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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!)
On this first day of this week, the world locked-down for fear of something that might kill the body but cannot kill the soul (Matthew 10:28), Jesus miraculously comes and stands among us and says to us “Peace be with you!” Today’s Gospel Reading, which I have preached on one dozen times before (the last eight of them here at Pilgrim, Kilgore), this year is uniquely relevant both for us who are here and for those who may be listening online. Easter evening and again a week later, the doors being locked where the disciples were, the resurrected Jesus miraculously came and stood among them, or, as one version translates, in their midst (NASB), or perhaps rendered more literally, into the middle or center (BAGD). This morning we reflect on the Gospel Reading under the theme “Jesus at the center”.
On the night when He was betrayed, all the disciples left Jesus and fled (Matthew 26:56; Mark 14:50). Peter and John later caught up with Jesus, as it were, at the high priest’s house, but there Peter denied Jesus three times (John 18:15-18, 25-27; Matthew 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:54-62), and apparently only John made it to the foot of the cross (John 19:25-27; confer/compare Luke 23:49). Easter morning Peter and John saw the empty tomb (Luke 24:12; John 20:10); the women who saw the resurrected Jesus reported His resurrection to the disciples as Jesus directed them to do (Matthew 28:9-10; Mark 16:9-11; Luke 24:10-11; John 20:17-18); and Jesus appeared privately to Peter (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5).
Yet, as we heard in the Gospel Reading, the evening of that Easter day, the disciples were behind locked doors. One commentator called the disciples at that point the church at its worst: “Hunkered down, huddled together, letting fear rather than faith control their every thought and action” (Astley, CPR 30:2, pp.33, 34). The Divinely‑inspired St. John does not tell us why Thomas was not there. Whether Thomas was present earlier but left later disgusted with the talk of the resurrection, or whether he stayed away altogether, he effectively kept himself miserable in his unbelief for another week (Lenski, ad loc John 20:24, p.1379). Such was the consequence of his neglecting just one meeting with the Lord!
The Divinely‑inspired author of Hebrews encouraged his hearers—and encourages us—not to neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some, but essentially to meet together all the more as we see the Last Day drawing near (Hebrews 10:25), and pestilences such as the coronavirus are a sign of that end (Luke 21:11). The author of Hebrews goes on similarly to warn of trampling underfoot the Son of God, of profaning the blood of the covenant that sanctifies, and of outraging the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29). God knows better than we do the extent to which we are guilty of those sins, as God knows best of all the extent to which we are guilty of all of our sins. If we are afraid of anything, we should fear Him, Who can destroy soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28)!
Amazingly, instead of condemning the ten disciples as they deserved that Easter evening, and Thomas the week later, Jesus extended peace to them and dealt with them where they were in their faith and life. Amazingly, instead of condemning us as we deserve, Jesus extends peace to us and deals with us where we are in our faith and life. Amazingly, He calls and enables us to repent of our sin and so receive forgiveness that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God the Father graciously gives to us for Jesus’s sake.
Death could not hold Jesus; the grave could not keep Him in; and the locked doors could not keep Him out (confer Astley, CPR 30:2, pp.34-35). After His resurrection, Jesus more‑fully manifested His Divine attributes, but He nevertheless still had the same human body, which still bore the marks of having been nailed to the cross and pierced by the sword (John 19:34-37). Out of His great love, the God-man Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross in our place, in order that we might be forgiven of our sins, as we are forgiven, when we believe in Him. Where Thomas failed to believe without seeing, we succeed, believing through the disciples’ words (confer John 17:20). As we heard in the Gospel Reading, everything St. John wrote was so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we might have life in His Name. By the power of the Holy Spirit, our faith has both that content and that result. In the words of the Epistle Reading (1 Peter 1:3-9), though we have not seen Him, we believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls.
The Gospel is not only the report of the salvation earned by Jesus, but it is also the application of that message, the forgiving of sins (Kretzmann, ad loc John 20:19-23, pp.524‑525), which takes place through those who are called and ordained into the Office of the Keys’ preaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments. As the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sent the apostles, and so the apostles sent their successors (2 Timothy 2:2), down to pastors today, who exercise the authority of Christ’s Keys for the benefit of His Church (confer Revelation 1:18; 3:7). Reading and preaching God’s Word to groups such as this and baptizing and communing individuals are surely included in Christ’s commission, but the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism especially connects the forgiving of sins and withholding of forgiveness of which Jesus speaks in the Gospel Reading to individual Absolution and excommunication, which, it says, are just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself. And, so He does deal with us, giving peace, but not as the world gives it (John 14:27).
As we had an example of in the First Reading (Acts 5:29-42), the world is fixated on earthly things and may command the Church effectively to shut down, as it were. But, the apostles rightly refused, obeying God rather than men (confer Acts 4:19, 20). And, when, as a result, they were beaten, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name of Jesus, and they did not cease teaching and preaching. So also we as a congregation continue to carry out His mission here, and we individually confess in our lives and conversations that Jesus is our Lord and our God. We receive God’s forgiveness for our sin against Him, and we forgive one another the sins we commit against one another. And, as the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, we do not lose heart. Although our outer selves are wasting away, our inner selves are being renewed day by day. Our light, momentary afflictions prepare for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the transient things that are seen but to the eternal things that are unseen. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18.) In other words, St. Paul wrote a few verses later, we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)!
Especially on these first days of the week, Jesus, Who miraculously comes and is present with us, is “at the center”. He is the center around which everything, especially our worship, is grouped; and while things change all around us, His presence at the center endures (Grundmann, TDNT 7:650, 638). Even as Jesus’s ministers act for the Church’s benefit, Jesus is at the center, working through them, continuing to teach and to do (confer Acts 1:1). As Jesus prophesied to His disciples (John 16:22) and fulfilled for them, so also for us: He replaces our fear with peace and with joy that ultimately no one will take away from us.
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +