Easter Vigil

Rev. Thomas Van Hemert

Easter Vigil

April 16, 2022

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The serpent deceived Eve and she ate. She gave the fruit to her husband, Adam, and he ate. They were both of them deceived. They both sinned. Their sin cast the entire universe into chaos and death.

And so it is that almost from the beginning, death is the enemy of mankind. Death slithers around with deadly poison in its fangs waiting to strike. And death can strike at any time. Death can strike suddenly, unexpected, instantaneous. But whether death strikes unexpectedly or at the consummation of the slow decay of time, all of us will die.

Adam and Eve, created in perfection to live in the midst of the Garden and to have fellowship with God, were cast out of the Garden and died.

Many years later, the intention of the hearts of men were evil in every way, except for Noah and his family, eight souls in all. They were the only faithful ones, the only believers on the face of the earth. And so God instructed Noah to build an ark, the vessel which saved safe all humanity an all living creatures that walk on the earth. But in the end, after the slow decay of time, Noah and his family, those eight souls whom God saved, died. He saved them through the flood. But even faithful Noah and his family must pay the price for sin.

Abraham believed in the promises of the God. He believed even amid seeming despair, and it was counted to him as righteousness. He believed, so much so, that he believed God would return his sacrificed son to him, that God is, in fact, the God who has power over death and the dead. For through him, God would make Abraham the father of many nations. Death did not come suddenly for Abraham, but even though Abraham believed, he is still a child of Adam and Eve. Thus, Abraham died.

On this night, the children of Israel were delivered from bondage in slavery and so crossed through the Red Sea on dry ground from Egypt into freedom—free to worship God without fear, holy and righteous in His sight as His very children. God saved them from Pharaoh’s rage. But in the end, none of that generation entered into the Promised Land. They died in the wilderness. So only their children entered into their promised inheritance.

All of the prophets and the proclaimers of the Law—Isaiah, Ezekiel, Moses, Job, Jonah, and Zephaniah—all of those great prophets, those preachers of Law and Gospel died. For even they were sinners.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, despite their faithful witness in the face of oppression and certain death, despite their deliverance from the fiery furnace, and despite standing in the presence of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, all three of them no longer draw breath. Their success and fame on earth was short-lived. For with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. Their lives are fleeting, a mere blink of the eye.

All of these great and mighty men of faith, whose lives and deeds are recorded for us in Holy Scripture were struck by death, dead. Their souls have departed from their bodies. Their bodies returned to the dust of the earth from which they came. And if this is the case, then the same will be true even for us and we will suffer physical death. After all, many of our loved ones have already passed through death ahead of us.

We are without them tonight and we are missing them. Whether they died thirty years ago, last year, or just a couple weeks back, we miss them. We love them and we miss them. But the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. Therefore, all must suffer death. And death slithers around like a gangrely, disgusting, slithering serpent, waiting to take a shot at us.

But tonight, tonight is the night in which life triumphs over death. Jesus died. And by His death, He destroyed death. Death’s grip is slipping, its sting is blunted, and the serpent’s head is crushed. For Jesus lives. And because Jesus lives, so do all those great, mighty men of faith. So lives Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So lives those prophets and proclaimers of God’s Law: Isaiah, Ezekiel, Moses, Job, Jonah, and Zephaniah. So lives all the children of Israel, even those who never entered into the Promised Land, for now, truly they have found their rest in paradise. So lives that great army foreseen in Ezekiel’s vision. So lives Abraham and Isaac. So lives Noah and his family, all eight souls. And so lives Adam and Eve. And so do our loved ones also live with Jesus—Mary, and Dale and Sandy and Carol and Jack and Esther and Linda. Because all of them died in Christ, they are alive in Him. For Jesus lives. He has broken the power of death, blunted its sting and crushed the head of the devil, that ancient serpent and now, sadness is done away with. Now we rejoice. For Jesus lives. There is nothing left to fear, nothing left to do, nothing left undone. The sting of death and the devil have been crushed under Jesus’ foot and with that foot, He leads us and all the dead saints out of the grave. For Jesus lives.

And now there is only life in Him—life He gives to us in the sacrament which proves His words to be true: “Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days.” And He did, just as He promised. And now He gives to us in real time the fruit of His cross. But it is no longer a cross, it is the Tree of Life. The fruit from that tree are grains and grapes, by which He uses to instill in us the victory of the cross. What the devil meant for evil—a tree, by which he cast the entire universe into chaos and death—now Jesus changes that tree, that cross of death, into the new Tree of Life. And from that tree we reap sweet fruit, which changes us and grants us life everlasting.

This is the Feast of Victory of our God. So let us sing “Alleluia!” Let us with repentant but still joyful hearts partake in this awesome and holy victory of Jesus. For Jesus lives. Alleluia.

In +Jesus’ name.