This is the Night
A sermon preached at the Easter Vigil at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Kewanee, Illinois, April 29th, 2025.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Dearly beloved in the Lord, you heard the magnificent words of the Exultet just moments ago, during the Service of Light, those sweet words we hear every year during this Vigil, glorious words of victory. Hear again now what they proclaimed to you:
This is the night when the Lord brought our fathers, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea on dry ground.
This is the night when all who believe in Christ are delivered from bondage to sin and are restored to life and immortality.
This is the night when Christ, the Life, rose from the dead. The seal of the grave is broken and the morning of a new creation breaks forth out of night.
How wonderful and beyond all telling is God’s mercy toward us, that to redeem a slave he gave His Son.
How holy is this night when all wickedness is put to flight and sin is washed away.
How holy is this night when innocence is restored to the fallen and joy is given to those downcast.
How blessed is this night when man is reconciled to God in Christ.
This is the night, beloved. This is the night. All is accomplished, all is finished, all is done. All is fulfilled. And all that was written before reaches its grand climactic end in this wonderful night of the resurrection of our Lord.
Now we know why the Lord brought our fathers, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea on dry ground. It was to portray for us the meaning of this night, to paint for us on the canvas of Israel’s holy history a living illustration of the significance of this night which is come to pass. For the children of Israel were slaves to the Egyptians, but the Lord brought them out from their slavery. And we were slaves to sin and the devil, but the Lord brought us out from our slavery. To redeem a slave he gave His Son. Their rescue illustrates our rescue. The children of Israel were led through the Red Sea with Moses on dry ground while the Egyptian armies were destroyed when the walls of the Sea came back together to drown them. And we were led through the waters of Holy Baptism with the Resurrected Lord Jesus while the power of Satan was destroyed and drowned in that divine flood. Their deliverance illustrates our deliverance. The children of Israel were rescued by the mighty hand of God, and we, beloved, are rescued by the mighty resurrection of Christ from the dead. This is the night.
This is the night when the seal of the grave was broken and the morning of a new creation broke forth out of night. This is the night when God accomplished what he said when he said, Let there be light, and there was light. Remember how the world was made in darkness; darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Now we know why God created the world this way: to show us, to illustrate for us what he had all along planned to do for us; for from the foundation of the world he knew that we would fall into sin and death; he knew that men would love darkness rather than light. But God would not be thwarted from his original design: to bring light out of darkness. Let there be light, he said, and there was light: from the darkness of death there came forth light, on this night. For the light of Christ has burst out of the deep darkness of a tomb that could not hold him. Forth he stepped from the prison house of death, and trampled down our mortality beneath his feet. For it is written, Christ is our Light, and in him is no darkness at all.
This is the night when all wickedness is put to flight and sin is washed away. For as surely as Christ who was dead dies no more, so surely have your sins been blotted out. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, and therefore since the holy atonement has been made there can be no doubt that your sins have been washed away in his holy blood.
This is the night, therefore, when innocence is restored to the fallen and joy is given to those downcast. There is no shame on this night. As you consider what you once were, and how ashamed you have been of your past life and sin, now consider this: it is blotted out, it is no more, it is removed. Your slate is clean, because this is the night when Christ, who buried your sins in the grave, emerged from that grave in your flesh, robed in the innocency of a new creation. Your sins, O Christian, are forgiven: as high as the heaven is above the earth, so great is his mercy toward us; as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. For this is the night of the resurrection.
And since this is so, beloved, you are delivered from bondage to sin and are restored to life and immortality. So therefore behold and consider this: by the resurrection of our Lord you have become immortal and incorruptible.
Ah, but you still sense in yourself corruptibility and mortality! You still are dust, O man, and to dust you shall return. How is it, then, that you are immortal and incorruptible? How can it be? Listen now, beloved, and I will tell you. Lend me your ears, and I will answer. How, you ask? How is it that you who experience corruptibility and death are to believe yourself to be immortal and incorruptible? How? Behold, I tell you a mystery! We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. For Christ is risen from the dead, and in him, Death is swallowed up in victory. In him, this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. In him shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? For the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And that which we do not yet enjoy we shall and must enjoy. Oh, but someone will say that it is not yet, and we must still wait for it. Not yet, you say? Not yet? But see, it has already come to pass. Do not say not yet, for this is the night! Is it not? Has not Christ already risen from the dead? Has not his grave lost its prey already? Is not the tomb empty tonight? Did not Christ appear unto many and show them his hands and his side? Did he not convince even Thomas? Has not all of human history begun to revolve around this one thing, this one moment, this night of the resurrection of Christ from the dead? Do we not count our years from that event rather than toward some time not yet come? Is not this the year of our Lord 2025? Not yet, you say? Not so! For over 2,000 years this has been a celebration of the night when Christ, the Life, rose from the dead. The seal of the grave is broken this night and the morning of a new creation has broken forth out of night. So therefore although there is a sense in which we must still say not yet, for the change that shall come to pass at the Last Day has not yet fully come to pass, on the other hand, it is already begun to come to pass, as of this night; for Christ is risen, the first fruits of them that sleep, and is become immortal and incorruptible, in your flesh. And since this is already so, therefore the not yet of your experience rings hollow, flaccid, and empty in the face of this grand reality. It has already begun.
Here, then, is how you must learn to live in this world. Always remember that your life is hid with Christ in God. For this is that blessed night when man is reconciled to God in Christ. So remember this: When death draws near, remember that in Christ you shall never die. When pain or sorrow enfolds your mind, take comfort in Christ that you need not sorrow as others who have no hope. When disappointment crosses your path, remember how transient and fleeting all disappointment must be, for you are truly already begun to be incorruptible and immortal in Christ who is himself even now incorruptible and immortal, having risen from the dead. When guilt plagues your conscience, remember that your sins have been put away, as surely as Christ is risen.
Live this way, beloved. Do not turn back toward the fallenness of this fading world; do not wallow in unbelief. Let not your hearts be troubled. Be not faithless, but believing! We died to sin, the sin of faithlessness; how can we live in it any longer? Rather, be reconciled to God, who in Christ is already reconciled to you. Live your life by this truth. Remember these things.
And how shall you best remember these things? Surely you know: When you attend to this altar, and come to this blessed Sacrament in remembrance of him, as he said. For your participation here, is it not a participation in the very Body and Blood of Christ? How can you say that your joy is not yet when you receive him right now? How can you be plagued with sin and guilt when you partake in him this night? Bound to him you are, soldered like steel to his life and resurrection. Your bond to him is made sure and sound by this Blessed Sacrament, which is Christ himself, the Living One.
This is the night of the resurrection. This night not only commemorates the resurrection of Christ some 2,000 years ago in a garden across the ocean; it also binds you to that very moment and place. For this is the night when you receive him again; and therefore this is the night of your resurrection and immortality. This is the night when faith rises from the ashes of dust and even now begins to mock the cruelty of death in advance of death’s inescapable demise and disappearance forever. This is the night when we may enjoy already what our mortal life tells us is not yet, for this is the night we commemorate what has already come to pass, and this is the night of our very participation in that resurrection of our Lord. So this is the night when faith begins to gloat over that hapless fallen enemy, and revel in eternal delight and triumph, saying: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? For this is, without question, indisputably, the night to celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord from the dead.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!