The empty tomb delivers the grains of life that pollinate all good things so life in its fullest can blossom in our lives because Christ brought life back to us when He rose.
We join him in that rejoicing and thanking on Easter morning. But in the ensuing days and weeks, we tend to frequent the empty tomb less and less. It gets lost in the weeds. Some weeds are taller than others. Some weeds are harder to pull up and burn in the fire of Christ’s passion than others. Financial worries, loss of employment, loss of loved ones, damaged friendships, addictions to one substance or another, fires and floods which damage our homes, dissatisfaction with our performance, guilt over stupid and selfish things we have done, shame that we do not control our tempers or our desires in a godly fashion, such unwanted overgrowth springs up and blocks our view of the tomb. From it flows the light of Heaven for every corner of our life. Therefore, we need to remember Paul Gerhardt’s call to our souls to awake each day with gladness (The Lutheran Service Book, #467), simply because Jesus rose to shed the light of life on everything for us.
For the stone rolled and fell on all the weeds that grow up in our lives. The breath which blows through the empty tomb from the other side sprays a herbicide to end all herbicides, the sinicide that kills whatever guilt or shame might plague us. It delivers the grains of life that pollinate all good things so life in its fullest can blossom in our lives because Christ brought life back to us when He rose.
The empty tomb drove the first disciples from Jesus’ grave back into life, into a new life, a life of testifying to the emptiness of the tomb and the fullness of a life lived on the strength of the risen Christ. They found this life of telling of His resurrection and sacrificing themselves to spread His Word and His love to be the true life which springs up on in the breeze from the tomb.
So, when we try to hide in the weeds, even though they scratch and burn, or when we fall asleep among them because we think there is no place else to go apart from the weed patch, we need to repeat Gerhardt’s call: “Awake, my heart, with gladness.” For into the midst of gloom and sadness the sun shines each day anew; the glorious sun, the Son who came to “save and triumph over the grave.”
The breath which blows through the empty tomb from the other side sprays a herbicide to end all herbicides, the sinicide that kills whatever guilt or shame might plague us.Gerhardt knew gloom and sadness well. His wife and several of his children died young. His Reformed prince removed him from his pastorate because he refused to follow his Elector Friedrich Wilhelm’s decrees on the Lord’s Supper. His home village was pillaged and burned in the Thirty Years War. Many a morning he awoke with seemingly little reason to awake with gladness, apart from the resurrection of his Lord. His confidence that Christ had removed the weeds from his life sustained him in the midst of his own sinfulness, of which he was indeed conscious. “Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain,” he confessed in “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” (LSB; #450). In addition to the weight of his own guilt, the weeds of his being the victim of the machinations of others afflicted him.
The Devil is the source of those machinations and our own temptations to wander from God’s path and design for life. Satan was shouting for glee on Good Friday as he experienced what he thought would be his final victory over the One come to deliver people from sin and death. But Christ arose and routed him from the battlefield, turning his boast to gloom. Therefore, the daily lives of Christ’s people are firmly planted in the sure hope that His love has produced. In the face of our enemies and the gloom they spread, we stand safe and strong in our continuing battle with Hell, Satan, and death. We now have the last laugh even though in the heat of the daily engagement with temptations we are hard pressed by temptations and afflictions of various kinds. The bitter raging of the defensive world and the fury of its tempting offers have earned our scorn. Christ’s resurrection turns our hearts from care to joy. Our troubles and misfortunes vanish in the light of the risen Lord, who is the light of the world.
The grim thrall of death which has hung over us is broken. Death’s iron chain falls from our necks. We cling to Jesus because we know He is with us to the end of this age. He will never leave us or forsake us, for He died and rose so we might be at His side forever. We follow Him as He leads us trampling through the weeds toward bliss beyond our imagination. There we who have suffered in His battle against the Deceiver and Murderer and shared His cross are placing what we endure today in the context of the glory of the coronation that waits for us.
With that song on our lips, we dare to uproot the weeds. The inbreaking moments of eternity flow from His tomb and return us to our Lord, who returned to life to awaken our hearts with gladness.
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