Sermon 236
SERMO 236
IN THE EASTER DAYS
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Apostle says, died for our sins and rose for our justification. Just as by His death we are sown, so by His resurrection we grow. For indeed, by His death is signified the death of our life. About this matter, listen to the Apostle: "We are buried," he says, "with Christ through Baptism into death, so that just as Christ rose from the dead, so we too may walk in newness of life." He had nothing to correct on the cross because He ascended the cross without sin. We are corrected on His cross, and there we should place what we have wrongly contracted, so that we may be justified by His resurrection. You should distinguish thus: He was delivered up for our sins and rose for our justification. He did not say: He was delivered up for our justification, and rose for our sins. In His delivery, sin resounds; in His resurrection, righteousness resounds. Therefore, let sin die and let righteousness rise.
The eyes of the disciples were kept from recognizing him.
This hope, this gift, this promise, this great grace, when Christ died, His disciples lost in spirit, and in His death they fell from hope. Behold, His resurrection was announced to them, and the words of those who announced it seemed to them as madness. The truth had become as madness to them. If, when the resurrection is preached in this time, it seems like madness to someone, do not all say that he has great torment? Do not all detest, shudder, turn away, close their ears, refuse to hear? Behold what the disciples were, with Christ dead: what we shudder at, they were. The rams had this evil which the lambs shudder at. Then these two to whom He appeared on the road, and their eyes were held so that they would not recognize Him, reveal where their hearts were with words; and what is happening in the soul, the voice is witness, but to us: for their hearts were also open. They were speaking among themselves about His death. He joined Himself to them as if a third traveler; and on the road began to converse, mingling His talk. He asks what they were speaking about among themselves, though He knew everything; to provoke them to confession as if ignorant. And they say to Him: Are you alone a stranger in Jerusalem, and do not know the things that have happened there in these days, about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a great prophet? No longer the Lord, but a prophet. For they thought He was that when He was dead. They still honored him as a prophet; they had not yet acknowledged Him as the Lord, not only of the Prophets, but also of the Angels. How, they say, our elders and chief priests delivered Him to the condemnation of death. And behold, now it is the third day since these things were done. But we were hoping that He was the one who would redeem Israel. Is this the whole struggle? You were hoping, now you are despairing? You see that they had lost hope. Therefore He began to explain the Scriptures to them, so that they might recognize Christ more there where they had abandoned Christ. For they had despaired of Christ, because they had seen Him dead. But He opened the Scriptures to them, so that they might understand that if He had not died, He could not be Christ. He taught from Moses, He taught from the subsequent Scriptures, He taught from the Prophets, what He had said to them: That it was necessary for Christ to suffer, and thus enter into His glory. They heard, rejoiced, sighed; and as they themselves confessed, they burned: and they did not recognize the present light.
Christ who is full in himself, needs in his own.
What mystery is this, my brothers? He enters to them, becomes their guest; and he who was not recognized throughout the journey is recognized in the breaking of bread. Learn to receive guests, where Christ is recognized. Do you not know that if you receive a Christian, you receive Christ himself? Does he not say, "I was a stranger, and you took me in"? And when it is said to him, "Lord, when did we see you a stranger?" He replies, "When you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." Therefore, when a Christian receives a Christian, members serve members; and the head rejoices and it accounts for what is given to the member as given to him. Therefore, let Christ be fed when he is hungry, let him receive drink when he is thirsty, be clothed when naked, be taken in when a stranger, be visited when sick. This is the necessity of the journey. Thus must we live in this pilgrimage, where Christ is in need. He is in need in his own, he is full in himself. But he who is in need in his own and is full in himself brings those in need to himself. There will be no hunger, no thirst, no nakedness, no sickness, no estrangement, no labor, no pain. I know that these will not be there, and I do not know what will be there. For what is not there, I know: but what we shall find there, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man. We can love it, we can desire it, we can sigh for such a good in this pilgrimage: but we cannot worthily think or explain it in words. Certainly, I cannot. Therefore, my brothers, seek who can. If you can find such a one, bring me with you as a disciple. This I know, that he who is able, as the Apostle says, to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, will bring us there, where it is written: “Blessed are those who dwell in your house, they will praise you forever and ever.” All our task will be the praise of God. What shall we praise, if not what we love; and we shall love what we see? For we shall see what is true, and that truth will be God himself, whom we shall praise. There we shall find what we sang today, Amen, It is true: Alleluia, Praise the Lord.