Easter’s New Clothes Luke 24:1-12
Happy Easter.
I think of Christmas as the happiest day of our year because it is the day God’s plan for mankind’s sin starts with the birth of Jesus in a manger. Good Friday, for me it’s the holiest day of our year. Jesus suffers and pays the sin sacrifice for all mankind at the cross. And now, Easter, the most joyous day of our year. Easter is the day our Lord walked out of his tomb. It is the culmination of God’s plan.
Good Friday would have little meaning for us if Jesus remained behind the stone. By his resurrection we have proof of the truth of all he told us. We have proof of the irrevocability of what Jesus did for us. We have proof of our future in heaven through our faith. So again, Happy Easter.
When I was a child, my parents would buy my sister and I new outfits for Easter Sunday. For those who remember it, we used to go to London’s here in town. My sister would get a new dress, I would get a new suit, or at least new dress pants and shirt. Next, we would go across the street to Montano’s and get new dress shoes. On Easter we would put on our new clothes and look the best we could when we went to church.
Philippians 3:20, “But our citizenship is in heaven.”
Through our faith we enter heaven. I thought about this a lot this past week. Heaven is paradise, and we couldn’t enjoy the fruit of paradise if we entered it bound by our pain, or our limitations. Would heaven be paradise to me if I entered it with a heart condition, or the weaknesses coming my way through advancing age? And as I thought about this, I started thinking about those new clothes I got every Easter. I came to see we enter heaven new and refreshed, and it’s all explained to us in scripture.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable: it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power…”
As a child I entered church on Easter Sunday in new and fresh clothes. When I enter heaven, I will enter in a new and fresh body. And as my new outfit had different features; new pants, shirt, and shoes, my body in heaven will have new features. And we can see some of these through what Jesus experienced through his passion and that first Easter Sunday.
John 19:1, “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.”
Not to be overly graphic, but this was brutal. Painful and damaging to flesh and bone. Jesus body was wounded and bloodied.
1 Peter 2:24, “…by his wounds you have been healed.”
As I was going through scripture for today, I saw something I didn’t realize before. When Jesus appears to his disciples after his resurrection, scripture mentions the nail marks, and the wound in his side, it never mentions the scars and wounds from his whipping. I came to see that the piercing marks were there to prove to the world the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. The absence of the whip marks shows us the reality of our new resurrected bodies. Jesus took upon himself the wounds of our sin, the wounds of our diseases, the effects of any conditions we may be living with, the injuries and scars we accumulate in life. As the wounds are absent from his resurrected body, they will vanish from our new body in heaven. We will enter heaven youthful, healthy, and refreshed.
John 19:2, “The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head.”
Thorns are associated with curses, death, pain, sorrow, and sin. This crown of thorns represents Christ’s ultimate humility, his trading his heavenly crown for a crown of human suffering and shame.
In Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol,” Marley’s ghost tells Scrooge that he wears a heavy and ponderous chain he forged link by link through his actions on earth. We wear the crown of thorns we create. Each thorn placed and piercing through our sins. Jesus took on a crown of thorns so ours can be removed. We will enter heaven with a crown of glory and light, a crown of deliverance and the power of God.
John 19:23, “When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his cloths…The garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.”
In the Old Testament, High priests wore a robe made from a single piece of cloth, it was a sign of purity and holiness. Jesus’ robe represents his perfect, complete, and eternal priesthood.
John 19:24, “’Let’s not tear it,’ the soldiers said to one another.”
This simple statement carries a powerful message. Jesus’ sacrifice is something that cannot be divided, it is perfect, complete, and eternal.
In the Bible, clothes represent one’s identity, honor, and dignity. Jesus had his robe taken away, he was left exposed, humiliated, and vulnerable. And through this he took on our shame from sin. Jesus’ earthly robe was taken so we will enter heaven not dressed in humiliation or shame, we will enter heaven wearing robes that expose the righteousness and purity we gain through our faith in Christ.
Mark 15:34, “And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”
We can understand the full meaning of this outcry by looking at Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death…” Sin’s death includes a physical one, the separation of spirit and body. It also includes a spiritual death, separation from God. Jesus was dying for sin as our substitute, he had to experience both deaths.
Through our faith in Jesus, as human we may experience a physical death, but our spirit will be reunited with our new glorified body in heaven. Through our faith in Christ, our soul will never be separated from God.
Let’s look now at our reading’s verse 6, “He is not here, he has risen.” Easter Sunday, Jesus is risen, showing the truth of God and our future eternal life by faith.
The stone has been removed from in front of the tomb. We are no longer bound to punishment by the law of stone, by failure to perfectly keep the Commandments. Through our trust in Christ, God sees us as fully fulfilling the law of stone, therefore cannot confine us, we are free. Through our faith in Christ, the law of stone cannot keep us from God. We are free from spiritual death. Through our faith and trust in Jesus, we will walk into the light of God. We will walk into the glory of Christ. We will walk into the perfection of heaven. And we will walk into heaven youthful, refreshed, healthy and whole. We will enter heaven wrapped in the clothes and robes of purity and righteousness. We will enter heaven with our heads encircled by a holy crown, encircled by the light and glory of God. We will enter heaven forever joined with the holy and divine.
1 Thessalonians 5: 9-10, “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that…we may live together with him.”
I pray the joy of this Easter day be impressed in your mind. I pray that what Jesus accomplished for you through what he endured these past days be impressed in your heart. And I pray the reality of heaven and the nature of your entrance will be impressed on your soul.
Be joyful. The stone is moved. Jesus is alive. Heaven is yours.
Happy Easter,
And God bless.
Amen