The Resurrection of Our Lord 2024

The Resurrection of Our Lord

1 Cor. 5:6-8

March 31, 2024

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

“Your boasting is not good.” So opens today’s Epistle. Boasting—or pride—is the fundamental human problem. So we must be told, even on Easter, “Your boasting is not good.” The broader context is a scandal in the Corinthian church. But the problem of pride, of boasting, is universal. It is written in 1 Sam.,

Do not boast, and do not speak lofty words

nor allow big talk to come out of your mouth,

because the Lord is a God of knowledge.… [1 Kgdms 2:3, Lexham English Septuagint]

The only acceptable boasting is to praise God and His works. Regarding ourselves, there is nothing to praise. It is written in the Proverbs,

Who will boast claiming to have a holy heart?

Or who will speak boldly claiming to be clean from sins? [20:9 LES]

No one can.

So the Epistle for Easter tells us—on account of the resurrection of Jesus—things need to change. They need to change at church, at home, and in heart. “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump.”

In the Bible, leaven (or yeast) symbolizes a corrupting influence. Leaven puffs us up, like bread rising. It spreads like cancer, and destroys. That’s what sin does in our lives, and it’s what the tolerance of divisiveness and immorality does to the church. It must be removed.

The great danger of Easter in a Christian community is the idea that discipline and repentance are now over for another year. One writer describes it like this:

Each year [during Lent] … I am inspired to try harder… I become more diligent in prayer and in reading the Bible…. I practice self-denial … Sadly, after Easter, I usually shelve all my good intentions, without having internalized the lessons of Lent.

Why? In one word: pride…. I have figured out I am afraid there will be nothing left of “me” if I do not hold on to my own self—if I let go and follow [Jesus] completely. My prideful fear places a barrier between Him and me.

I need to remember Jesus has pledged to be with me not only on my Lenten journey but also on my life’s journey. [Pilgrimage to Pascha]

So God’s Word reminds us on Easter, “Your boasting is not good…. Cleanse out the old leaven.”

Cleansing out the old leaven means we can’t go back to how things were, but we journey toward the resurrection life. In this new life, Jesus is the center of our thoughts, our work, our hopes.

The old leaven tells you, “Put self first.” But Jesus calls you to a new and different life.

What is the path to this new life? St. Paul tells the Corinthians that the antidote to their corruption is in Christ’s Pascha. Pascha is the word the Greeks use for Easter, although it can be translated as Passover, Passover lamb, or Passover supper. Our English word Easter unfortunately disconnects us from Pascha (Passover), although it does show up all over our great hymns, with terms like Paschal Lamb, Paschal Victim, Paschal Blood, and Paschal Bread. These words announce to us that what happened with Jesus is a new Passover for everyone.

What was Passover for the Israelites? A meal, but much more. They put lamb’s blood on their doors, and the angel of death passed over their homes. The lamb’s blood saved them from death, and this cascaded into a trip through the water—think Baptism!—as they made their exodus from slavery.

So when the Scriptures say, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed,” it’s telling us that the Passover now applies to us in a greater way. The blood of this Lamb, Christ, rescues you from death, and liberates you from the things that held you in bondage.

That’s what we just sang:

Here our true Paschal Lamb we see…

He died on the accursèd tree…

See, His blood now marks our door;

Faith points to it; death passes o’er.

Passover! You are smeared with the Lamb’s blood, marked for rescue from death and freedom from the things that enslave you.

This is not a metaphor; it’s a meal. We participate in Christ’s sacrifice by eating the Lamb and receiving the Lamb’s blood to mark us.

But the remarkable thing that makes the new Passover so much greater than the old is that the slaughtered Lamb lives! Rev. 5 pulls back the curtain on the Kingdom of God, where angels and saints gather around God’s throne, and they see the Lion of Judah appearing as a slaughtered Lamb!

6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain….

8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb… And they sang a new song…:

“You are worthy to take the scroll,

And to open its seals;

For You were slain,

And have redeemed us to God by Your blood

Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,

10 And have made us kings and priests to our God;

And we shall reign on the earth.”

11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain

To receive power and riches and wisdom,

And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

Then the entire cosmos erupts in praise to God and the Lamb! That’s the reality. That’s what’s coming for you disciples of Jesus. How then can we live like men whose aspirations are of this world? Brothers, do not love the world, or the things in it. For the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are passing away.

Today we gather around the Lamb’s altar. He is both slaughtered and alive, immolated and glorious, Victim and Priest, King and Servant. Since that’s the reality, how can we be distressed by this world’s troubles?

When St. Paul calls us today to “celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven,” he is telling us that we participate in the resurrection of Jesus. The Lamb is slaughtered yet alive. So we keep the feast as living ones in the midst of a dying world.

That can’t be done with malice in our hearts. “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil.”

In Paul’s usage, malice is everything outside the thoughts of God. Malice is the debased mind of fallen man. Malice infuses the world-structure, centered around power, pleasure, and rebellion against God’s governance. This world-structure enslaves us. Celebrating the festival, keeping Pascha, eating Christ’s sacrifice, means putting all that behind us. God’s Word says,

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. [Eph. 4:30-32]

Christ’s Pascha, His Passover is liberation from malice. The Passover of Christ’s death and resurrection calls us to the opposite of malice—sincerity: “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” This sincerity means purity, where hearts and words are not mixed with guile or hidden intentions.

Christ’s Paschal Church eschews the lie and gathers as brothers and sisters to eat Christ’s sacrifice. We gather around the Lamb, slaughtered yet alive, and speak sincerely. We tell the truth about ourselves, confessing sin. And we tell the truth about the world, that its redemption is only in this Lamb.

Jesus is your Passover. You’ve been marked by His blood. Like the Israelites of the old passover, we’re dressed and ready. We want to leave this strange country behind, and go to the land of promise. His resurrection characterizes your life. You are made new. Today you start a new journey, a new Exodus, out of the old bondage, to gather with angels and saints around the Lamb, slaughtered yet alive.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!