For one Easter Sunrise Service, my sermon started with our the youth group performing a skit. Jesus was carrying cross up the aisle while being taunted and jeered by the crowd. When He arrived at the  front, Jesus threw down the cross, looked angrily at the crowd and says, “I don’t have to do this!” and then stomped back down the aisle.

What if it happened that way? That was certainly a temptation, an option Jesus had! What if He decided, “I don’t have to do this?” and just walked away. If that were the case, the phrase He is not here! would take on an entirely different meaning. If Jesus didn’t die, He didn’t rise again, and we should be pitied more than all people (1 Cor. 15:19). If Jesus was not crucified, those women would not have been on their way to the tomb so early on that Sunday morning 2000 years ago. They would not have heard the angels say, He is not here! We would have no reason to celebrate on Easter. But look at the assurance we have from God’s Word.

Luke 24:1-8 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Then they remembered his words.

When the angels asked why they were looking for the living among the dead, it was not because Jesus had walked away and refused to die for our sins. He had truly died. He told them it would happen: Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men,[and] be crucified…

 That is what happened. He was betrayed by Judas, put on trial before the Jewish Council, before Herod and Pilate. Permission was granted to execute Him, even though it was acknowledged that He had done nothing deserving of death. At the hands of sinful men He was crucified. He died a horrible death, a public execution more brutal than anything we can imagine. It was witnessed by the women and by John, confirmed by the soldier who pierced His side, reaffirmed by Nicodemus and Joseph when they buried him. And He had never done anything deserving of death. He didn’t have to do this. Yet He chose to do this for you, for me, and for all people. He willingly offered Himself, His perfect life, as the payment for the sins of the world. He certainly did not have to die. But He wanted to do so to accomplish your forgiveness.

He did not cast aside the cross and desert us. He carried it and our sins to Calvary and ended the problem. It was what had to happen, as the angels reminded the women: Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Then they remembered his words.

If you don’t know that Christ is alive, your life is as empty as the tomb was on Easter morning. How many people in this world today are looking into their own hearts and lives and the words of the angels become as sad proclamation? How many look into their hearts and must admit: “He is not here!”

But in the lives of believers, we know there is more to it than that. These are not sad words for us. We continue on as the angels did. When the angels said He is not here, they did not stop. They continued and proclaimed He has risen! That is also part of what had to happen. That is our confidence. His victory over death enables us to rise as well. It is all part of the package, all part of the Father’s will for us.

That is what we know. That is what we believe. That is what Jesus did for you. Because He lives, we live also. Alleluia!