Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Text: (John 20:19-31)
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
Prayer: Sanctify us with the truth, Lord. Your word is truth. Amen.
When Jesus is resurrected from the dead, it is amazing how in many of the events the disciples are confused, scared.
In Mark’s gospel, after the women went to the tomb and were spoken to by an angel, we read: “They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”
Even when we read about the women coming to the tomb of Jesus, we know that they didn’t go there because they were happy. They were coming to pay him their respects and anoint his dead body. Then when they found the empty tomb, there was confusion. Mary Magdalene maybe panicked a bit. We read twice that she said once to Peter and John, and once to the angels: “They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him.” Then she says to Jesus, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” In Luke we read about two men walking on the road to a town called Emmaus on Easter Sunday: these two men are confused. They don’t know what to make of the fact that Jesus was killed, and they don’t know what to make of the rumours that he was alive. It made them more confused than ever.
So much confusion and fear.
In our Gospel reading, things are the same. The disciples are gathered together behind closed doors, because they were afraid of the Jews.
Even now in the church today, many Christians are people who are scared. We are scared of what people think of us. Maybe they’ll think we’re a bunch of weirdos. Maybe they’ll think we’re crazy. Maybe they’ll hate us. Maybe they’ll put me to shame. Many Christians are afraid. And Christians go to the place where they think they are safe, behind closed doors.
You know, that Christianity has always been like this. And it’s easy to be afraid as a Christian, because of the promises of the bible. St Paul says that God predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn of many brothers. What does it mean to be conformed to the image of his Son? Have a look at Good Friday and what happened to Jesus. That’s the image that Christians throughout the world are being conformed to. And is it surprising that we should be afraid? Jesus says, Take up your cross daily and follow me. We know that in the Garden of Gethsemane that even Jesus experienced some fear as he prepared to go to the cross. But he prayed, “Father, not my will, but your will be done.”
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being closed where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them, and said to them, “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.
Look and see what happened on that day! The doors were closed, and nevertheless Jesus came and he stood among them. And we might think, how could he have passed through the wall? Was he a ghost?
He wasn’t a ghost, because he showed them his hands and his side. He showed them the marks of the nails. It was him! It was the same Jesus who had died on the cross, not a different Jesus.
But this is exactly the same thing that happened when he rose from the dead! We read in the gospel of Matthew that when the angel came and rolled the stone away, that Jesus was not in it. The angel didn’t roll the stone away to let Jesus out, he rolled it away to show that Jesus wasn’t in it. Jesus had already walked out of the tomb – and he didn’t need the stone to be rolled away to do it. Just like at his transfiguration, Jesus body shone white like the sun, when Jesus rose from the dead, his body was glorified in such away that he was able to do things outside of the laws of nature. He does the same thing in our reading today, when he comes and stands among the 10 disciples gathered there. He enters the room without using the door. Jesus also does the same thing each Sunday when he comes in the Lord’s Supper. His body and blood is able to come and be contained in the bread and wine, so that we are able to eat his body and drink his blood.
It was always such an important thing right from the early church that the gathering of the church on the Lord’s Day, on the Sunday to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, was considered to be a continuation of Jesus’ appearances to his disciples on the Sundays following Easter. In a sense, today’s reading shows us the first church service. We often gather with a week’s worth of worries on our mind, and of failures and things that happened that we’re not happy about. We might have even had an argument in the car on the way to church! (Trust me! I know that it happens, you bunch of sinners!)
And the most important thing about our service and our gathering together as a church is that Jesus comes and stands among us. We actually gather in the presence of the risen Lord Jesus. We don’t come first and foremost to come and see each other – but we come together, even sometimes in fear, but we come together around Jesus Christ, the risen Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Hebrews: Do not neglect to meet together as is the habit of some. The purpose of the church is not to meet up for a cup of tea, but to meet together in the presence of the risen Lord Jesus.
But what did Jesus say to the disciples? He said: “Peace be with you.” And he showed them his hands and his side. He shows them the reason why they can be at peace: he was wounded for our transgressions. By his wounds you are healed. In other words, his wounds take away your sin. Your name is written on the palm of Jesus’ hands. And there is a wound there, above your name. There is a wound there, and his blood covers you. And so he says, “Peace be with you.” Your sins are forgiven.
