a part of the body of Christ. And, as they awake in the morning, they are again reminded that they are equipped in Christ’s Easter victory to go and live before God in the righteousness and purity that is theirs, that is yours, by Jesus gift of faith to you.
Remember you are never again alone and your sins are remembered no more. But you, you are remembered before God’s throne of grace because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Go now and live in that remembrance because, Christ is risen...He is risen indeed, Alleluia!