EASTER SUNRISE

Exodus 14:10—15:1

1 Corinthians 15:1–11

John 20:1–18

The Lord Jesus Brings Us Out of Death into Life with His God and Father in Heaven

In Adam, all people die because all people sin. The children of that first gardener have been driven out of Paradise and return to the dust whence they were taken. But now another Gardener has come, who has made His bed in the dust of the earth and who, by His rising, restores Paradise to all the children of men. With His voice of the Gospel, He calls us by name, and He opens our eyes to behold Him by faith. At His Word, we enter His tomb through Baptism into His death, so that, just as He is risen, we also “rise from the dead” (John 20:9). Come, then, “sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously” (Ex. 15:1). He has fought for us against our enemies, and in His resurrection not one enemy remains. “Fear not,” therefore, but “see the salvation of the Lord” (Ex. 14:13), which He delivers “as of first importance” by the preaching of His Gospel (1 Cor. 15:3). Thus, we are raised with Christ “in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:4), and we stand firm because we “are being saved” (1 Cor. 15:1–2).

EASTER DAY

Acts 10:34–43 or Jeremiah 31:1–6

Colossians 3:1–4

Matthew 28:1–10

The Victory of Christ Crucified Is Given to You in the Preaching of His Resurrection

Every Sunday is the Lord’s day, the day of His resurrection, “after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week” (Matt. 28:1). In the Divine Service, the Church enters upon the eternal “eighth day.” The Lord Jesus, “who was crucified,” who “has risen, as he said” (Matt. 28:5–6), is the firstborn from the dead and the firstfruits of the new creation. Because “you have died” with Him in Holy Baptism, “you have been raised with Christ” and “your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:1, 3). The Lord Jesus has become our God, as surely as He is “the God of all the clans of Israel,” and we now belong to His people (Jer. 31:1). In this, He “shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34), but “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43). As “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power” and “raised him on the third day,” He also raises us up and pours out His Spirit upon us through the Gospel (Acts 10:38, 40).