The presence of Jesus should always bring us peace. But the disciples have to hear with their own ears the words from the mouth of Jesus that there is no fear here anymore. They have to hear that their sin is washed away, and they will not be consumed in the presence of God. And so, Jesus says, “peace be with you.”
The same thing happens in church, before we come to the Lord’s Supper. The pastor says: “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” Martin Luther said that this part of the service is like a mini-absolution, as if Jesus is coming to assure us that the sacrament is for our peace, for our forgiveness.
And so, when Jesus said these words, and showed them his hands and his side, we read that the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
The disciples who are gathered together are not always going to be gathered as the same small company of people. Jesus says, “I am sending you.” I am sending you in different directions: I will send you to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And when I send you in these different directions, you are not going to be alone, but I will also gather people around you by my Holy Spirit. And as the Father 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.”
Here is where Jesus gives to these apostles his own ministry. The apostles are given as a gift to the world to speak the gospel and by doing so to gather the church. Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” The apostles are sent out and are told to speak that same peace. And where that same peace is spoken in the church, we know that the same Jesus is there speaking it through them.
As I said, here we see the first church service taking place, and Jesus founds the church by calling the apostles to his own ministry, the ministry of reconciliation, the ministry of speaking and applying the forgiveness of sins.
St Paul says: “How are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”
And in today’s reading, Jesus sends these apostles with a word of forgiveness on their lips.
And in the church today, this continues. Pastors are the ones in the church called to continue this ministry of the apostles. That’s why pastors are said to hold the “Office of the Ministry” or said to be “ministers”. When pastors are ordained into the ministry, they are called to the ministry and sent to the church with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, to forgive the sins on behalf of Christ, and the withhold forgiveness on behalf of Christ.
When I as a pastor say, “On behalf of my Lord Jesus Christ” it doesn’t mean that Jesus is not here. It means that the words I speak are Christ’s own words. It means that the pastor in the presence of Christ, and speaking the words of Christ himself. It is no longer I who speak, but Christ who speaks through me.
It’s so important for us in the church today to understand what pastors are actually for, and why we have them. The ministry of the apostles was passed on to pastors, just like St Paul passed on this ministry through the laying on of hands to Timothy. Having pastors was not the church’s idea, it was Jesus Christ’s idea. Jesus is the one who said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
In the church, we have pastors and we have hearers, and we’re the church together. Just because I am a pastor, doesn’t mean I don’t need pastors either – the ministry I hold is a blessing me as well as you, but I also need to be on the receiving end of the ministry of other pastors. Pastors are actually not free therapists, and when I say that I receive the ministry of other pastors, I’m not saying that I go and receive therapy from them. Pastors are called to preach the gospel. We are called to forgive sins on behalf of Christ in his presence.
St Paul says as a pastor to his congregation at Rome, “I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” The relationship between the Holy Ministry and the congregation is one where we are mutually encouraged: you are encouraged when you hear the forgiveness of sin, and I am encouraged when you believe it.
The difference between the 12 apostles and the future generations of pastors is that the apostles were eyewitnesses of Jesus – and I am not. Thomas was included by Jesus as one of the apostles, as a true member of the company of the 12, not as second-generation pastor. Thomas was given the special gift of being allowed to see the risen Lord Jesus for himself, and to put his finger into his side, and to touch his wounds.
But then Jesus tells Thomas what his hearers are going to be like. He says: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
You are an apostle, and I have allowed you to see me. But for the rest of church history, your hearers will not be called “seers” but “believers”. When Jesus sends his apostles in 12 directions throughout the world, and when pastors are sent to speak that same Easter Sunday gospel throughout the world, even up until 2011, the church will not be a gathering that sees the risen, resurrected, glorious Jesus standing in the middle of the church, but it will be a group that believes that Jesus is there, in the flesh, forgiving their sins through the ministry of the pastor, speaking to them through the Holy Scriptures, filling them with the Holy Spirit through their hearing, and their singing of hymns, psalms and spiritual songs. They will believe that Jesus is there, breathing out the Holy Spirit through Holy Baptism, they will believe that Jesus is there, on the altar, in their hands, in their mouths.
That’s what the church is: that’s what it means to gather together in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day. Jesus is just carrying on in our churches what he did on day he rose from the dead, and the Sundays that followed.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Peace be with you. Your sins are forgiven.
Amen.
And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus, our risen Lord.
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