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The Second Sunday Of Easter
Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery hast established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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The Second Sunday Of Easter
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Scripture citation(s): Exodus 14:5-22; John 14:1-7
A Sermon by
Fr. Spurlock
on
Exodus 14:5-22; John 14:1-7
✛
The Lord Shall Fight for You
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Moses asked many times in the name of the Lord for Pharaoh to release the Jewish people from their slavery in Egypt. And more than once Pharaoh replied, “Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? I do not know this Lord; neither will I let Israel go.”
It took a lot of effort to wear down Pharaoh before he agreed to let Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt, but in the end he relented. After the people were some distance away, Pharaoh had a change of his hard, hard heart, wondered why he’d ever agreed to let the people go, and took off in pursuit of them.
When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them; and they were in great fear. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord; and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?
But Moses encouraged them to not be afraid, to stand fast, and they would see the salvation of the Lord, and never see their captors again. And God spoke and told Moses to tell the people to go forward towards that seemingly impassable sea.
At God’s bidding Moses stretched out his rod over the waters and they were parted such that the Israelites walked on dry land in the midst of the sea; thus the Lord saved Israel that day.
But the Egyptians who pursued after the people, the Lord overthrew them in the midst of the sea, the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, there remained not so much as one of them.
Pharaoh once asked, “Who is this Lord that I should obey his voice?” Would that he had come to know the Lord sooner rather than later, for this was the reason that God gave for the waters parting for Israel and for it overcoming the Egyptian army. God said, the Egyptians shall know the Lord after I have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots and upon his horsemen.
And when the Israelites turned back to look at this great work the people feared the Lord, and believed what he said to them.
Christians, especially in our recent observances of Holy Week and Easter, affirm that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins and that he rose from the dead, thereby conquering death. The exodus accomplished by Jesus holds parallels to that of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.
First Jesus identifies our problem. Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”
Saint Paul further articulates the problem when he says, “Don’t you know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” So, we are in bondage, not to a nation, but to sin.
So the problem of our lack of freedom begs a remedy. Or we could say, our slavery begs an exodus. And our exodus is not through the Red Sea, but through the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
You, who were dead in your sins, God made alive together with Jesus, who forgave all our sins, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us. He set this aside by nailing it to the cross. So in the cross, we’ve left Egypt, but the sacrifice only gets us as far as the Red Sea. We are between a rock and hard place. To go back to obedience to sin is death. But how can we move forward when death seems such an impassable obstacle. We need someone to open a way for us through that dark valley.
So we remember, our deliverance is not just freedom from sin, a canceling of debt, but the destruction of our greatest enemy. From the Orthodox Easter liturgy: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life!
Now, the account of Jesus’ time in the tomb is scant, but imagine the glee with which the prince of death might have greeted Jesus’ arrival in the depths of hell when Jesus descended there as mentioned by St. Peter and the apostle’s creed. It would almost be too good to be true that God incarnate had come within the clutches of the prince of death. But just as quickly, imagine the bone chilling fear that must have set in when Jesus began to preach with power and authority to the souls imprisoned there. But even that fear is eclipsed when Jesus begins to leave, no one has ever done this before, but it’s not just Jesus leaving, it is his carrying away the souls of the imprisoned with him. Perhaps death tried to stand in the way, but Jesus tramples right over him on his way to his resurrection which would become the pledge, for all to see, that the waters are parted, there is a way forward, death has no power here anymore.
Now the picture I paint might seem fanciful, but it is rooted in a deep and apostolic faith that something like this did happen though it exceeds my insight and powers to describe. But that in no way diminishes the truth of what did take place, and in no way diminishes the efficacy of Jesus’ power to deliver us from sin and death.
Christ overthrows death in his descent into the grave. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
When God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt, it didn’t just involve their freedom from slavery, it also entailed the defeat of their captors. When Jesus delivered us from the bondage of sin, it didn’t just involve our freedom from sin, but also the destruction of our greatest dread and foe, death.
