“Be Glad and Rejoice Forever”

Isaiah 65:17-25

Revelation 21:1-4: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among [humanity]. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and pain and crying will be no more, for the first things have passed away.

Luke 24:5b: Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.

[prayer]

“… no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in [Jerusalem], or the cry of distress.” Thus said the Lord by way of Isaiah about a new time yet to come - a time of new creation, when all would be made new. It would be a time of peace, joy, health, and longevity. Even the animals would live in a state of unheard of serenity, wolves and lambs eating side by side, and lions sharing a vegetarian entree with oxen.

“… [God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more…” Thus will speak a voice from a throne when God’s Kingdom has come in completeness. There will be no more tears of grief and sorrow. There will be no dead to mourn. There will be no more pain of any sort. None.

A favorite old hymn of mine is “When We All Get to Heaven.” Its refrain captures some of the flavor of those passages from Isaiah and Revelation: “When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus, we’ll sing and shout the victory.” The Lord will have come again, bringing history, as we know it to a close. We will be gathered with all the saints around the great throne of heaven singing praises to our Lord and Savior. We will be responding to God’s exhortation to Israel in Isaiah 65 to “be glad and rejoice forever.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m not quite ready to let go of this particular life I’m living. It’s not perfect, otherwise I wouldn’t have struggled with the flu during Holy Week. But it’s good. I enjoy it. I am thankful for it. In short, I’ve got no complaints to speak of.

But the visions depicted by Isaiah and John the Revelator are tempting. Peace, real peace. Health and wholeness throughout all creation. A creation finally reconciled with its Creator. The gates of hell slammed shut. All wickedness rendered impotent. An eternity with our Lord. I don’t have a death wish, but there are days when I can identify with the Apostle Paul’s yearnings to be with the Lord.

There is nothing wrong in looking forward to heaven or wanting to live in that new realm of creation that God has promised to bring about. The timing of my going to be with the Lord, however, is out of my hands. When I get to heaven is not my decision. For now this life is all there is. All I can do is be faithful in living it out.

But I live it out as every Christian lives it out, with the sure knowledge that Christ will come again, the Kingdom will be fully realized, all of creation will be renewed, and those who are in Christ will spend eternity with him. The New Jerusalem of Isaiah’s prophecy will be a reality. The One seated on the throne in Revelation 21 will say, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

I’m fairly certain that on the first Easter morning today’s passage from Isaiah was the last thing Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary mother of James had on their minds. Their coming to the tomb of Jesus was not a happy one. Out of love and devotion they were coming to give some dignity in death to his body that had been so abused during the last hours of his life. This would be the last thing they could ever do for him. They approached the task with, at best, sad resignation, and at worst, feelings of having wasted three years of their lives chasing a well-intentioned pipe dream.

Whatever their feelings or motives, they made the sorrowful journey to Jesus’ tomb. They found it open instead of sealed; the rock had been rolled away. In it there was no body. What further cruel trick had the enemies of Jesus pulled on his followers? What had they done with his body? Did they have to desecrate Jesus in the tomb even as they had abused him in life? Added to the crushing grief and disappointment already felt by those women was confusion. What had happened?

Well, what had happened was exactly what Jesus had told them would happen: “the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” This was the morning of the third day. Nothing horrible had happened between the darkness of Good Friday and the brightness of that morning. Instead something wonderful had occurred. The Lord had risen. He had risen indeed.

Resurrection was a reality, and not just for Jesus. Hear these words of Paul from I Corinthians 15: “But in fact Jesus has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” Or as William Barclay’s translation amplifies those words, “Just as the first-fruits are the guarantee that all the rest of the harvest will follow, so his resurrection guarantees that those who have died will rise again.” Those who have died will rise again. Every Christian will share in Christ's resurrection.

Jesus said that he would rise again, and he did. He has also promised to come again, and he will. Because he lives, so will we. Because of what he suffered on the cross, there can be reconciliation between God and creation. There can be a new heaven and new earth. There absolutely will be that time when all things will be made new. There will be that opportunity for all the saints to gather around the throne to sing and shout the victory.

Meanwhile back at this ranch we call life in the here and now, we wait for that opportunity. But we wait in hope. The resurrection of our Lord is not a fairy tale. Heaven isn’t just some pie-in-the-sky-in-the-sweet-bye- and-bye myth somebody made up to keep us blissful in our ignorance. Isaiah’s vision and John’s Revelation aren’t just pretty stories written in Hebrew and Greek. Resurrection of the body and life everlasting are real facets of a real faith affirmed by Christians for centuries – and not just during the good times.

Isaiah’s words to the children of Israel were spoken to them when life wasn’t all that great for them as a nation or as individuals. John’s letter from Patmos was written to Christians undergoing terrible persecution. When the two Marys and Joanna heard the words of the angel at the empty tomb they were obviously not having a good day. Acting on God’s promises and faithfully following Jesus aren’t always a tiptoe through the roses. Exiles and persecutions aren’t endured for the sake of fairy tales and fables.

We are not in exile this morning. We are not being persecuted, but some of our fellow Christians are going through some painful experiences because they dare follow Jesus. For them the hope of resurrection isn’t just a someday kind of hope. Facing death, their hope of resurrection is much more immediate. If they did not believe in life everlasting and a new creation, they would have neither a reason for nor the means by which to endure persecution. If they didn’t really believe the words of Isaiah and John about a time when sin, death, and evil will be eradicated from creation by the power of God, they could not survive their daily doses of humiliation and abuse with their faith intact. If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, the first fruits that guarantee our raising from the dead, our persecuted brothers and sisters would be, along with us, those whom Paul described as people most to be pitied.

We who are in Christ do not need the world’s pity. Our Lord rose from the dead. There is no box of Jesus’ bones lying around in Palestine. Jesus did not fake his death, run off with Mary Magdalene, and have a bunch of children. The DaVinci Code and its ilk are fiction, and not very good fiction at that. The Gnostic heresies of the First Century are still heresies today. “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead…”

Otherwise why would we be here today? No resurrection, no Easter. No resurrection, no church. No resurrection, no Christian faith. We gather here today and every Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. We gather here today and every Sunday believing the words of the angel at the tomb that first Easter morning: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” We gather here today and every Sunday to celebrate and anticipate our own resurrection to life everlasting. We gather here today and every Sunday to praise God for that great day to come when “no more shall the sound of weeping be heard…”

The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! Let us be glad and rejoice forever. Amen.