Pastor Tom Grieb concludes our Lenten/Easter series with a message entitled "Lay Down Your Sorrow."

This Sunday is the great day of Easter.  It is the highest of all holy days.  It is a day for great celebration.  We take great joy in the fact that Jesus is risen from the dead.  We will be studying the account of Christ’s resurrection from Mark 16:1-8.  We read there about the women approaching the tomb seeking to anoint Christ’s body.  To their surprise the tomb is empty, and they are greeted by the news from an angel that Jesus had risen from the dead.

You would think they would have jumped for joy.  Instead, they stood outside the tomb “trembling and bewildered.”  Their sorrow was that intense.  They had a lot to process.  Interestingly, Mark has it that upon hearing the news of Christ’s resurrection the women “said nothing to anyone.”  Eventually, they, along with Christ’s inner circle of disciples, would get their arms around the great thing that had taken place.  Their bewilderment would give way to great rejoicing.  They would begin to share freely the great good news.  By so doing, others would catch on, and with that the world would never be the same again.

The resurrection is the very bedrock of our faith.  The Apostle Paul writes in II Corinthians 15:14, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”  The resurrection stamps everything Jesus ever said or did as true.  The fact that Jesus rose from the dead gives us hope for this life and for the next.