"The women came to the tomb expecting death. They found life!" Easter Day 2026

05. April 2026
Easter Day
Mark 16:1-8

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

"He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you." (Mark 16:6–7)

The women came to the tomb with spices and love, expecting a corpse. Their hope was buried with Jesus on Good Friday. Walking in the dark, they asked not "Who will proclaim His resurrection?" but "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?" They prepared to anoint a dead body, to perform the final act of devotion for an executed prophet. They found an empty tomb, a young man in white, and a message that demolished their funeral plans: He is risen.

This resurrection fulfills everything the prophets foretold. Christ Himself pointed to the prophet Jonah as the sign He would give: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the fish's belly, in the same way the Son of Man will be in the earth three days and three nights" (Matthew 12:40). Jonah was swallowed by the sea and vomited back onto dry land. Christ was swallowed by death and raised by the Father from the grave. Jonah then preached repentance to Nineveh. Christ, raised from the dead, sends His apostles to preach repentance and forgiveness to all nations. Christ, the new Jonah, preaches repentance from beyond death through His Word and Sacraments, today, in this place.

The type of Jonah reveals the depth of what Christ accomplished. Jonah was a disobedient prophet fleeing from God's command. For his disobedience, a violent storm arose that threatened to destroy the ship and everyone on it. Jonah told the sailors to throw him overboard so the sea would calm. He was cast into the deep, swallowed by the fish, preserved in its belly for three days. Then God commanded the fish to spit him out, and Jonah went to Nineveh to preach repentance.

Christ is the obedient Son of God, but He stood in the place of disobedient sinners. In your place. The storm that arose against Him was not a natural tempest but the full fury of God's wrath against sin. Every wave of divine judgment that should have crashed over you washed over Him instead. He was not thrown overboard by sailors. He volunteered to be cast into the sea of God's wrath. "All Your waves and water and swells wash over Me," He cried out, quoting the psalmist (Psalm 42:8). And then, on the cross, He screamed the words that prove He bore the full weight of your condemnation: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46).

The swells and waves of God's wrath did not merely threaten Him. They drowned Him. He died. He was buried. He descended into Hell. Just as Jonah was three days in the belly of the fish, Christ was three days in the mouth of death. Death could not digest Him. Hell could not hold Him. On the third day, God the Father raised Him from the dead, for death could not keep Him captive. The grave could not contain Him. He was brought forth alive by the power of the Father.

This is the victory the angel proclaims to the women: "He is risen! He is not here." The empty tomb is the proof. The place where they laid Him is vacant because death has been vacated. Christ has not merely survived death. He has been raised from it by the Father, and in that raising, death itself has been destroyed. The storm has been stilled. The wrath of God has been fully spent on the Son so it will never fall on you. One Man died for all people so that the entire world would not perish. This is the day the Lord has made, the day death lost and life won.

The resurrection is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of the Church's mission. Just as Jonah, after being rescued from the belly of the fish, went to Nineveh to preach repentance, so Christ, after being raised from the dead by the Father, sends His apostles to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations. The angel does not tell the women to sit in silent awe. He commands them: "Go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you."

Notice that the angel names Peter. Peter, who denied Christ three times. Peter, who cursed and swore that he never knew Him. Peter, who fled in cowardice while Jesus went to the cross alone. Peter is not excluded. He is named. The resurrection is not just for the faithful. It is for the failures. It is for the cowards, the deniers, the oath-breakers. It is for you. Christ, the new Jonah, preaches repentance from beyond death, and that preaching includes the promise that your sins are forgiven.

The resurrection fulfills the promise of forgiveness that God spoke from the beginning. The Law always exposed your sin, condemned your rebellion, and handed you over to the grave. But God also always promised a Redeemer. He promised Him to Adam and Eve in the Garden, to Abraham by oath, to David by covenant, and through every prophet who foretold the suffering and glory of the Messiah. The sacrifices of the Old Testament pointed forward to this moment. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins, but it testified that God would one day send the Lamb who could. Now that Lamb has been slain and raised. The promise is fulfilled. Repentance is no longer a plea for mercy that might be granted. It is a turning toward mercy already won for you by the risen Christ. You are called to believe not that you must somehow appease God's wrath, but that God's wrath has already been appeased, fully, finally, forever, by the death of Jesus. The resurrection is God's receipt. It proves the payment has been accepted and the promise kept.

When Jonah came to Nineveh, he did not flatter them. He did not offer them peace or victory. He proclaimed wrath. He cut off all hope. He told them their city would be overthrown in forty days, and then he walked out and sat down to watch. But the king of Nineveh saw in Jonah's word the mirror of God's anger at their wickedness. The whole city repented. They fasted. They cried out to God. The infants wailed. The beasts brayed. Tears soaked the dust of the earth. And God, who is merciful and compassionate, saw their repentance and spared them.

Christ the new Jonah does not preach a repentance that says, "Try harder and maybe God will forgive you." He preaches a repentance that says, "Turn and see what I have done for you. I have died for your sins. I have been raised for your justification. I have destroyed death so that you will never taste it." This is the Gospel. This is the preaching that began at Jerusalem and continues in every Christian congregation until Christ returns: repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name.

How does Christ continue to preach after His resurrection and ascension? Through His apostles and their successors. Through the Word proclaimed from this pulpit. Through the Baptism that drowns your old nature and raises you to new life. Through the Supper that feeds you with His risen body and blood. Christ the new Jonah is not a distant figure from history. He is here, in this place, forgiving your sins, strengthening your faith, raising you from spiritual death just as surely as He was raised from the grave.

Jonah feared that if Nineveh repented, he would be proven a liar. But God did not send Jonah to Nineveh to destroy it. He sent him to convert it. The threat was a surgeon's blade, not an executioner's ax. The city saw the blade and ran to repentance out of fear. Then God, seeing their tears, had mercy on them. Jonah sat outside the city, bitter and angry, wanting to die because his prophecy had not come true. But God rebuked him. Jonah grieved over a withered plant that he did not labor for, that grew up in a day and died in a day. How much more should God have compassion on a city full of people He created, people who repented and turned to Him?

The women came to the tomb expecting death. They found life. They came with spices to preserve a corpse. They were sent away with a message to proclaim a resurrection. You come here this morning burdened by your sins, weighed down by guilt, fearful of death. You are sent away forgiven, justified, promised that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead will one day raise you. The Father has raised Christ from death's power, and because you are baptized into Him, death has no power over you. You will die, yes. But death will not hold you. The grave will not contain you. You will be raised, just as Christ was raised, to eternal life.

This is the day the Lord has made. This is the day death lost its grip. This is the day the storm of God's wrath was stilled. This is the day the Father raised Christ, the new Jonah, from the grave to preach repentance and forgiveness to you. He is risen! He is not here! See the place where they laid Him. It is empty, because He is alive, and because He is alive, you will live also.

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

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin