The Resurrection of Our Lord

April 5, 2026

St. Mark 16:1-8

A soldier once joked that the US Army song is primarily about logistics: “And the caissons go rolling along.” My only experience with caissons is in the logistics of death. I’ve walked behind caissons at Arlington Cemetery, as the body rolls to its resting place. These committals have taps, and guns, and an officer with a folded flag. Other burials have just a few people, grieving alone while the madding crowd continues its frenzy, oblivious to their doom.

It’s there, at the graveyard, where you really wonder what’s true.

On this day, the first day of the week, in the year of our Lord 33, just a few women walked to the tomb. They are concerned about logistics - “Who will roll away the stone?” For their feminine frames, it is too great to move. But in what that stone symbolizes, it’s too great for everyone. Death is immovable, unconquerable.

The women carry spices—in Greek, ἀρώματα—the aroma of life to combat the foul odor of death. But the aromas of spices are never enough. The stench of death wins. Not long ago, the living Jesus had stood at the tomb of the dead Lazarus. “Roll away the stone,” Jesus said.

They object. “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for [Lazarus] has been dead four days” [Jn 11.39]. That’s the ESV. Refined and polite. I like the KJV here: “Lord, by this time he stinketh.”

This is what the women on Easter morning expect. It’s why they got up early to buy the spices.

They will honor the corpse, attenuate the stink, and wait for the bones.

In about a year, the flesh will rot, and the dry bones will be gathered into a box, a bone box, called an ossuary. That’s their custom. It’s all you can do. Death is irreversible.

It had been just about 600 years since the prophet Ezekiel had his vision of the skeleton field. The LORD asked him, “Can these bones live?”

Ezekiel dodges. The answer of course is, “No.”

But it seems unwise to annoy a supernatural being. So instead he says, “O Lord GOD, You know.”

Ezekiel then sees his astounding vision the bones coming back together, growing flesh, and standing again. The bones become a living army.

Ezekiel’s vision is not of one man rising, but of all God’s people rising.

‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it,” says the LORD.’” [Ezek 37.12-14]

That’s the deep magic of Resurrection Sunday. Christ is risen, and has become the firstfruits of them that sleep.

When you go to the graves of your dead, be it parents or children, you may be tempted by Ezekiel’s dodge. “Can these bones live?” “Only God knows.” Corpse to bones, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The finality seems horrific. But the Christian burial rite moves from the horror of death and decay to absolute confidence in the resurrection: “We now commit this body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subdue all things to Himself.” That comes straight from the Word of God, Philippians 3.

Why is St. Paul writing this to them? He’s been telling the Philippians about citizenship in God’s kingdom. This had special meaning in Philippi. That city had been given a special dispensation by the Emperor Octavian. They were Roman citizens! Roman citizenship was very valuable. It had not yet been degraded. The people in Philippi were proud of it. Paul’s epistle to them suggests they placed too much stock in their elite place in society.

Does the same apply to you? Your home, car, investments, and title help not at all in the Day of Judgment. They cannot impart life.

To them and to you, the Word of God comes, with the reminder that there is something far more valuable than citizenship, worldly status, or prosperity. You are a disciple of Jesus. America is temporary. The Kingdom of God is eternal. The disciples of Jesus are sojourners. We are pilgrims, moving through this world toward the kingdom. That kingdom shall be inaugurated in the general resurrection, the resurrection of all flesh.

On that day, the maladies of your body shall be healed.

On that day, your concupiscence shall be destroyed.

On that day, the truth shall prevail, and lies shall cease.

On that day, all tears are wiped away.

On that day the stench of death is blown away by the aroma of the new creation.

On this day, we begin to live as though that day were already here.

For we are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.

The stone is rolled away. The door to citizenship in the kingdom of God is flung wide.

For Christ is risen, and death is undone.

Christ is risen, and the demons are put to flight.

Christ is risen, and Adam and Eve are lifted up from hell.

Christ is risen, and you shall rise too.

Christ is risen, and He is making all things new.

So sing and dance, clang the cymbals and blow the trumpet, for Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!