Easter 2 – April 12th,
2015 – John 20:19-31
Christ is Risen (He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia) Amen
Christ is Risen (He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia) Amen
So how many of you had the perfect week this past
week? A week where nothing went wrong,
where there was absolutely nothing that failed to go according to plan? Oh boy, me neither. That is just part and parcel of living in
this sinful, fallen world. Stuff
happens, and stuff continues to happen, and stuff will always continue to
happen. St. John addresses this problem in our Gospel
lesson this morning. The text begins,
and it is Easter Night – the evening after the disciples learn about the
resurrection of the Lord, and where are they?
“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being
locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. . .” It’s the first Easter, and where are
they? The disciples are holed up
together, barricaded up. And why? Fear.
Their week was rough, and it might get rougher still, and so there they
huddle behind locked doors, scared of what the future will bring.
Does that not often describe our lives and how we live
them? Lives where we slide back into
fears and worries about what might be – fears and worries where we are just
sure that the worst will happen. . . and not worried so that we might prepare for
it, but rather just that sense of dread.
This is what the old evil foe wants to stir up in you – fear and
dread. Fear and dread paralyze you. That’s the point of terrorism – it’s not what
you actually have done, but that you make people afraid of what *might* happen
– you deal in terror. If crazy folks
here know the value of fear and terror, Satan surely knows it! Who do you think crafts a more deadly and
difficult attack, the Evil One or merely a wicked man? Satan is going to try his hardest to stir up
fear and worry in you, to make it be where you become frozen, like a deer in
the headlights simply so he can plow right through you. This is a danger we face in our lives.
Jesus, though, doesn’t just let Satan have his way. “Jesus came and stood among them and said to
them, ‘Peace be with you.’” So
Christ shows up – locked doors don’t bother Him anymore, for He is resurrected
and fully demonstrates His divine power.
And Jesus comes to the disciples, and He says something that is
wondrous, something we hear over and over again. Peace be with you. There it is – peace – calmness, joy,
security, peace – that is the cure, that is the antidote, that is the way to
fight Satan’s fear. To see Christ’s peace.
So then, what is peace?
The word gets tossed around all the time. Sadly for us, peace often just means a
cease-fire – means that our fights and wars have just become so taxing that we
are just tired of them and want to stop fighting – not that there are any less
problems, not that any disagreements are fixed – just that we pause and stop
fighting. That way we don’t have to
worry about it any more. But that’s not
peace – not the way scripture speaks of peace.
Peace in scripture isn’t a military term, it doesn’t refer to the mere
cessation of war – peace in Scripture means that there is unity, that there is
sharing, that folks have been joined together in love and harmony and that the
reasons for fighting, the reasons for fear have passed away and been removed.
Christ enters that upper room, and He says, “Peace be with
you.” He’s not just wishing them good
luck, He’s not just sending happy thoughts their ways. No, Christ Jesus is describing reality. “When He had said this, He showed them His
hands and His side.” He showed
them His hands that had the nails driven through them, He showed them His side
which had been pierced by the spear. He
showed them the signs of His death. He
showed them the signs of His death while living, while breathing, while
standing before them a living, resurrected Man.
That, dear friends, is what peace is.
There is Christ Jesus, and the world has done its worst to Him, has
thrown every pain and sorrow at Him that it could – and yet, there He
stands. He stands victorious, He stands
glorious. The first hymn we sang,
Walther’s “He’s Risen, He’s Risen” – in German it’s “Erstanden,
Erstanden”. He’s standing – right there,
look, it’s Christ Jesus standing in front of us, not dead but alive. And really, ultimately, what is left to fear? Even with all that He faced and saw, there He
is, standing alive. That’s where we end
up. No matter what we face in this life,
no matter what the world throws at us, we know how the story ends – it ends with
us standing at our Lord’s side, risen because He is risen, living because He is
living, enjoying the life of the world to come for all eternity with Him. Satan and death could not conquer Him, nor
shall they conquer us – they shall be brushed aside, swatted way. Christ has brought peace – He’s removed the
cause of fear, He’s defeated death – there is nothing left to fear.
Now, that doesn’t mean that we folks living in the sinful
world cease to have problems. This
doesn’t mean that Satan simply rolls over – he has lost, but he is determined
to take as many of us with him as he can.
But Christ knows the struggles we face, and so we hear this. “’Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am
sending you.’ And when He had said this,
He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone they are
forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.’” Christ Jesus knows that Satan will still
throw around fear – and the first fear that He will attack with is sin, is
guilt. We know that sin has
consequences. When we are doing it, we
will delude ourselves into thinking that it has no consequences, but eventually
the weight of our sin and our folly comes crashing down upon us. We see things go horribly wrong in our lives,
not because of those people out there, but because we ourselves have messed
things up – sometimes beyond our ability to repair. And that is what Satan loves to cackle in our
ear – oh, look how you are going to get it now!
And that fear comes rushing in, followed by dread and despair. To cut this off, Christ Jesus has given to
His Church people whose specific job, whose specific duty is to proclaim
forgiveness to those who are terrified of their sin, to those who repent of
their sin. That’s ultimately what a
pastor is – a pastor’s job is the same one given here to the disciples– to
speak forgiveness to those terrified of their sin – and to speak bluntly about
sin to those who delight and continue on in their sin. And those Apostles, they did their job for a
time, and then God put new men into the pastoral office to do that job, and so
on and so forth – even until He sent His servant Phillip Rosell out to Lahoma,
and then others fellows after him – all in a row with their pictures out there
– even up to me. And Jesus will send you
some other fellow to do this same job, to preach Law and Gospel – because you
will still have fears and worries in this life, and so He will send you a
preacher to preach Christ to you.
And
Christ Jesus will also send one to handle your doubt. “Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the
Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His
hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails,
and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.’” Thomas here is struggling with doubt – and
why? He wasn’t with the disciples when
Jesus showed up, and so, eh, I just won’t buy it. You do realize, dear friends, that doubt is
the way of the world – that for 2000 years the world has railed against
Christianity, that the brashest of the so-called thinkers have scoffed and
mocked Christianity – indeed, they do their best to foster doubt, to shake and
rattle you. And what happens when, for
whatever reason, you decide to neglect Church?
You have this going on, there was that thing – for whatever reason – you
miss Church. What are you doing? You are exposing yourself to a world of
doubt. If you are left to your own on
anything, doubt will always creep in – and that is what Thomas is seeing right
there.
“Eight days later, His disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with
them. Although the doors were locked,
Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger
here, and see My Hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’” The cure to doubt is to be gathered together
with the people of God in Church, in worship.
You realize that what happened in this text is what happens here in
Church all the time. Christ gathers His
people here, and what happens? Christ is
present – He is present in His Word proclaimed, and even more wondrously and
miraculously – He is present in His Supper.
The things of worship – hearing the Word, receiving Christ’s own Body
and Blood for forgiveness and the strengthening of faith are the right and
proper cures for doubt, the right and appropriate ways to fight doubt. We need to remember what we learned in
confirmation class – we don’t come to faith by our own reason or strength, but
that the Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel – called us by God’s Word
preached, by God’s Word poured over our head in the waters of Baptism, and that
in the Church the same Spirit continues to call, gather, enlighten and sanctify
us with His gifts – His gifts of the Word and His gifts of the Supper. It’s here where it happens – where we are
pulled out of the everyday and humdrum of our lives and gathered up together in
God’s House, in God’s presence, so that we are sustained until we are eternally
in God’s presence after our earthly days.
You do realize that this is what happens here. This isn’t about us – this isn’t just us
coming together and speaking some words, singing a song or two, listening to
some crackpot pastor ramble on for a few minutes. No – this place is about God being active,
God bringing us together in His Word – these Words that we speak, they are
God’s Word, the very Words of eternal life.
These songs that we sing – they aren’t meant to be entertainment – but
they are the truth of God’s love that are designed to build us up – when we
sing these hymns we proclaim God’s Word to each other – as I knelt for prayer
before this sermon, you sang God’s Word of life into my ears so I was prepared
to preach it into your ears. We are
gathered by Christ to be in His Word, to receive His Supper, to grow in the
faith – so that believing in Him we would have life in His Name. Christ Jesus has promised to be with us
whenever, and even wherever we, His People, gather around His Word and
Sacraments – even if there are only two or three of us, and to make us share in
His life. He has risen from the dead,
and He desires that you share in this life as well. Delight in His Word, rejoice in the gifts He
gives you in His house – hear Him preached, touch Him in His Supper, and
delight in His forgiveness and life. Because
He will continue to care for you – for you belong to Christ. This house belongs to Christ. This altar, this pulpit, they belong to
Christ – they are His, and He will see them put to use for your everlasting
good – even until all the saints of all times and all places are gathered
together into His Kingdom. Jesus has
risen victoriously from the grave, and you have His victory as well. Christ is Risen – He is Risen indeed,
Alleluia - Amen
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