The blessedness of believing the witnesses

Sermon for Quasimodogeniti – Easter 1

1 John 5:4-10  +  John 20:19-31

St. Paul writes, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” This is the Gospel. On this you can rely. On this you can stand. On this you can rest your faith in the face of death: That Jesus Christ truly died for our sins and truly rose from the dead and appeared to His apostles. He spoke peace to them. He showed them His hands and His side that had been pierced on the cross when He made Himself a sacrifice for sin, once for all. And He commissioned them to speak for Him in forgiving and retaining sins. This is most certainly true.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is about certainty—certainty that comes, not from your personal experience, but from the testimony of the Holy Spirit, through the testimony of the apostles. The irony of that is that those very apostles, of whom you heard in our Gospel today, started out as anything but certain.

The personal experience of Jesus’ eleven disciples had taught them one thing for certain. Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried. It had only been two days. And even though the faithful women had come and told them the tomb was empty, even though some of them said they had seen Jesus alive, none of it mattered to the fearful disciples. Their personal experience on Good Friday trumped the testimony of the women. Their personal experience had already caused them to forget Jesus’ Word, Jesus’ power, and Jesus’ promise that He would rise on the third day.

Then, as they were gathered in fear, with the doors locked, Jesus appeared in the midst of them, not as a memory, not as a ghost, but as a living and breathing Man. “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.

What peace is this that brings such joy to the hearts of these men who were so fearful and afraid only moments ago? This is the peace that only comes from Jesus, the peace that doesn’t take away any of your earthly problems right away, and yet this peace makes everything OK in the midst of your earthly problems. Because Jesus is risen from the dead. He took your sin to the cross and suffered for it in your place. Now He’s alive and He says to you, not, “Burn in hell, you rotten sinner!”, but, “Peace be with you.” He shows them the marks of His suffering—the nail prints in His hands, the spear print in His side. But now the suffering is over and done. Death is destroyed. The Conqueror of sin, death, and the devil has just entered the room and His words are pure comfort, “Peace be with you.”

That’s where the certainty lies, for the ten disciples who were gathered on that first Easter evening, and also for us, because of the next words Jesus said on that night. Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send 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 any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Here is the certainty of the resurrection for us who live 2000 years after it took place. The risen Lord Jesus sent His apostles into the world, as He had been sent by His Father into the world. Whoever saw Jesus, whoever heard Jesus, was hearing and seeing God. Well, now Jesus has sent the apostles and their successors into the world. There’s a difference, of course. Jesus represented God perfectly, because He was the very Son of God, and sinless. The apostles and their successors—those who have been called by God through the Church into the office of the ministry—are mere human beings, mortals, and sinners. But Jesus knew that. And still, He sent them, as He had been sent. He placed His Holy Spirit on them. He authorized them to speak for Him, specifically, to forgive sins to the penitent and to retain the sins of the impenitent.

He did this for the very reason that He would not continue for long in the world in a visible way, so that people could see Him and hear Him speak. No one on earth would have a “personal experience” of Jesus ever again, with one exception—the Apostle Paul who was called directly by Jesus to replace Judas the betrayer. It is God’s will that you not seek a personal experience with Jesus, but rather, that you seek Him in the ministry of His Word and Sacraments, in the Office of the Keys. As St. Paul says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us (that is, to the ministers of the Church) the word of reconciliation. Now then, we (the ministers of Christ) are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”

This is where you can have certainty. When I forgive you your sins in Jesus’ name, it’s not just your pastor making stuff up. It’s the voice of Jesus. And, in the same way, when I warn you about your sins in Jesus’ name or retain your sins in Jesus’ name, in accord with the Word of Christ, that’s not just your pastor making stuff up, either. It’s the voice of Jesus.

As St. John testified in today’s Epistle: And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. The Spirit that Jesus breathed on His disciples on that first Easter night, authorizing them to speak in His name. The water of Holy Baptism that has Jesus’ command and promise attached to it. And the blood of Christ that gives Baptism its cleansing power and is also given to us in the Sacrament of the Altar. Means of grace. Means by which the Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith. Means by which you can have certainty of the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, because God’s Spirit is in the Word and Sacraments to bring you to repentance and faith in Christ, and to forgive sins to all who believe.

Finally in our Gospel we have the comforting account of Thomas, which also adds to our own certainty of the resurrection, because we see what stubborn unbelief looks like, and we also see its cure.

Thomas refused to believe his brothers and sisters on Easter Sunday. Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe. Again, his personal experience had already convinced him that Jesus was dead. And now, he insisted, only personal experience could ever change his mind. I must have a personal experience with Jesus and see and touch His wounds before I will believe.

Jesus could have left Thomas in his unbelief. He should have known better. He was wrong to insist on a personal experience as the basis of his faith in Jesus. He was wrong to disbelieve the word of Jesus and the testimony of the other apostles. But Thomas did have to see the risen Lord Christ, if he was to be a witness to the world of Jesus’ resurrection. So Jesus gave him a week, and then returned when all the disciples were together, including Thomas. Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. Jesus rebuked Thomas for his unbelief. But His word also brought peace back to Thomas, and Thomas then confessed one of the boldest confessions ever made, “My Lord and my God!”

It was not an accident that Jesus first appeared to His disciples after Thomas had left. The curing of Thomas’ unbelief by the risen Christ now serves to cure you, too, when you start to waver, when you start to doubt, when you begin to live as if Jesus weren’t risen, as if Jesus weren’t real. His word of peace at once convicted Thomas and restored peace and joy to Thomas. And His Word still gives certainty to you today. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

How can you believe without seeing? Because the Word of Christ and the Sacraments of Christ are better and more powerful than sight. You don’t need any signs but these. You don’t need personal experience. You just need the Word of Christ, delivered to you by the witnesses whom Christ appointed. As St. John wrote, And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. Stand firmly on these things that are written. Cling to Holy Absolution. Rest in your Baptism. Rejoice in the Holy Sacrament. Here is your certainty, now and in the face of death. Amen.