Easter Sunday -- April  20, 2025
 

When you’re trying to fix something that isn’t working, you go back to the basics. You look for the simplest solution first. For instance, if an appliance isn’t working, you first check to see if it’s plugged in. If it is, you then go to the electrical panel to see if the circuit breaker flipped. Only then—only when you have gone back to the basics—do you start working on things within the appliance.
            For Christians, it’s no different in our lives of faith. We need to continually go back to the most basic truths of God’s Word because what should be a no-brainer is often easy to forget. That’s what we’ve been doing throughout this Lenten season. We’ve been going back to the basics of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. We’ve reflected on how we all need to repent, not just because of the sins we commit with our hands, hearts, or heads but because of our very nature as sinners.        We’ve reflected on how God works repentance in us through the law and gospel. We’ve walked with Jesus as he’s suffered and died for our sins, enduring the punishment we deserved. We’ve thought about what that means for us and experienced the sorrow over sin that is part of repentance. We’ve turned to our Savior, week after week, and received the great news that the Lord has forgiven all our sins.
            Sorrow over sin and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins are at the heart of Christian faith. Or to say that another way, they are the most blessed of basics. And today, on this most glorious of days as we gather around an empty tomb, we celebrate what repentance for the forgiveness of sins means for each of us as God’s children. We celebrate that because of our Savior and his resurrection from the dead, we poor and miserable sinners can…
 

“Rejoice in Resurrection Hope”
 
I. Hope that comes from God’s goodness
II. Hope that makes us righteous to serve

 
            The verses for our reflection today are the concluding verses of King David’s treatise on repentance in Psalm 51. In these verses, we find the reason for our resurrection hope: the goodness of our God.
“As it pleases you, do good for Zion. Build up the walls of Jerusalem.” God is pleased to do good for his people. In the Old Testament, the prophets regularly referred to God’s people with terms like Israel, Judah, Jerusalem, and Zion because of their faith in the Messiah. New Testament Christians share the same faith that the Israelites had in the promised Savior. Theirs was faith in the Savior who was to come. Ours is faith in the Savior who has come. But it is the same promise about the same incarnation of God’s goodness to his people: Jesus our Savior.
            God’s goodness to us stems from Jesus’ triumphant resurrection from the dead, which proves that he died for the sins of all people of all time. God’s goodness to us, and to the whole world, flows from Jesus and his empty Easter tomb. From eternity, God knew that he would create a world without sin. From eternity, God knew that the crown of his creation—humankind—would fall into sin and deserve his wrath. And from eternity, he planned in his goodness and mercy and for his glory alone to send Jesus to be our Savior. The plan of salvation was no plan B. It wasn’t a reaction to something unexpected. In his goodness, God planned the salvation of sinners before time began.
            That means that in creating the world, in hanging the stars and creating life, in making all things move in order, God chose to give us his grace which brought us to faith in Jesus, who takes away our sins. All of creation comes to us from God’s goodness in Christ. He gives us our lives as our time to serve him.
            In his goodness, God gives us the things we have to use to his glory. He gives us the means to help others and enables us to be good managers of our possessions. He gives us the opportunity to support the church’s ministry so that more people can know this resurrection hope that we have. He gives us our unique abilities and gifts to use for the glory of his name and the benefit of others.
            Only because of the empty tomb do we know that heaven is ours in spite of our sins. Only because of the empty tomb can we see God’s goodness to us and what it all means. Only because of the empty tomb can we put the things of this world in their proper place and perspective. They are not the end game of our existence or the goal of our lives. They are gracious gifts from our God to use in his service so that we and all people can know him and spend eternity with him.
            Our God has been good to Zion. He has saved Jerusalem. He has made his people his own, and that includes you and me. We have the sure hope of our resurrection because of God’s goodness in Christ.  Cleansed of the guilt of sin, we can now focus our life’s goals on serving God and his people.
 
 

 
            As we live in the world, it can be very hard to see God’s goodness. It can be difficult to “rejoice in resurrection hope” when there’s so much pain and sadness and sorrow. It’s easy to think that our sinfulness has angered God so much that he cannot really love us like he says he does. The devil will use the difficulties and trials we experience to try to make us believe that our resurrection hope might be slipping away.
            David gives the answer to these lies of the devil. He reminds us of our hope in the Lord as he writes, “Then you will be pleased with righteous sacrifices, burnt offerings and whole offerings. Then bulls will be offered up on your altar.” Through faith in Jesus, we are righteous to serve. In the Old Testament, those who believed in the promised Savior offered sacrifices as a demonstration of their faith in God’s promise to send the sacrifice to save them once and for all. The sacrifices in and of themselves were not what pleased God. What pleased God were the hearts of faith from which those sacrifices came. Because God in his goodness made his people righteous in his sight through faith, they were able to serve and please the Lord.
            The same is true for us. With the resurrection hope we have by faith, we’re able to please God with the things we do for him, our church, and others. God is pleased when we take advantage of the opportunities he gives us to carry out acts of love in the different callings we have in life. Jesus said God is even pleased when we do something as simple as giving a cup of cold water to a little child. (Mt. 10:42)
            Sometimes it’s when our best efforts are met with more hardship or when we get to the end of the day and remember all the ways we messed up or failed to do what we should have done. It’s hard to see ourselves as righteous servants whose sacrifices are pleasing to the holy God.  The evidence seems to be stacked up against us, and we may wonder how God could possibly be pleased with someone like me.
            But the empty tomb reminds us of who we really are. We are righteous through faith in Jesus with the sure hope of heaven. We are holy in God’s eyes, able to serve him and others with all we have and do because when God looks at us, he first looks at his Son who freed us from our sins. When we miss opportunities to serve our Lord because we focused on the things of this world, the empty tomb reminds us that Jesus died for that sin and his sacrifice on our behalf has been accepted. When we look back on our day and see all the things we should have done better or done differently or didn’t do at all, we find comfort in knowing that Jesus died for those shortcomings too. In his empty tomb, we have the assurance that our righteousness is sealed, our hope is sure, and our salvation is secure.
            This assurance strengthens our faith and empowers us to serve our Lord as the righteous children of God that we are. Our sacrifices, our offerings, and our acts of service are good works that flow from our hearts of faith. God calls them good and delights in them because he delights in us through faith in Jesus. What a privilege to live for our Lord and please him with our thoughts, words, and actions!
            Friends, our look at Psalm 51 over these last several weeks has been a blessing. We’ve reflected on the plan of salvation and how badly we need our Lord and Savior. We’ve remembered what sin is and how hopelessly sinful we are. But we’ve also turned to the source of hope—the one who is the grace of God incarnate and God’s goodness to us, the one whose perfect sacrifice makes us righteous in God’s sight and makes all our works good and pleasing to God—Jesus our Savior. It seems so basic: Believe in Jesus! But the basic is so easy to forget. Never forget to “rejoice in resurrection hope” today and every day. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia! Amen.