Brothers and sisters in Christ,
A greeting sets the stage, we might say, for what follows. Think of the greeters at a funeral home. Their polite yet somber greeting, “Hello,” leads to no surprises. We know to expect death’s presence.
Think of God the Father greeting his Son after Jesus commended his spirit into his Father’s hands. “Welcome home Son, you’ve completed my work. Well done. After your body has rested three days in the tomb, I will raise it so you can rule over all things.”
As the women stood at the entrance to Jesus’ empty tomb, the angels greeted them with good news, “He is not here; he has risen just as he said.” Mt. 28:6 The angels’ Easter greeting set the stage for their joy, comfort and hope. Jesus lives the victory is won!
This Easter greeting also is fitting for our work as faithful witnesses of Christ’s resurrection. What better way to greet those with whom we are about the share God’s Word. “He has risen just as he said,” sets the stage for our personal evangelism. It is An Easter Greeting from the Laborers’ in Christ’s Vineyard. It extends grace and peace. It comes from the living Christ.
Some greetings cause fear and trembling. I remember back in the day when my friends received a letter from their draft board during the Vietnam War. How many of you would be happy to have the IRS send its greetings and you know an audit is to follow?
The people in the seven churches were suffering great poverty and persecution as we recently reviewed. They were enduring all kinds of spiritual temptations. While they had not always lived as dearly loved children of God, God still greeted them with sweet words, “Grace and peace to you.” God did not greet John or the churches in anger. He reassured them that his undeserved love was always with them. He was not hostile to them but at peace with them. They had no need to fear their enemies, or let their crosses crush them as if they were alone.
What a good Easter greeting in our faithful witness. We can assure the guilty, the fearful, the doubting that God’s grace and peace is theirs in our risen and living Savior from sin, Jesus Christ. Whatever sufferings, burdens or temptations we face does not mean that God no longer loves us, or is at war with us. In Christ, we always hear the Easter greeting, “Grace and peace to you.”
Jesus’ resurrection guarantees that Easter greeting is not just a bunch of empty words or an empty promise. John gave those believers a greeting they could hang their faith on every day of their cross bearing lives. Even when God rebuked them through John for their sin and called them to repentance, it all followed his greeting of grace and peace. This Easter greeting is the tool we laborers use in Christ’s vineyard to call more and more sinners into Christ’s vineyard with us.
Jesus greeted his fearful disciples late Easter day, “Peace.” Often at the beginning of the sermon, the pastor greets his listeners, grace and peace, before preaching the gospel. Our believing hearts greet us every morning with grace and peace as we prepare to go to work, or to school, or to face those medical test results, or deal with the animosity of a family member, or bear some other unexpected cross the Lord lays on our shoulders.
John also knew grace and peace would be Christ’s greeting when he comes again. How we look forward to hearing our Savior speak that Easter greeting, “Grace and peace to you,” as he comes in glory to take us to the kingdom of heaven forever.
Grace and peace do not just appear out of the clear blue sky for no reason or without a primary source. As we have heard, that source is Jesus Christ. Who is he? John described him so we know that Easter greeting comes from the living Christ.
2. “Grace and peace to you,” John wrote, “from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”
We are here this morning, and gather every Sunday morning to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from death and the tomb. He is the “firstborn from the dead.” Jesus is source of all resurrections from death because he is death’s conqueror. The Father exalted him to rule over all the kings of the earth as Jesus’ reward to the redemptive work he did on our behalf. But the eternal Father who is unchangeable and the Holy Spirit, here referred to likely by the seven gifts he endows to believers also are the source of grace and peace. What one person of the Holy Trinity does, the other two do as well. God the Father accepted the Son’s sacrifice. The Holy Spirit gives us the blessings of that sacrifice through the gospel in Word and sacrament.
That is our message as laborers in Christ’s vineyard. We labor for the true God. His Son is the faithful witness who tells us the truth about who he is and what he has done. He is the cause of our new life and eternal life. He rules over all things for our sake. This is the good news we take out to our family, friends, neighbors and acquaintances.
Jesus Christ “loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.” Our risen Lord appears to us in the Word. He greets us with words of grace and peace established by his death and declared valid by his resurrection. What is our Easter song as we labor in his vineyard, and reap the harvest of souls he prepares? “To him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.” <SDG>