The Second Sunday of Easter
April 7, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline
Acts 5:12-32 Revelation 1:4-18 John 20:19-31
Acts 5:12-32 Revelation 1:4-18 John 20:19-31
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is from the Gospel lesson just read, especially these
words, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending
you.” Thus far our text.
He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia.
Amen. Dear friends in
Christ. In our text today, we see Christ
as he arises and talks for the first time to his disciples. The last time his disciples had spoken with
him, they told him, plain and simple that they would stand by him even to
death. But one betrays Jesus. The disciples swore that they would always be
there with their friend, but when the police arrived, the disciples scattered –
one even running away naked rather than get arrested. Peter denies ever knowing Christ 3
times. The other disciples just hide
away, not even showing their faces in public for fear. They are hiding as Christ is beaten. They are afraid as Christ is nailed to a
cross. They are hidden as Christ
breathes his last and dies – Some friends huh?
And now the truth
is out. Early in the morning the women
came running. Jesus is alive! He’s on his way to see you disciples! He is Risen!
He’s risen indeed! Peter runs and
sees the empty tomb. It must be
true! Jesus is no longer dead! He has conquered death.
So what are the
disciples to do? They have betrayed
Jesus, but he’s alive again. They have
ran away from the Son of God, but now he’s on his way to find them. The only conclusion they can come to is that
Jesus is coming to pay them back for their betrayals, their lack of concern for
one who was suffering, and their own desire for self-preservation.
And so they lock
the door. They hide in the room where
just a few days earlier Jesus told them “This is my body, this is my
blood.” They try to wait out the storm
that has brewed against Jesus, and now against them who abandoned Jesus. All but Thomas. He’s so afraid he splits from the rest hiding
away on his own.
And as they are
sitting there afraid and alone, Christ appears.
He enters the room, because the worthless human locks can’t stop the
Risen Son of God. You can imagine that the
disciples fall down on their faces knowing that Jesus is God incarnate. You can imagine their fear and
trepidation. What’s going to
happen?
But Christ speaks
before any of them can beg. And Christ’s
words are not words of condemnation, but words of forgiveness, of hope, and of
Gospel. “Peace be with you.” And this is no worldly peace but a godly
peace, a peace that surpasses all human understanding. A peace that can only come about because of
forgiveness of sins. Christ’s first words
to his disciples are words of absolution.
Words that say “Don’t worry about your sin, for Christ has taken care of
it.”
Even those sinful
disciples who turned their back on God are forgiven by the Resurrected
Christ. Even Doubting Thomas, who had
run off to hide by himself is forgiven the next week. All sins are gone in Jesus. All sins are forgiven by Christ. And dear friends, the same goes for you as
well.
Lets be
honest. We aren’t any better than those
disciples in reality are we? We too try
to hide away our Christian Faith. We
don’t advertise it at work during the week.
We shirk from conversation about religion. We happily skip church if we can manage to
come up with anything else to do. Because
our faith is not that important to us, except for an hour a week.
And we avoid
looking to the cross, because its offensive, its gory, its too much for us to
stomach in this our civilized world and time.
And yet our civilized world can stomach abortion, babies torn limb from
limb in the place that should be safest for them. Our civilized world can stomach war and
bloodshed at a rate beyond anything the ancient world could fathom. And our sin, yes our own sin, is behind all
this suffering and death in the world.
So we do avoid
church, yes, but often because we are embarrassed by what we have done. We, like the disciples are ashamed of our
sin, and guilt. We are embarrassed by
what we have done in our thought word and deed.
We hide our sin from each other, keeping it to ourselves hoping that it
will take care of itself.
But Jesus comes to
us the same as he comes to his disciples.
He comes with words of forgiveness for all your sin. “Peace be with you.” Peace be with you for I have died for your
sin, I have taken it away, I have made you my child forever. And Jesus, in our text today sends his
forgiven disciples to speak these words to you.
“I am sending you as the Father has sent me.” In other words, Jesus is sending the
disciples to give the same forgiveness to others that he has now given to them.
Jesus sends them to forgive sins in his
stead and by his command.
Jesus breathed on
his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit, if you forgive anyone their
sins they are forgiven, and if you don’t forgive them, they are not
forgiven.” It’s the same forgiveness
that you received here just a few minutes ago.
Together we confessed our sins, all of them, all their guilt, all their
shame. We stood together guilty before
the Lord, in thought word and deed. We
said we were heartily sorry for them. And
through the words of your pastor, your sins were forgiven by Christ. Its not that you pastor is holy, not that he
is better than you, but he stood in the stead and by the command of Christ, and
announced the grace earned by the cross for forgiveness of your sin.
Your sin is gone,
because Christ has risen. Christ has
sent men to proclaim that message the world around. To proclaim it to you. That your sin is gone. Forever.
As far as the east is from the west.
It’s the truth. It’s the
absolution spoken by Christ, and delivered by a pastor. It’s a fact for you. Your sins are truly forgiven. In the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
