Mark 16:2-6 - The Specialness of Easter

Mark 16:2-6 “ Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.””

Dawn broke this morning, a new dawn, a new day, and yet not just any other normal day, this day is special. I don't know if you felt it, but I did. Today is a day of celebration, not of sorrow. Today is a day of hope, not of grief. Today is a day full expectation, not of dismay. Today is today, and it is the only one we have.

Today is Resurrection Sunday, the day when nearly 2000 years ago, our Lord and Saviour  rose from the dead on his own power. He gave himself over to be our sacrificial lamb, and was slaughtered cruelly and painfully, gasping on the cross, dangling from that tree of planed wood, looking out over the land, the city, and the people He loved – looking out through the centuries and millenia over you and I. He who was blameless, spotless, pure, righteous, and holy – the very incarnation of God here on Earth – gave himself freely over as a substitute for you, as a substitute for me and took the penalty, the cost of our choices, our sins on Him so that we could be pure, blameless, holy, righteous, and spotless before God. But that was only part one. He had taken our penalty and paid our price, true, but it wasn't over yet.

Part two began early in the morning those many years ago when He broke through the bonds of death and rose again, starting a new era in the world, a new time the sign of which is an empty tomb. In this era, no longer did we have to make temporary sacrifices, installment checks if you will on what we owed, but we were now in the free and clear, our lives a new book, fresh and full of hope. Our sin is gone, our Hope is alive. God claimed us at the cross, redeeming us from death and hell and made us His own, co-heirs with Christ and adopted into His family. That is what today represents. Today is a new beginning, but also the continuation of an older beginning. Today is special because it is an anniversary, the anniversary of our freedom being won and our lives being bought back from Satan.

Today, and this week, lets remember this: We were bought by a ransom so costly that it cost the Lord and Creator of the Universe His very own Son, and it was paid for you. If everyone else was perfect, it still would have been paid just for you because He loves you that much.  We are not who we were. We are the Lord God Almighty's adopted children. We are His heirs. We are His blood now. We are not who we were, we are new, we are eternal royalty. We are redeemed!

And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—for me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be, that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be, that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
                                                                                              ^{Charles Wesley, 1738,}