It’s been a long winter. Some of us, up until recently, had been wondering if spring would ever come. There are signs now; the world is greening. And the greening of creation each spring is a sign of something else; it is a sign of the faithfulness of creation’s Creator. He does not abandon His world to perpetual winter — to dormancy, darkness, and death. No, “Summer and winter, springtime and harvest,” great is His faithfulness.

            Now, we must understand: Christianity is not a “nature religion.” But we can point to the renewal of nature in springtime as a metaphorical, symbolic illustration of the gospel, precisely because the God of the gospel is the God of nature, who created and sustains this world, and who ordered the seasons for His own glory. And so, we traditionally celebrate Easter with lilies and other beautifully blooming flowers — glorious new life springing forth out of winter’s death and darkness. And some folks in some places even sometimes celebrate Resurrection Day by giving freshly-hatched chicks and ducklings to their children(!), symbols of new life breaking-forth out of the shell of the tomb! (Never mind the consequences two weeks later, but you see the point). And just now the dogwood blossoms have begun to beautify our landscape —  beautiful blossoms in the shape of a cross, bearing the marks of blood-stained wounds made by piercing. 

            Because the God of the gospel is the God of nature, nature does in its own way give hints and signs of the mystery of the gospel. But Christianity is not a nature religion which can be reduced to a spiritual interpretation of the cyclical renewal of life. It’s not as simplistic as some would have it, as just another religion of a spiritual cycle of birth and death and re-birth. And here’s the reason why: a seed which falls into the ground, and then springs forth into new life, does not have a moral or spiritual nature. The flowers of the field have no spiritual or moral relationship to their Creator, nor do the cute little, newly-hatched chicks and ducklings. But you and I do. And therein lies the problem. 

            When a beautiful flower is cut, severed from its source of life, it has no knowledge that it is as good as dead, doomed to wither, though still beautiful for the moment. When the dogwoods fade, there is no grief or sorrow or fear, nor longing for life in them. When the daffodils and jonquils dance in spring, they have no fear of summer’s heat, nor autumn’s chill, nor winter’s frozen darkness. You see? A nature religion will not suffice for us, for nature cannot save us. Nature cannot save us from our sins; only the God of the gospel, the Creator of nature, can do that.

            That’s what Easter is all about. That’s what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. The Creator of all things entered into His creation and lived a human life in this world. The Eternal One stepped into history.  The infinite Spirit united Himself with human flesh and blood. The invisible God appeared on earth as a visible man. The Creator who made the first man out of the dust of the earth, became a man whose feet walked many miles in the dust. The God who sends rain from heaven, who brings bread from the earth, who rides on the wings of the wind, came into His world as a man who would drink water, eat bread, and breathe the air. The immortal God lived the life of a mortal man. And He was crucified, dead, and buried.

            But why? Why was it necessary for Jesus to die for our salvation? Because we, because of our sins, are like cut-flowers: though beautiful for the moment, with the appearance of life, we are severed by our sins from the Source of our life, doomed to wither and die. The prophet Isaiah cried out, “We all shrivel up like a leaf, and our sins, like the wind, sweep us away” (Isaiah 64:6).

            These floral arrangements in the sanctuary are beautiful, aren’t then? Don’t you wish you could take some of these cut-flowers home and replant them so that new roots would grow out of the cut stems, so that they would not ever wither and die? But you can’t do that; it won’t work. But, you see, our Creator, the Source of all life, from which we were severed because of our sins, came into the world to re-root our life in Him, to implant His life in us and to implant us in Himself, so that we might have His life in us! But when He united Himself with us, by becoming flesh and blood in Jesus Christ, He took us as we were — sinful, cut-off and cursed with death — and He planted that (our sinful selves, our spiritual deadness) into Himself, and He took our curse of death upon Himself and rooted it, implanted it, into Himself. And so, as one of us, He died our death for us.

            That’s what happened on the cross. He was cut-off. The Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, the most beautiful flower that ever bloomed, was cut-off and withered and died a cursed death, because He had taken our sins upon Himself. It was His union with us in our cut-off sinfulness that caused His death. And so, He who was sinless died on the cross under the curse of our sins.

            He was crucified, dead, and buried. When the women went to the tomb early on the first day of the week, they expected to find His body there. Though they were not sure how they would roll away the stone in order to enter the tomb, they were nonetheless determined to do so, moved by passion and grief. They had not been able to anoint His body properly with spices for burial because by the time His body had been taken from the cross to the tomb on Friday evening, the Sabbath observance had begun. So, they went as early as they could on Sunday morning, the first day of the week. In the Jewish way of counting inclusively — Friday, Saturday, Sunday — this was the “third day” after the crucifixion.

            But when the women got to the tomb, nothing was as expected. Each of the four gospels gives a particular perspective on the events of that day, highlighting different points, but all of the gospels attest to the central issues. (1) The women went to anoint the dead body of Jesus. (2) When they got there, they found that the stone had already been rolled away. (3) The body of Jesus was not in the tomb. (4) The women encountered angelic messengers, who told them that Jesus had risen. (5) Jesus appeared to the women before He appeared to the apostles. (6)  Jesus’ body, not merely His “spirit,” was raised from the dead. His resurrected body could be touched, and the marks of His crucifixion wounds were visible. To be sure, His body had undergone a change — He had been raised from death to life, never to die again; but the point is that His resurrection was not merely a spiritual metaphor or symbol, but a bodily reality within history.

            And so the angel announced to the women, “He is not here, for he has risen, just as he said.” ... “Just as He said”(!). We ought to pay careful attention to those simple words this morning. On numerous occasions, Jesus had told the disciples that He would be killed, and that He would also rise again on the third day. Now think about that. What would you think of a person, what would you say to a person, who told you that he was going to be executed by the authorities and then rise from the dead after three days? What kind of person would say something like that? You really have two options: someone afflicted with insanity; or, Someone in union with Divinity.

            The bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead, you see, proves that His word is true. “He has risen, just as He said!” Jesus Christ is who claimed to be: the Son of God in human flesh and blood. And that is the reason that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinners and the only Redeemer of Creation.

            Centuries before His birth as a baby in Bethlehem, the eternal Spirit of Christ, spoke through the prophets, promising salvation through His sacrificial death and the victory of His resurrection. Jesus knew that He would be crucified, dead, and buried, and on the third day rise again, because He knew that His great work of salvation had been decreed from before the creation of the world. And so, in His own earthly ministry, He prophesied His death and resurrection; and all things took place, “just as He said.” His word was true, and He was faithful to His word. He not only predicted that He would die and rise again, He promised — He promised! — that He would die and rise again for the salvation of sinners. And He kept His word! “He has risen, just as He said!” — and the reality of His resurrection proves that Jesus Christ is the Son of God whose word is faithful and true, the One who did what He said He was going to do: suffer death in our place and rise again to give us life!

            And it is our spiritual union with Jesus Christ in His resurrection, through faith in Him, that brings us this new and eternal life. Though we, as sinners, are like cut-flowers severed from life and doomed to wither and die, through faith in Christ we are re-rooted in the Source of Life eternal. Though we were dead in sin, with no life in us, through faith in Christ we are re-rooted in Him who is Life, and have His resurrection life in us; and therefore, in Christ, we shall live eternally by the power of His life which has already overcome death for us! This is the promise of the gospel which we celebrate today!

            “He has risen, just as He said!” And the fact that Jesus did rise again proves the point that sin had no power over Him, and death had no hold on Him, for by His death He had completely atoned for all the sins which He bore in His own body on the tree. The power of those sins was broken, and the curse of those sins was nullified, and the guilt of those sins was washed away. So, on the cross, those sins for which He suffered were done away with forever. And whose sins were they? Not His, but ours! And if our sins could not hold Him in death, then they will not hold us in death, if in fact we are rooted in Christ through faith, if indeed we have cast ourselves, our lives, and all of our sins upon Him, in repentance and faith.

            Do you see? The resurrection of Jesus means not only that sin and death had no power over Jesus, but also that sin and death no longer have any power over anyone who has Christ as their Savior. If we are rooted in Christ through faith, and if His life flows in us by His Spirit, then death will not plunge us into the darkness of eternal winter but will be the entrance into the eternal springtime of Heaven. Indeed, the gospel of the resurrection is that ultimately the whole created order will be renewed and restored and redeemed into glorious perfection. The Creator of nature will redeem all of His creation, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And though it is a mystery beyond our comprehension, the promise of Scripture is clear: our bodies — the totality of our being — will be raised, just as His body was raised from the dead, imperishable, free from the corruption and the destruction of sin. Those who trust in Christ and live by the power of His life through His indwelling Spirit, will receive salvation  full and complete — body, soul, and spirit — in the New Creation of His Kingdom.

            Now what that means is that your life of human flesh and blood in this world is of eternal significance. You were created for the glory of God. Your life matters to God. You were created by God to know Him, to love Him, to live in a personal relationship with Your almighty Creator — a relationship rooted in love and faithfulness: His love and faithfulness toward you; your love and faithfulness toward Him. But you know as well as I do that your sins —  and mine (for I am a sinner like you) —  our sins cut us off from the life we were created to live in relationship with our wonderful Creator. But God, in His great mercy, is still the God of love and faithfulness toward us. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to bear our sins and to die our death, so that by the power of His resurrection, we through faith in Christ might be reconciled and restored in our relationship with our Creator — re-rooted in the Source of Life — filled with Life Eternal.

            Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, even though he die, yet shall he live; and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” This is the promise of Him who rose again on the third day, just as He said He would. This is His call to you and His invitation to us all: to believe in Him, to keep on believing in Him, to take Him at His word and to stake your life and your death and your life eternal on Him, to take the cut-stems of the deadness of your life and to give them — give them all, in all their ugly deadness — to Him, that He, in grace and mercy, might re-root you in Himself and give you new and everlasting life, so that you might live, now and forever, by the power of His life in you.  To God be the glory. Amen.