Questions that Easter Answers

On April 27, 1957, Martin Luther King gave a sermon entitled, "Questions that Easter Answers." This is the conclusion of the sermon, which is very moving. You can read the entire sermon here.

And I want to tell you one more thing, and then I’m concluding. People are always asking, “What is the most durable power in the universe?” And the fact is that Easter answers that question too. You wonder about it. What is it that is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos? What is it? Philosophers have tried to grapple with it over the years, and they moved back, and maybe [they] come out and say that it’s pleasure. Maybe somebody else comes out and points out to certain moral established principles. But I tell you I want to reach out and get one morally established principle for you, and that is the basic and underlying principle of the universe, that is the most durable power in the world. And do you know what that is? It’s the power of love. Easter tells us that. Sometimes it looks like the other powers are much more durable. Then we come to see that isn’t true. But the most durable, lasting power in this world is the power to love. And my friends, it seems to me that history tells us that. History’s a running commentary of it. We have seen the forces of military power hold the throne for a while, haven’t we? And it looked like this was the most durable power in the world. It seemed that might made right. It seemed that somehow the more guns and the more ammunition you could get, the greater the power was, the greater the durability of it. Then at every point in history, we have been able to see that this kind of power passes away.

Just the other day, I stood over the tomb of Napoleon in Paris, one of the most beautiful sights in the world. The greatest tomb erected to a man anywhere in the world. It can only be matched or outmatched by the Taj Mahal in India, but that’s to a woman. And here that statue, that great tomb stands to a great hero, to a great warrior, to a great military genius. And as I looked there I could not only think of its beauty. But my mind for the moment went back across the centuries. I thought about Alexander the Great with all of his military power, then I said, “He came to his end.” I went on back even more and started thinking of the great warrior, Asia’s Genghis Khan. I said that all of his power came to an end. I went back to the Caesars and thought about the great power of the Roman Empire. Then I said, “Even it came to its end, for he who lives by the sword, wil1 die by the sword.” And all of the glory of Rome had to fall one day, and I could see the hordes of Visigoths marching through Rome in 510 A D. Rome fell. My mind went on back to Charlemagne, and I said, “He’s gone.”

Then I started thinking of Napoleon himself. My mind ran across his life. I could see him, at the age of nineteen, walking across the banks of the Seine river contemplating suicide. I could see him later as he stood there around France in 1795, just at a youthful age as he came into the situation to quiet a mob. I could see him again in 1796 as he took over the army and led them to Italy, and with a group of inexperienced, ill-fed, ill-paid men, he was able to win the victory. I could see him again in 1798 when he marched into Egypt and Syria, how in the midst of that battle he was able to conquer these nations with ease. I could see him again in 1799, and he became dictator with the title of First Consul. I could see him again in 1800 as he marched into Austria, and there at the battle of Marengo, brought into being one of the greatest victories of his career. I could see him again in 1804, and he became the emperor. I could see him again in 1812, standing with all of his power. Then I saw him a year later move over into the battle of Leipzig. And I could see that same Napoleon going down, that Napoleon that had conquered more nations than any warrior that had ever lived. And I watched him as he marched to Waterloo. I could see Napoleon, with all of his military power, dying and faltering with his army at Waterloo. I said to myself, "This is the doom of every Napoleon. This is the doom of every man and every nation that feels that victory can ultimately come through force."

In the midst of that, as Coretta and I walked away from that building, I decided that my mind had to go back a little beyond that. It went back about twenty centuries. And I could see a little boy being born. I could see him at the age of thirty years old going out on his Galilean mission. He didn’t have any armies with him. He didn’t have many followers with him. He didn’t even have a hundred percent cooperation from them, for one of them betrayed him and another went around and condemned, denied it, denied that he knew him. And all of them deserted him at the end. But I thought about it. And I watched him as he walked around the hills of Galilee just doing good, just preaching the gospel to the brokenhearted, healing the sick and raising the dead. And I just watched him. I looked at him, and I said, "Now, he doesn’t have a band following. He has no great army! He has no great military power." Then I can see him go with another kind of army. I can hear him as he says somehow to himself, "I’m just going to put on the breastplate of righteousness. And I’m going take the ammunition of love and the whole armor of God, and I’m just gonna march." And my friends, he started marching. And after he marched a little while, he came to his Waterloo. Good Friday came, and there he was on the cross. That was his Waterloo. But the difference is that Napoleon’s Waterloo ended with Waterloo. Jesus’ Waterloo ended transforming Waterloo. And then came that third day. And this was the time that he was able to reign supreme. His Waterloo couldn’t stop him. He stopped Waterloo. And this became the beginning of his influence. This became the most powerful moment of his life.

As I walked away from that building, I could hear choirs singing everywhere. On this side, it seemed that I could hear somebody singing:

All hail the power of Jesus’ name!

Let angels prostrate fall,

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown him Lord of all

Then I could hear another choir on the other side, singing:

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun

Does his successive journeys run,

His kingdom spread from shore to shore

Till moons shall wane and wax no more (Amen)

And then I could hear another choir over here singing:

In Christ there is no east or west,

In Him no north or south,

But one great brotherhood of love

Throughout the whole wide world

And then off from the distance, I could hear something else singing:

Hallelujah, Hallelujah!

He’s King of Kings and Lord of Lords,

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

And then I could hear the echo singing:

He shall reign forever and ever, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!

This is the Easter message; this is the question that it answers. It says to us that love is the most durable power in the world than all of the military giants, all of the nations that base their way on military power. I wish this morning that you would go tell Russia, go tell America, go tell the nations of the world that atomic bombs cannot solve the problems of the universe. Go back and tell them that hydrogen bombs cannot solve the problems of the world, but it is only through love and devotion to the justice of the universe that we can solve these problems. And then we can go away saying in terms that cry out across the generations that “God reigns, he reigns supreme, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” He reigns because he established his universe on moral principles. And through the love that he revealed through Jesus Christ, things move on. These are the questions that Easter answers. God grant that as you seek to answer them you will catch the spirit of Jesus in Easter and live life with an exuberant joy!

Oh God, our gracious Heavenly Father, we come on this Easter morning, thanking Thee for revealing to us the ultimate meaning and the ultimate rationality of the universe. We thank you, this morning, for your Son, Jesus, who came to let us know that love is the most durable power in the world, who came by to let us know that death can’t defeat us, to take the sting out of the grave and death and make it possible for all of us to have eternal life. We thank you, oh God. And God grant that we will be grateful recipients of thy eternal blessings. In the name and spirit of Jesus, we pray.

Amen