Holy Saturday

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
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Behold, I tell you a mystery. Christ our Lord went out to do battle against our foes, and in the battle he fell.  But he is not fallen. He was bruised; he lost his life. But he lives. He was crucified, but he was not destroyed. He slept, but he is not sleeping. He died, but he is not dead. He was buried, but he is no longer buried. Today he is not fallen; he stands before the women at the tomb and says, All hail! Today he has awakened from the grave; he lives, and thus was the Scripture fulfilled: I laid me down and slept; I awaked. For the Lord sustained me.
 
Behold, I tell you a mystery. Our Lord’s crucifixion was not his demise; it was his victory. It was not the triumph of darkness, but the washing of the world in light. It was not the devil’s greatest moment, but his utter undoing. In the net which he hid is his own foot taken. For Christ is risen from the dead, and therefore has taken from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divided the spoils. His ammunition is all spent; his armory is empty, he has nothing left, for he cast it all upon Jesus. Hell’s darkest powers have done their worst. All of his arrows have been shot, all of his missiles have been launched, they all fell on Jesus all at once, and caused him to be done in, killed, crucified, buried, dead, and gone. But he is risen. And the devil has nothing left, he is emptied, he is demolished!
 
Behold, I tell you a mystery. Your sins are also removed, because of this. You know them, do you know? You have not been ignorant of your sins. You have been pierced by guilt and shame. You have tried to free yourself, but you have failed, and you remain poor, miserable sinners, as you so often, rightly, confess. But your sins have been removed. For it was your sins that were the poison tip of Satan’s arrows against Christ. It was your fault that he was crucified. You did it. Not merely the Jews, or the Romans, or Pilate, or the riotous crowd, or the soldiers. It was you. Those punishments were yours. The crucifixion was yours, and the death, also yours. You killed Jesus, though it is a devastating thing to admit and own. He would not have needed to die if it were not for you. But see, he is risen. He is risen; and all those sins of yours that were placed upon him are now dead and gone forever. They are wiped away. As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. And all this is undeniable and incontrovertible, because Christ is risen from the dead.
 
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. And why? Why must this be? Because Christ is risen, and has routed the devil; Christ is risen, and he has buried our sins in the grave from which he arose; Christ is risen, and our sins are therefore removed. And therefore we shall be changed, for, as we know, where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. As Christ is risen, so shall we rise. As Christ came forth bodily out of the grave, so shall we come forth bodily out of the grave. As Christ took his stand upon the earth, so shall we take our stand upon the earth. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. And why? Why must this be? Because Christ put on incorruption, and Christ is now immortal. For He is risen from the dead.
 
Behold, I tell you a mystery. All you who sorrow; today there is no cause of sorrow. All you who grieve; today there is no cause of grief. All you who are heavy laden with guilt and sin; today there is no penalty. All you who must die; today there is no death. Dearly beloved, in the name of the Crucified, in the stead of the risen One, I say unto you this day that your salvation is accomplished, and the mystery is made known. It is as real and revealed to us as is the Lord Jesus, standing alive before the women and saying, All hail.
 
Yet still we do call this a mystery, for our mortal eyes cannot fully see it, and our mortal minds cannot fully grasp it; and we remain on the corruptible side of things. But there it is, all the same: the undeniable, unassailable, infallible evidence before us today: Christ is risen from the dead. Let those words sink into your ears: Christ is risen from the dead. And therefore the mystery has been revealed and verified. It is true. And because it is true, we have already seen the very first part of that moment, that twinkling of an eye when the dead shall be raised, and we shall be changed. We shall be raised, and we shall live forever, in him.
 
Alleluia! Christ is risen. The audio is here.