What Are You Seeking?

The sermon from April 20, 2014. The text is Colossians 3:1-4:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

What are you seeking? What are you looking for? Why are you here? Today the Church celebrates Jesus' resurrection from the dead and His victory over sin and death for our forgiveness and our life. But why are you here? What are you looking for?

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Is this what you seek? Jesus is your life, and so because He lives, we will live also! This news calls for us to rejoice not just today but each and every day. Is that why you're here? Are you always seeking to have the gifts He gives to you from above, seated at the right hand of God the Father? Do you seek to have life from the One who once was dead, but now is living?

That first Easter morning, as recorded in our Gospel reading from St. Matthew, we hear the angel's word spoken to the women: "[Jesus] is not here, for He has risen, as He said" (Matt 28:6). The women had heard Jesus' words that He would die and rise again, He'd mentioned it several times throughout His ministry. Had they forgotten those words in the rush and stress of the past three days? Maybe. Or maybe, and more likely, they simple hadn't believed what He said. Maybe their unbelief at the foolishness of rising from the dead drowned Jesus' words. Jesus said He'd rise again, yet still, here they are seeking a dead and decomposing corpse in a sealed tomb.

The same could be said of us today, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth." (Col 3:1-2) We seek all the wrong things in all the wrong places. So often, we're like the women at the tomb looking for the living among the dead. We're looking for assurance and peace in the things of the world: that God's blessings us with a healthy RRSP, a good job, the fact that we're a basically good person, or at least better than that guy, or the guy sitting next to us today. We look for our assurance of God's favour, that God exists and cares for us in all kinds of things. We'll even look to the word of a little boy who had a near death experience, like that boy from the book "Heaven is for Real," rather than look to the things above, to God's sure and certain Word and sacraments. We look for life among the things of the world, among the things of death. We seek dead things to give us assurance of life, we're looking for the living among the dead.

We seek assurance because our life is hidden. When we look at ourselves and the world all we see is sin, suffering, death and disaster. We hear news of people who commit suicide at such a young age when life's opportunities should be opening up to them. Hear of wars destroying lands, families, and lives. Hear of disasters that destroy livelihoods and rob us of things and people that we hold so dear. We look at ourselves and see a life still steeped in sin. We see a life that by all appearance is unworthy of God's favour and eternal life. We see all the signs of decay in ourselves or in our loved ones that point us to our open-mouthed grave that threatens to swallow us whole.

Last Friday, Good Friday, we heard Jesus proclaim, "It is finished," but we can't help but ask, "What's finished? Nothing seems to have changed." So the flesh tempts us and leads us into unbelief and away from Jesus victory and toward the things of earth and its laws, regulations and do good and good will be done unto you kind of futile hope. The kind of hope that leads us away from Jesus to share in the fate of the things of earth - to share in their death.

If are going to have assurance, peace and joy you need a hope that is certain and sure, a hope that stronger than you and your sinful flesh. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Here your Easter victory shines in. Jesus' resurrection puts an end to all your doubts, it stops all the temptations of the world and the flesh in their tracks. The tomb is empty! Jesus lives! It happened, it's a historical fact! All that Jesus did for you, His suffering, His cross, His death are enough to bring you peace and assurance. His death has destroyed death. His life is your life. You've been set free from sin and death, you've been set free from the things of the world. Jesus has won for you, as He said, "I have said these things to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

On that first Easter morning the angel rolled that stone away, he declared those wonderful words so that you may look into the tomb with Jesus' disciples and see that its empty. There is no body. There are no bones. There is no death here. Death is now powerless. Jesus' word of victory is true and complete.

So your life is hidden with Christ in God, He's got it safe for you, protecting your life with His mighty power. Jesus' resurrection is your assurance, your guarantee, that death won't have you, that the disasters of the world will end and all wars will cease. And "when Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory." (Col 3:4)

What hidden here will, on that day, shine like the sun for all to see. Jesus will bring you out of the grave to be like He is now, to share in His glory, His life and His victory over sin and death. On that day you'll be received into the company of the saints triumphant who are now at rest from all their labours to enjoy the blessed peace and joy of creation restored, the blessed joy of seeing your Lord and Saviour face-to-face.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Jesus lives, and He's with you even now to give you His gifts from above to protect you with His life, "that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places." (Eph 1:18-20) The power that raised Christ from the dead is at work in you now as you receive His gifts from above.

That power is at work in your baptism, your new birth from above, of which Paul says, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death?" (Romans 6:3) At the font your sinful flesh that tempts you and leads you away from Jesus' victory and life dies. Here you've died and here you've been raised to new life with Jesus, the life that never ends, the life that never dies.

That power is at work in the Lord's Supper, in the food from above. At this altar the resurrected Christ comes to feed you with His own living body and blood, the medicine that wards off death to life everlasting.

That power is at work in His Word, His comfort from above. Here the living Christ speaks to you, He forgives your sins, and He beats back death with the news of His death and resurrection that mark you as His own, an heir of life now and into eternity.

Here is your Easter victory, here is your Easter joy! Here is the peace that surpasses all human understanding. Here is your Easter assurance. Seek life, seek Jesus' life and His gifts from above. And rejoice. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

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