Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025
/Easter Day
Isaiah 25: 6-9; Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24; 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11; John 20: 1 - 18
The Rev. James M. L. Grace
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
I want to begin this morning’s Easter sermon with an apology - and the apology is that I am beginning this sermon in a super obvious and formulaic way. The beginning of this sermon will be (as you all obviously already know) a brief exploration of seventh- century Canaanite religion. I know, disappointing right? Just once wouldn’t it be great for an Easter sermon to begin in a nonconventional way – like with a story about the Easter bunny, or eggs, Peeps.
Apology given, here is what I would like to share about seventh-century Canaanite religious belief. Six hundred years before the birth of Christ, there were people living in modern day Israel who believed in Yahweh, the God of Israel. At the same time, there were people who believed in Canaanite gods such as Ba’al or Mot. To add another layer of complexity, there were people who believed in all of them together.
In the late 1920s, archeologists discovered hundreds of clay tablets with cuneiform writing inscribed upon them in modern day Syria. It is from these tablets that scholars have learned much about the religious beliefs of the Canaanite people. From these tablets, scholars learned of a reoccurring, seasonal story, involving the Canaanite god Mot. Mot was the Canaanite personification of death, and he was known for swallowing people (including some gods whole), like my dog will swallow a piece of steak whole. That is Mot.
So prevalent was this belief that the writer of Isaiah references it in our reading for today. The portion of Isaiah we read today dates from the seventh-century BCE (approximately seven hundred years before the birth of Christ). An attentive read over these verses reveals an intentional dig at Canaanite religious belief. We see it in verse 8, where the author says “[The Lord] will swallow up death forever.” Nowhere else in the entire Hebrew Bible do we read anything which comes close to what we encounter in Isaiah.
In saying that the Lord swallows up death forever, the author of Isaiah is essentially saying that the notion of God’s swallowing up death is a reversal of the Canaanite religious motif in which Mot (Death) swallows up everything. The result of God’s decisive action is shared with us in the very next verse: “the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all the faces.” Notice that the author does not say “the Lord God will wipe away the tears from some faces.” In swallowing up death forever, God is also taking away all grief, pain, and sorrow. That is God’s powerful promise in Isaiah today.
So powerful was this chapter of Isaiah’s writing that it inspired the Apostle Paul to continue this same theme in 1 Corinthians 15:54 where he triumphantly shouts “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” These same verses from Isaiah also inspired John, the author of Revelation to write in 21:4, “[God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Whatever has brought you here today – whether you chose to be here, or you were shamed into coming here, or you are here just out of obligation. Whatever the reason is does not matter. What matters is that you are here. What matters is that every tear you have ever cried, for whatever reason you have shed them, every tear will be wiped away by the devoted hand of a loving God.
Yes we will still cry. Yes we will still feel pain. Yes we will still suffer, and yes – we too will one day die. Big deal. God has already taken care of it – for every single one of us. The promise God has made in Isaiah is unconditional. Alleluia. The Lord is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia! AMEN.