April 7th – Easter 2 – John 20:19-31
Christ is Risen (He is Risen indeed, Alleluia) Amen +
Dear friends in Christ, when we think
of Easter, we tend to think of happiness and joy, don’t we? When we think of Easter, this is what we
think of, we think of the empty tomb with joy, we think of Christ our Risen
King with that good, Christian Happiness.
So doesn’t it strike you as odd, as it at first strikes me as odd
whenever I read our Gospel, that the very evening of Easter – having seen the
empty tomb, having been told by Mary Magdalene that Jesus is risen, that the
Disciples are huddled in a locked room, hiding for fear of the Jews as Scripture says? Joy and happiness, hiding and fear. What bigger clash of ideas and feelings and
attitudes and emotions could there be?
Yet this is what we see in our Gospel text.
I think sometimes we give Thomas a bad
rap, Thomas gets the short end of the stick when we call him “doubting
Thomas”. It’s not just Thomas who
doubts. Look, the other disciples are
there, hiding out in a room. Mary, you
say Jesus has risen, um. . . we’re not buying that. Um, we’ll just hole up over here. The disciples are full of doubt, full of
disbelief, and so there they are, holed up and anxiously passing the night
away, dreading the knock on the door that would be the soldiers coming to take
them away. The Sabbath is over, the High
Priests can start their round up of the rest of that Jesus rabble can begin. They are afraid, and their fears are quite
reasonable, quite rational.
And then Jesus is there. And did you note this. . . He doesn’t knock,
He doesn’t ask politely to come in, the disciples don’t have to open the door
to Jesus and ask Him in. . . He’s simply there.
In His Body. Do you see what this
shows us about Jesus, what this shows us about our Resurrected Lord? First, it shows that He has begun His reign;
this is Christ Exulted. He is God, and
He will go where He wants. . . yet He is still Man – see His hands, see His
side. Here we get of glimpse of what
Jesus is like right now, we see True God and True Man in one Jesus. But it also shows us something else important
about Christ, something that we cannot emphasize enough. Our salvation isn’t about what we do, what we
decide. We aren’t saved because we are
brave and good and do what God wants.
The Disciples certainly weren’t brave and good here. Nor are we saved because we decided to follow
Christ, because we ask Jesus into our hearts – the Disciples don’t ask Jesus
in, He simply shows up. This is the way
God works. . . our God isn’t some passive Being who just sits around until we
tell Him what to do – our God is active – He is a Living God who comes into our
lives, comes in by His most Holy Word.
Do you see Jesus being active
here? He shows up, and then He
speaks. Peace be with you. When He
had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw
the Lord. This is what Christ is
about, this is what His whole life is about.
There, before the Disciples stands God Almighty, the Word of God, the
One by Whom all things were made, the One whom we are to Fear, love, and trust
in above all others – and He says Peace.
The strife is over, the battle done.
Adam’s sin, Adam’s rebellion that you have made your own by your sin,
God Himself has taken care of it. God
comes into the fallen world and makes things right, wins for us salvation, ends
the fight we were in with God. This is
what Jesus does, this is what He is about, and this is why He can announce to
the Disciples that there is Peace. There
is nothing stronger than Him, not the High Priests, not even death – see, He is
risen – Peace be with you.
And then did you note what Jesus does
next? Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am
sending you.” And when He 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 without forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” Jesus doesn’t just want the Disciples to be
the only ones who knows the Peace that He has established, Jesus want the
forgiveness of sins to be something hidden and unknown. Just as the Father sends the Son to win
forgiveness, so the Son sends the Apostles – that’s what Apostle means, it means
one who is sent. The Son sends our His
Servants to preach and give out His forgiveness that He won. God doesn’t want to be hidden, Jesus doesn’t
want people to be ignorant of the forgiveness which He won.
And thus we see the point of why there
is a Zion (or Trinity) Lutheran Church. Everything that goes on in this place, what
we do, our reason for existing is this – that the Peace of Christ might be
proclaimed, that sinners might come here and hear the forgiveness of their sins
preached to them, to receive Peace. This
Church isn’t a country club, it isn’t a resort.
We aren’t here to just get together and congratulate each other on how
wonderful we are. This Church is a
hospital, where sick, sick people, people fighting and dealing with the
terminal illness of sin, come for the Lord’s cure. This is where we come to hear God’s Word, to
learn it, to inwardly digest it – so that we might have strength to live out
our days praising our God and Lord.
