# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1859_S105
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

105

(Submitted by Pastor Keyl.)
On Easter Sermons.

By Easter sermons I understand here not merely the proper festival sermons on the pericopes, but also the sermons on the Gospels for the six Sundays after Easter, and finally the sermons on certain other passages of Scripture that are suited to the Easter season.

The chief purpose of all the festival pericopes is to show that the resurrection of Christ is distributed only through the Word and grasped only through faith. This is taught us by the first Easter sermon, that of the angel at the open tomb of the risen Prince of Life, and by the weakness of faith of the devout women who heard it. This is taught us by the sermon which Christ delivered to the two mourning disciples on the road to Emmaus, and by the swift transformation of their sorrow into joy. This is taught us by Christ's sermon on Easter evening in the midst of his disciples and those who were with them, who at first did not believe, for fear and joy. Now while the Gospels chiefly relate the history of Christ's resurrection, the Epistles show its power and use, namely how we Christians ought to keep Easter daily — as in the sermon of St. Peter in Caesarea before Cornelius and his household among the Gentiles, and as in the sermon of the apostle Paul in the synagogue at Antioch, which became powerful among the God-fearing Jews (Acts 13:43).

For the first Easter Gospel, besides the three sermons apiece in Dr. Luther's Postils, the two sermons that he preached at Coburg in the year 1530 are especially to be used (Walch edition 12, 2040; Erlangen edition 18, 88), as well as the sermon on Easter Day from the year 1516, which contains a harmonized compilation of the Easter history. (W. A. 12, 2200; E. A., Latin series.)

Although the content of this Gospel is so rich that, following Dr. Luther's example, one may fittingly divide it into two sermons, yet along with this, and indeed above all, one ought also to preach on the highly important and comforting article of our faith, that Christ descended into hell — of which most hearers know little or nothing, and therefore, in time of trial, lack a mighty comfort.

In the Large Catechism, at the close of the Second Article, we are made attentive to the fact that the exposition of the individual parts of both estates of Christ does not belong in the short catechism sermons for children, but in the great sermons appointed for the seasons of the church year, which are ordered so as to treat each article at length — to which, of course, the article of the descent into hell also belongs. Because we now have no occasion for this on Easter evening, or on so-called Holy Saturday evening, which would properly be the right time for this sermon, we must therefore combine the instruction on it with one of the Easter sermons. This can then be done briefly at the beginning of the sermon on the Gospel, namely at the