A blessed Easter again to you, dear Reader!
While preparing for my Easter sermons, I came across the devotion below in my files from my days at Martin Luther College. It was my final semester in college before our class would head off to seminary and Prof. Daniel Deutschlander was assigned only one morning chapel that semester. For those of you who didn’t have the privilege of hearing him preach in chapel, whenever it was his turn to deliver morning chapel, it was always a gem. I seem to recall really needing to hear this devotion at the time and, of course, Prof. Deutschlander didn’t let us down, as you can find out for yourself.
When I came across the devotion during my sermon studies, I was encouraged again as I realized I needed to hear it again. I must confess that coming into Holy Week I didn’t feel very “prepared” from a spiritual point of view, but as I made that familiar journey with my Savior again, as I saw again what Christ’s victory meant for me, I had no reason to be a “sour note” in the Easter Cantata any longer. I pray the Lord fill you with joy and peace as you join your voice to the Easter Cantata of the Holy Christian Church this festive season!
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Don’t Be a Sour Note in the Easter Cantata: A Devotion on John 20:1-8
Written and Delivered by Prof. Daniel M. Deutschlander
Martin Luther College Morning Chapel Devotion — 17 April 2001 (Tuesday of Easter Week)
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Could there be a happier sentence than that, better news than that. Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! The sound echoes and re-echoes through our churches, our devotions, our hymns, in our hearts and minds on these most holy days of the year. Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! It is our Easter Cantata, filled with the music of life and life everlasting.
But listen to the gospel lesson for today. It is filled with discordant and sour notes that threaten to spoil the joyous Easter Cantata of “Christ is Risen, Christ is Risen indeed”. For look at the disappointing reaction there was that first Easter Sunday to those most happy words ever heard. No one was in any big hurry to sing. No one was all that eager to celebrate. Everyone put it off to the increase of their own sorrow, to the pointless, foolish, needless increase of their own sorrow. Don’t you do that! Don’t you be like the first hearers of the Easter tidings! Don’t be a sour note in the Easter Cantata!
Well, how does that happen? How does someone shove the message of Easter aside so that they can stay miserable for a little longer, maybe even for a lot longer, yes, maybe even forever? Look at the people in our reading. There is Mary Magedelene. She certainly loved Jesus and was devoted to him. But look at her on Easter Sunday. She’s miserable. She comes to the grave of the Savior and the stone is rolled away. And so she draws a logical conclusion from that observation, the conclusion that someone has broken into the grave and stolen his body. Her reason blinds her eyes so that she cannot see that Jesus has fulfill his promise and risen. And so she delays her Easter joy and weeps in anguish instead of singing for joy.
Then there are the disciples. What about them? Mary Magdelene tells them of the open tomb. Two of the disciples, Peter and John, run to the grave. But their running has nothing to do with joy. They run only to see if it is true what Mary has told them. They arrive at the grave and look in. What do they see? A scene of devastation left by cruel grave robbers? No, not at all. Just the opposite. They see the head cloth neatly folded. No grave robber would do that. They see the grave shroud, either as though it had simply collapsed in on itself or neatly put to one side. But do they sing out: He is risen, just as he said! He is risen indeed! No, mindlessly they go away. St. John says of himself that he believed, but quickly adds that they did not know about the resurrection promise yet. What? Not know about it? How can that be? Jesus had told them about his coming resurrection repeatedly. But they had not listened. And now, so absorbed are they by their fear–they were after all in hiding behind locked doors–by concern for themselves and their families’ safety, by disappointment and confusion about all that had happened the previous week, so absorbed that they too delay their Easter joy and stay miserable for most of the rest of that day. The shroud is no longer on the head of Jesus, but it remains securely in place over the heads of the disciples. Only death is on their minds, his death and the possibility of their own.
Don’t you be like that! Don’t delay your Easter joy and become a sour note in the Easter Cantata. Like Mary Magdelene and like the disciples, you may have heard the message so often that you don’t really listen to it anymore. Eyes and ears become blocked by funeral shrouds that should be torn away by the Easter Cantata of HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! The sad reasoning of Mary Magdelene may say: Just now I am overwhelmed by doubts. I cannot see him. I cannot hear his voice. He seems far away and gone. My own doubts and fears have stolen him away. Until I feel better, until I see him, I will not be glad. I will just stay sad. Away with all such gloom and sadness. It’s futile and pointless and perverse. For HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!
Or perhaps you are more like the disciples. They were at least as bad off as Mary Magdelene. Maybe you are behind the locked doors of the problems of the moment. There are still papers due. Finals are coming up. This person doesn’t like me and that person betrayed me. My family is a problem. My profs are a problem. My enemies are a problem. My friends can be an even bigger problem. I’m no good at this and I have trouble with that. What shall I do with my present, what shall I do with my future? I’m tempted by this sin and plagued by that one. I try and fail. I stumble and fall. If only I could overcome all these problems and all these people! Yes, if only I could overcome ME! Then, then maybe I would rejoice in the Easter message. But as it is, I have run to the tomb and looked in and nothing is there for me just now. And so I will stay miserable a little longer; I will stay afraid for another day; I will remain confused at least for the rest of this year.
Away with all of that. For HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! Don’t you see? That’s the only thing in the whole wide world that really matters. He came back to be with you, to be with you always. His resurrection proves that he is God, the God who loved you and died for you. He is the God who bore all your sins on the tree. He is the God who keeps all his promises, the God who in Word and Sacraments will never leave you or forsake you. So what do you have to worry about? What do you have to be afraid of? What is there to be confused about? HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! If you are confused, he isn’t. He didn’t ask you to figure out the rest of your life today. All he asks is for you to rejoice in the sure and certain knowledge that he is your God and Savior. If you are afraid of the past, the present, the future, well, that’s just silly. He rose from the dead victorious over your past, ruler of your present, saving guide for a future that stretches all the way into eternity. If you have people who misunderstand you, even betray you, so what? He didn’t ask you to be loved by all. He loves you and gave himself for you and asks you to imitate him by serving rather than by being served. For he loves those same ones who don’t especially seem to love you, and you serve them not because of their love but because of his. You serve them because in serving them, you serve him. If you are sure that you can’t get everything done and do it all perfectly, again, so what? He didn’t ask you to be perfect. That was his job and he carried out that job of perfection for you to a tee. He asks of you faithfulness from day to day with the tasks that are before you. He asks of you a faithfulness that continues to trust in his mercy and looks to him for pardon, for joy, for peace which passes all understanding.
Oh, don’t be a sour note in the Easter Cantata. For HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! Not only is that the only thing in all the world that really matters. Without his resurrection every pain and sorrow would be but a foretaste of hell. Without his resurrection every joy would be a cruel joke hiding the reality of eternal doom awaiting us. But since he is risen, every joy is frosting on the cake of eternal joy, and every sorrow but another reason to look to him for strength and aid and for the eternal joy yet to come. What more could you want out of life? Put away then all sorrow and sadness and rejoice. For HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! Put away all doubt and fear. For HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! Put away all absorption with self and focus on the joy which he has won for you for time and for eternity, for every trial and trouble, for life and for the hour of death itself. It is all summed up in this glad cantata: HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!