This also shows what in particular my duty here
is. When you called [/asked] me to be
your pastor, this is what you asked me to do.
God has sent me here to preach Christ and Him Crucified, to teach His
Word. Christ describes this task as
forgiving the sins of the penitent and preaching the law with its full terror
to those who are secure in their sin.
This is the command that God has given me. This is what I swore to do [in front of you
here] at my Ordination, and I would ask that you continually keep me in your
prayers that I might be faithful in this task.
What goes on here is serious stuff, when we gather here it’s not a
matter of indifference, just something to do on a Sunday morning because that’s
what mom and dad did, but when we gather here we gather as sinners who are
humble, sinners who recognize their need for forgiveness, sinners who receive
God’s forgiveness, who receive God’s peace, peace that the world cannot
understand. Peace that endures even over
and beyond and through the fears we face in our earthly days.
And then in our text we get the story of
Thomas. Thomas wasn’t there that night –
he must have had an even better hiding spot.
And when the Apostles come to him and say, “We have seen the Lord,”
Thomas isn’t buying it. It’s too good to
be true, you guys are all delusional and crazy.
Thomas wants more than just to hear what the Apostles say. Unless
I see in His hands the marks of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of
the nails, and place my finger into His side, I will never believe. Do you see how physical Thomas is – he
wants to see the Body – Thomas wants to touch and feel with his own hands the
Body that was dead and lifeless on Good Friday restored to life. That’s when he will believe. We shouldn’t call him doubting Thomas, we
should call him arrogant Thomas. Think
how bold that is! Think about how prideful
that is – unless I get to poke Jesus I won’t believe. A student in the ancient world would never,
ever claim the right to touch, to poke his teacher – this is utterly
disdainful. It’s one thing to doubt,
it’s one thing to be unsure – the struggle that we all go through always – but
man, it’s another thing entirely to be a complete and utter jerk. And that’s what Thomas is being right now.
But Thomas is with them when Jesus shows up. . . and
Jesus is just as bold. Alright Thomas,
here I am, come on, put your finger.
Come on Thomas, touch me. And did
you note what happened, and this is fabulous.
Jesus says “Put your finger
here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” I
will see your arrogance and haughtiness Thomas, and I’ll brush it off, because
I am Christ Jesus, Risen from the dead.
Won’t harm Me any, come here and poke and prod if you want – but either
way, believe. Then we hear this: Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and My
God!” Did you see
it? Thomas doesn’t touch Him. John doesn’t say, “Thomas touches Him and
says, “oh, okay, now I will believe.”
No, Christ’s presence, Christ’s love drives away from Thomas Thomas’
pride, his arrogance. Seeing Christ,
Hearing His Word, Thomas is moved to confess Jesus, to call Him Lord and God.
This, dear friends, is what happens to us. When we enter this place, when we hear God’s
Word, when we know His presence in His Word and Sacrament, we abandon our
pride, we stop worrying about how wonderful and important we are, and rather we
simply come, and beholding our Lord and His love for us we confess Him. Beholding our Lord, we receive His
forgiveness – whether it is spoken in the Absolution – In the stead and by the
command I forgive you your sin in the Name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Ghost – or whether it is read from the lectern or proclaimed from the
pulpit. Knowing that Jesus Christ is
resurrected, that He reigns forever, we humbly come to this, His Church, we
approach His Altar, and we receive from Him His own Body and Blood for our
forgiveness. Again, it’s a beautiful
part of the liturgy – I will hold forth the Supper and say – The Peace of the
Lord be with you Always. Behold Christ’s
Body and Blood given for you! God knows
what we need, He knows our struggles, our flaws, our faults, our sin – He knows
better than we do – and so He calls us to His house over and over, week in and
week out, to hear His Word, to receive His forgiveness by hearing, by receiving
His Supper.
And this is how we as Christians live. We receive from God His gifts of forgiveness,
life, and salvation. Now, this doesn’t
mean that because we put in a hour on Sunday everything in life will come up
roses. We are still people who struggle
with our own sin, we still live in a sinful world. Eight days later the Twelve still had their
door locked – we still always while we live have this sin to struggle
against. But in the midst of this God
comes into our lives, God comes and invites us to His House, and speaks His
Peace to us – Always. Christ is Risen
(He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia) Amen.
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