Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in the abundant and joyful presence of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus and Satan were having an ongoing argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and God was tired of hearing all of the bickering. Finally God said, "Cool it! I'm going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and I will judge who does the better job."

So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away. They moused. They created spreadsheets. They wrote reports. They sent faxes. They sent emails. They sent out emails with attachments. They downloaded. They did some genealogy reports. They made cards. They did every known job. But 10 minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder clapped, the rain poured, and of course, the electricity went off.

Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed. The electricity finally flickered back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically and screamed, "It's gone! It's all gone! I lost everything when the power went off!"

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of diligent work. Satan observed this and became irate. "Wait! He cheated! How did he do it?"

God shrugged and said, "Jesus saves."

On this Sunday of resurrection joy, I considered a bit of humor more than appropriate.

Jesus saves! The cross and death have been overcome! Jesus is alive! Alleluia!

Life—full life, abundant life—is born at Easter. It is only the life that has suffered, entered into death and the grave, and that has come through victorious that it fully alive. We call it resurrection life. We also call it baptismal life. And both, just as a footnote here, portray the same process; in baptism, as at the cross, we die with Christ in order to be reborn in his likeness, in his truth, by his grace, into resurrection life.

Karl Barth, in his masterpiece on the epistle to the Romans, quotes Nietzsche saying: "Only where graves are, is there resurrection." (The Epistle to the Romans, New York, Oxford University Press, 1933, 416) Those who have died with Christ also live in him. This is the glory of the resurrection; it is the glory of Easter.

Our gospel text this morning ends:

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord." (v. 18)

In the power of the resurrection, we may offer that same proclamation. "I have seen the Lord." "Jesus lives."

Well over three hundred verses are concerned with the subject of Jesus' resurrection in the New Testament. We are told that this event is:

- a sign for unbelievers (Matthew 12:38-40; cf. John 20:24-29)

- as well as the answer for the believer's doubt (Luke 24:38-43).

- It serves as the guarantee that Jesus' teachings are true (Acts 2:22-24; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20)

- and is the center of the gospel itself (Romans 4:24-25, 10:9; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

Further, the resurrection is:

- the impetus for evangelism (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 10:39-43),

- the key indication of the believer's daily power to live the Christian life (Rom. 6:4-14, 8:9-11; Phil. 3:10)

- and the reason for the total commitment of our lives (Rom. 7:4; 1 Cor. 15:57-58).

The resurrection even addresses:

- the fear of death (John 11:25; 1 Cor. 15:54-58; cf. Hebrews 2:14-15)

- and is related to the second coming of Jesus (Acts 1:11; Revelation 1:7).

Lastly, this event:

- is a model of the Christian's resurrection from the dead (Acts 4:2; 1 Cor. 6:14; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

- and provides a foretaste of heaven for the believer (Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Peter 1:3-5).

Resurrection life is a rich and multi-faceted mode of existence made possible alone through the self-giving of the God who loves us beyond all else. And the need and yearning for such resurrection life transcend all else. They persist even where they are discouraged or punished:

When the senior George Bush was Vice President, he represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. He was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest. There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband—that her husband might yet have new life. (Gary Thomas, Christian Times, October 3, 1994, p. 26)

The life made available to us on this day is the most precious gift that we can ever know. And it is a gift that comes at so great a price. On Good Friday, we sang the hymn "Ah, Holy Jesus." One of the stanzas of that hymn speaks of the price of resurrection life in a way that always bring me up short:

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus hath undone thee.
'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee;
I crucified thee.

Our Lord paid the price for us, and it was not without our taking part, awful as it was. One of the awesome truths of the events of holy week is that try though we might, human beings cannot become God or even do the things that God can do. All we can do is bring death, a fact we proved with our Lord's crucifixion. But only God can give life. This is true as fully for birth as it is for resurrection. It takes God to make life.

There is a little-known poem by the well-known author of "Amazing Grace," John Newton. Prior to his conversion to Christianity, as you probably know, he captained of a slave ship. And he stands as an example of a life transformed from one that is death-dealing to one that embraces the grace of resurrected life through Christ.

In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopp'd my wild career:

I saw One hanging on a Tree
In agonies and blood,
Who fix'd His languid eyes on me.
As near His Cross I stood.

Sure never till my latest breath,
Can I forget that look:
It seem'd to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke:

My conscience felt and own'd the guilt,
And plunged me in despair:
I saw my sins His Blood had spilt,
And help'd to nail Him there.

Alas! I knew not what I did!
But now my tears are vain:
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I the Lord have slain!

A second look He gave, which said,
"I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou may'st live."

Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its (darkest) hue
Such is the mystery of grace, It seals my pardon too.

With pleasing grief, and mournful joy,
My spirit now is fill'd,
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by Him I kill'd!

  — John Newton, 1725-1807

At Easter, we celebrate the life that we live made possible by the one we killed. Today, Christ is risen, and our own lives gain new meaning, power, and purpose.

It has been said that "The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it." (Richard Evens, Bits & Pieces, March 4, 1993, p. 2) May that not be so among us—a people given the very power of life—abundant resurrection life—on this highest and most blessed of holy days. Amen.