Peace, joy, and life by believing

Sermon for Quasimodogeniti – Easter 1

1 John 5:4-10  +  John 20:19-31

Today is really just Easter, Part 2. For that matter, every Sunday church service is celebrated in honor of Easter Sunday and because of Easter Sunday. But today’s Gospel specifically picks up where last week’s Gospel left off, on Easter Sunday. And in coming back to hear it, you’re doing what St. Peter encourages Christians to do in today’s Introit, which we omitted earlier: As newborn babes, crave the pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. That pure spiritual milk is the Word of God. And we have tasted that the Lord is good. So here we are, ready to feed on His word again, as newborn babes.

The Easter story picks up on the evening of Easter Sunday. The believing women had seen Jesus alive that morning and reported it to the disciples, but most of them didn’t believe the women. He had appeared to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus and spoke with them, and as soon as they recognized Him, He disappeared from Emmaus and then suddenly reappeared in the middle of the room where 10 of the remaining 11 apostles were gathered, with the doors shut for fear of the Jews.

Now, I have seen some comparisons between the disciples being stuck together in that room for fear of the Jews and people being stuck at home for fear of coronavirus. But there’s really no comparison at all. The disciples were afraid of being targeted and crucified by the same people who had, just two days earlier, targeted and crucified their Lord. Worse than that, they were afraid that everything they had believed about God, about Jesus, about their own future had been for nothing, had been a lie. Theirs was a fear of utter disappointment in the one in whom they had believed, who, they thought, was still dead; fear that, not God, but a godless government was controlling their lives, able to do to them whatever they wanted, just as they had done with Jesus.

Or so they thought. As we know, the godless government of the Jews and of the Romans was only able to do as much as God had permitted them to do in order to carry out His own plan of salvation. And, as we know, the one in whom the disciples had believed wasn’t still dead, as He proved to them right then and there.

Jesus came and stood in the midst of them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰ And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. And the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Their fear, their disappointment, and their sadness were erased in an instant and replaced with peace and with joy. Why? What had changed in that moment? Nothing but what they believed. Jesus hadn’t changed. His resurrection hadn’t changed. His word hadn’t changed. Their sins hadn’t changed. The hatred of the Jews and the danger of being put to death hadn’t changed. Only their faith changed. They went from disbelieving Jesus’ resurrection, and thus disbelieving that Jesus could be their Mediator with God, to believing the resurrection, and thus believing that Jesus would still save them from sin, death, and the devil. And with that faith came peace and joy.

But Jesus hadn’t just appeared to them to prove that He was alive. He had a very important mission for them: Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As my Father has sent me, so I also send you.” ²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, their sins are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” This is, in part, a repetition of the promise of Pentecost, the promise Jesus had made just three nights earlier on Maundy Thursday, where John records that He spoke to them at length about the coming of the Holy Spirit. As Jesus breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” He’s showing them that, as the one who was crucified and has now conquered death, He will also fulfill His promise to send the Holy Spirit.

And in the process of that, He also sends them, even as He has been sent by the Father. It’s a sending that involves authority—the authority to do the very thing Jesus had done throughout His ministry: to forgive sins to the penitent; and to retain the sins of the impenitent. In other words, those who are sent by Jesus will go out as His ambassadors, doing His work, speaking in His name, reconciling sinners to God, and, in the case of those who refuse to believe, holding their sins against them.

But one of the remaining eleven disciples wasn’t there to meet Jesus or to hear His commission. Thomas was absent. He came back after Jesus had left, and none of the excitement of his fellow disciples, none of their peace and joy could rub off on him, because he still didn’t believe. Unless I see the nail prints in his hands, and put my finger into the nail prints, and place my hand into his side, I will not believe. Thomas made his fellow apostles out to be either delusional or outright liars. All ten of them! Worse, it was Jesus who had promised to rise on the third day. Thomas refused to believe Jesus, and so he was still filled with fear, disappointment, sorrow, and, apparently, a touch of anger and resentment. How wretched it is to live a life of disbelieving Jesus’ word, of disbelieving Jesus’ resurrection!

But Jesus, in His mercy, didn’t leave Thomas in that state for long. He gave him a week, and then returned on the following Sunday, with Thomas present. Peace be with you! And then straight to Thomas. Put your finger here and see my hands; and put your hand here and place it into my side, and do not be unbelieving any longer, but believing. And Thomas must have felt kind of stupid, ashamed for disbelieving his fellow apostles, ashamed for disbelieving the word of his Lord and his God. But Jesus didn’t come to condemn. He came inviting Thomas to believe in Him. And Thomas answered in faith, My Lord and my God!

And Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed. That’s you and I, isn’t it? We haven’t seen. We haven’t seen Jesus, alive or dead or risen from the dead. What have we seen? We’ve seen Bibles and the eyewitness testimony they record. We’ve seen the Church as Christians continue to gather in faith around God’s Word. We’ve seen the Church still calling ministers in the name of Christ and we’ve seen ministers still carrying out Christ’s command to preach, to forgive the penitent and to not forgive the impenitent. We’ve seen baptismal waters, and bread and wine being consecrated and distributed and received at Jesus’ command. All of this is the testimony of the Holy Spirit: the testimony that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

You are part of that testimony. No matter how much the devil tries to distract you, no matter how much the world hates you, no matter how much your sinful flesh struggles against you and weakens you at time, you have stubbornly, defiantly refused to give in to the lie that Jesus is dead. The Holy Spirit has led you to believe that Jesus lives and reigns, not just for the universe out there, but for you right here. And as you confess Christ, you become part of His testimony to the world that the darkness cannot put out the light of Christ, that the devil has not won, that sin cannot condemn believers in Christ, that our God is trustworthy, and that His love is worth knowing, worth sharing, worth declaring before the world, because salvation is found in no one else but in the Lord Jesus Christ.

May the message of Easter, and faith in that message, continue to fill you with peace and with joy in place of fear and sadness, and with life in place of death, even as John tells us that he wrote his Gospel for this singular purpose, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, by believing, you may have life in his name. Amen.