by the  Rev. John T. Pless

"So let us keep the festival
To which the Lord invites us;
Christ is Himself the joy of all,
The sun that warms and lights us.
Now His grace to us imparts
Eternal sunshine to our hearts;
The night of sin is ended. Alleluia!

Then let us feast this Easter Day
On Christ, the bread of heaven;
The Word of grace has purged away
The old and evil leaven.
Christ alone our souls will feed;
He is our meat and drink indeed;
Faith lives upon no other!
Alleluia!" (LW 123:4-5)

Luther's hymn invites us to keep the Easter festival. How are we to "keep the festival"? Recall the words of the traditional epistle appointed for the Feast of the Resurrection, "Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (I Corinthians 5:7-8). There is only one way to keep the Easter festival and that is in repentance and faith. This we pray for in the Easter Collect: "Therefore grant that all our sin may be drowned through daily repentance and that day by day a new man may arise to live before You in righteousness and purity forever…" (LW, p. 47).

Repentance is more than regret, more than feeling sorry for your sins. Repentance is to die to sin and leave that sin dead and buried in Jesus' grave. To repent is to step out of the dark night of sin into the light of the Sun of Righteousness who shines with a brightness and glory that will never be eclipsed. When our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the tomb, He left the world's sin buried in that dark tomb. To celebrate Easter is to leave your sin buried in the baptismal grave where you died and were entombed with Christ. This is a central theme in the Easter Vigil as it draws the connection between Easter and our dying and rising with Christ in Holy Baptism (Romans 6:3-11).

Faith looks to the crucified and risen Christ who bestows on us all the fruits of His death and resurrection in sermon and sacrament. He has left the grave and, just as He came to His disciples, so now He meets us in the Divine Service in His words of peace and blessing. The words of the pastor, "The peace of the Lord be with you always" as he elevates the body and blood of Christ echo our Lord's words to His disciples on Easter evening as He shows them His wounds.

The Paschal Lamb, who was sacrificed for us, gives us His body and blood to eat and to drink. C. S. Lewis says, "God is a host who deliberately creates His own parasites" (The Business of Heaven, 327). Easter is the feast that He has prepared and so we come to His altar. "He is our meat and drink indeed; faith lives upon no other!" Here Jesus gives us His body to eat and His blood to drink for the forgiveness of our sins and, with these gifts, He joins Himself to us, imparting to us His life in the midst of our dying.

The Rev. John T. Pless is the pastor at University Lutheran Chapel, Minneapolis, Minn., and has recently accepted a call as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pastoral Ministry and Missions at CTS. He will begin at the Seminary in June.

From Volume 4, Issue 2, April, 2000