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

 Well, unless you've been hiding under a rock these last two weeks, you've certainly heard about the so-called "Gospel of Judas."  The media, many of whom love to take any swipe they can at Christianity, have been reporting on this manuscript and promoting it as if it were some brand new, earth-shattering event.  The truth is that already in 180 A.D., a pastor named Irenaeus makes reference to this document as a false Gospel.  It originated not with Judas but much later in a non-Christian religious community called Gnostics.

 Now I mention this here on Easter morning, because the Gnostic teaching of the Gospel of Judas has at its core a belief that the body and the material world are inherently evil.  That's why Judas is portrayed as the good guy–because his handing over of Jesus allows Jesus to escape the body in death and go to a higher plane of spiritual existence.  There is no resurrection.

 Unfortunately, Gnostic teaching is still popular today.  Many people see the body as little more than a container, a tin can, and all that really counts is the inner, spiritual aspects of who we are.  Reincarnation is based on this faulty thinking.  You supposedly keep coming back in a different body, until finally you get it right, and then you are able to leave the body behind and join the one spirit of the universe.

 Even many Christians are tempted to think this way about the body.  They think that the goal is for the soul to go to heaven, and the body then is pretty much out of the picture.  A recent poll was conducted in which only about half of the Christians questioned said that they believed in the resurrection of the body.  That's terrible!  For we confess the resurrection of the body here every week.  We believe in the God who is the Creator of this material world and of our bodies.  It is true that God's creation has been corrupted because of sin.  But the problem is sin, not God's creation.  The goal of salvation is the restoration of God's creation and the redemption of our bodies together with our souls.

 In today's Epistle St. Paul speaks of the marvelous reality of the resurrection, the actual, literal raising of the dead body of Jesus to life again, a body that still bore the beautiful marks of His sacrifice on the cross.  Easter is not just about Jesus living on in our memories or being alive in our hearts.  It's about the truth that He who was indisputably dead, speared in the side just to be sure, is risen in glorified flesh–touchable, tangible, and real.

 Today the church proclaims that it is a fact of history that Jesus the crucified One lives.  Earlier in I Corinthians 15 Paul laid out the evidence for Jesus' resurrection as a lawyer might do in a courtroom.  The evidence would stand up even in today's court of law.  The Lord Jesus appeared risen from the dead to Mary Magdalene, to the apostles, to those on the road to Emmaus, and to more than 500 eyewitnesses–men who would testify under oath even to their own death, that the same Jesus who was nailed to a cross, was seen raised from the dead.  Remember, this was at a time when the Roman government and the Jewish authorities held all the cards.  If there had been a body to produce, they would have produced it, and put it on public display to silence the rumors of resurrection.  That was the point of having the tomb securely guarded.  Why would anyone want to make this up, anyway, and risk suffering crucifixion themselves?  No, Jesus' bodily resurrection isn't a myth; it's a matter of fact, a matter of history.

 Imagine Christianity with no Easter.  That's what St. Paul does with the Corinthians for the sake of argument.  Suppose for a moment that there is no resurrection of the dead.  Suppose that dead bodies do not rise from the grave.  What would that mean for our faith and our life?

 Well, if Christ is not raised, then my preaching is empty and your faith is empty, Paul says. Then you and I are wasting our time here this morning.  For then that would mean that Jesus' death on the cross didn't really do the job on sin.  The curse of death would remain on us.

 If there is no resurrection of the body, then the 2/3 of Americans who may claim to be Christian but rarely go to church are right on in their thinking.  After all, it's only what's inside that counts, right?  If there is no resurrection, then there is no real need for Baptism, or Absolution, or the Lord's Supper, or preaching.  Those are all things that go on with the body.  If there is no resurrection, we can have a spiritual life apart from our bodily life.  All that stuff at Church, that's just outward stuff.

 If matter and spirit, soul and body, are divorcible, then what goes on with our bodies has very little if anything to do with our faith.  You can be a Christian on the inside and live and dress and act however you please on the outside.  You can talk about the faith that you have in your heart and then fill your eyes with whatever junk you want to watch and conduct your physical life no differently than the unbelieving world.  It doesn't matter, if there is no resurrection of the body.

 But of course that way of thinking is pure foolishness; and those who live believing that they
can separate body and spirit are deceived.  For it is written, "Honor God with your body."  On the Last Day all the dead will rise, some to everlasting life and joy, some to everlasting death and torment.  Let each of us, then, repent this day of our sin and any false belief we may have, and let us cling to the truth of the living Jesus, our Savior.

 For Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. As the angels announced at the tomb, "He
is not here, He is risen!"  Jesus Himself said on Easter evening, "Why are you troubled? . . . Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have."  Jesus' rising from the dead is our deliverance from the powers of darkness.  It is the Father's seal of approval on the work of His Son.  By raising Him from the dead, God showed that He was pleased with the death of His Son, that He accepts it as the redemption price for the world, that your sins are covered and forgiven by His blood.  You are now reconciled to God in Christ.

 Jesus is the first-fruits of the dead, which means that He is the first of many more to rise in Him.  That's why Easter is such a big deal–it's not only His victory, it is also our victory, as well.  Jesus is the source and spring of our bodily resurrection.  For the Scriptures say that you who believe and are baptized are members of His body.  And where the head goes, the body must surely follow.  Jesus' resurrection stands at the beginning of this New Testament age, ours comes at the close of the age.  But through our baptismal union with Him they are inseparably connected.  Jesus said, "I am the Resurrection and the Life.  He who believes in Me will live, even though He dies, and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die."

 Jesus alone can be trusted with our death, for it is written, "Death no longer has mastery over Him." And death therefore no longer has mastery over anyone who is in Him by faith.  Jesus' death is our death to sin. His life is our life before God the Father. The preaching of His death and resurrection is not some pious hope or merely some inspiring religious message, but it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.

 Christ has glorified your bodies.  For not only did He purify you by taking on your very flesh and blood in the Virgin Mary, not only did He bear your sins in His body on the tree, but He has broken the curse of death by rising in the flesh on the third day.  And now He baptizes your bodies into His death and life.  He speaks His Word of forgiveness into them.  He feeds your bodies with His own life-giving Body and Blood.  God claims our bodies as His temple.  He honors them with His presence and works through them to bless others.  And though these bodies will one day die and decay, God has promised to raise them and glorify them at Christ's return.  He will change our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subdue all things to Himself.

 So do not be led astray by those who would try to get you to doubt Christ and His resurrection and send you on some wild goose chase of conspiracies and secrets and cover-ups.  The devil will continue throwing that sort of excrement until the day of Judgment.  Such things are a direct attack on Christ Himself and His Church.  If there is no resurrection, if the body isn't saved, then neither is the soul.  And so St. Paul says, "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied."  If Christianity is only good for this life, if all Jesus is good for is to help us feel good about ourselves, cope with life, give our kids a little morality, then we are of all people the most pitiful.

 But Christ is risen from the dead.  Our greatest enemy has been defeated by the cross.  What's the worst that can happen to us?  What's the worst that men can do to us?  What is there left to be afraid of in this world if death is defeated?  What have we to fear of poverty, sickness, violence, cancer, hunger, persecution?  Christ has conquered and overcome it all for us.

 There is now meaning to our life because Christ is risen.  There is meaning even in suffering and sorrow and affliction.  For as we share now in Christ's cross, we will also share in His resurrection.  Jesus said, "Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded."  You have everything to look forward to, everything to hope for, everything to receive. "Great is your reward in heaven."

 Because of what we celebrate this day, the future is bright in Christ.  It is brimming with promise.  Jesus Christ is risen today.  He is alive and among us to give Himself to us, even from this very altar.  He is our meat and drink indeed.  Faith lives upon no other.  Truly, this is the day which the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

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