From the Pastor

"The Cure"

Jesus has risen! He has risen indeed!

Greetings in the name of our risen Lord Jesus Christ! Imagine that you hear or read this headline, "Doctors have discovered the cure for cancer!"

Wouldn't that be great?  Cancer has taken so many lives out of this world.  This headline would give all a reason to breathe a sigh of relief. The fight against cancer would be won.
Those who discovered its cure would be honored; they would receive recognition and awards for their role in this fight. Hospitals would bear their names. Why? Because they stopped a key contributor to death. 

But in reality, even with a cure for cancer, no doctor, no scientist, no individual is ever going to have a headline written about them that says, "So and So discovered a cure for death."
Death is inevitable whether it comes through a disease like cancer, or simple respiratory failure in our sleep. Death is going to happen, whether by disease, sickness, accident, or unknown cause; all of us will face death at some point in our life (unless Jesus returns first).
Yet there is a headline that we can share. This headline would read, "Jesus conquered death!"

This headline ties in with the words of I Corinthians 15:54-57, "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

This is the message of Easter! We read this headline every day of our life. Jesus has conquered death! Jesus has conquered sin!

The news story behind that would read how all of us suffer from a disease far worse than cancer; it is a disease we're conceived with and a disease that shows its presence every day.

That disease, of course, is sin. We were sinful from the time of our conception and will continue to sin until the day we face the grave. The results of our sin were far worse than the results of cancer.

Yes, cancer leads to a grave; it leads to physical death. But sin leads us not to only a physical death but to a spiritual one.

Because of our sin, we deserve hell. There are no 5K walks or Daffodil Days that could save us from the doom of hell.

There is only one individual who could, and who did, save us from that destruction. This individual is our Lord Jesus.

He gave his life on the cross so that payment for our sins would be made. He suffered the sting of death so that we wouldn't have to.

Because of Jesus we can shout, "Thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

That is the headline that our Lord Jesus commissioned us to carry. It's a news flash that's greater than any cure for a deadly disease.

It's a message that gives life. It's a message that extinguishes the fear of death. It's a message that tells how Jesus has conquered death and has given us victory so that we will live with him forevermore in heaven.

It's the message of Easter. My dear friends, hold onto that message every day of your life and take that message to those who still live in fear of death.

Jesus is risen! He has risen indeed! Have a blessed April!

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS)
610 Broadway Street, NE
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55413
Phone: 612 379-4296 | Fax: 612-379-4971
stjohnsschool@comcast.net