April 20, 2025
Luke 24:1-12
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 over to the hands of sinners,
be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”
Then they remembered his words.
When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things
to the Eleven and to all the others.
It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James,
and the others with them who told this to the apostles.
But they did not believe the women,
because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb.
Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves,
and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
He is risen. The tomb is empty.
Glory to God in the highest!
No grave could hold him.
Death could not keep him by the power of God.
The grave cloths were left behind.
The blood and warmth of life
came back into the body of the Savior of the world.
Because he lives,
we will live also!
Because he was raised,
we will be raised, too,
because of his glory and majesty!
The Holy One knows our names and calls us to himself.
May the power that raised Jesus from the dead
be the power that keeps us lifted,
so that we may run on and see what the end will be.
May the power that conquered death and the grave
give us an everlasting hope and assurance
that we are the children of God!
And may the power of Almighty God
always be a shelter, a refuge, and the place we run to—
for every single soul needs the empty tomb and a risen Savior.
Hallelujah to the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world!
Glory be to God!
Amen.
