3rd Sunday of Easter
April 30, 2006
Seminarian Jon Olsen
He is risen. He is risen indeed, alleluia!
I.
You have all heard that ‘seeing is believing’. Many of us don’t believe something unless we can experience it or see it personally. Like when a friend tells us something unbelievable. As when a favorite sports team comes back to win a game in the final seconds after having been down by three touchdowns at the two minute mark; we simply have to see the replays for ourselves.
In our text this morning, Jesus teaches just this, seeing and believing. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. (Luke 24:38-45)
II.
A first grade class was listening to the teacher who was attempting to explain evolution to the children.The teacher asked, “Tommy, do you see the tree outside?”
“Yes,” replied Tommy quizzically.
“Tommy, do you see the grass outside?”, asked the teacher.
“Of course,” said Tommy.
“Go outside and look up and see if you can see the sky,” said the teacher a bit more directly than before.
OK. Said Tommy with a huff. (He returned a few minutes later) “Yes, I saw the sky,” Tommy answered. Right upon the heals of Tommy’s answer the teacher asked him, “Did you see God?”
“No,” replied Tommy with scrunched up eyes.
“That's my point,” blasted the teacher, “We can't see God because he doesn't exist.”
Returning to the text; what about Jesus’ trying to get people to look at His hands and His feet? Why did he want them to look at the wounds? Was the reason so that by looking and seeing with their eyes that some would believe in what Christ did for them on the cross?
Jesus also performed many other visible miracles that people saw with their eyes. Whether it was Jesus turning water into wine, healing people, driving out spirits, cleansing a leper, raising people from the dead, walking on water, feeding 5000 people, healing blind people, reattaching an ear, producing an abundance of fish; nearly all of the miracles Jesus performed were seen by people. They were first hand witnesses to each miraculous event.
For us living 1,973 years after Christ showed His wounds, how do we see Jesus? If there is no Jesus to look upon physically how do we know, how do we believe with no real proof?
The people that did not believe in Christ were the same ones who were so adamant in their unbelief that they, …denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to them, and they killed the Author of life… (Acts 3:14-15)
There He was, the Author of life, God Himself, right in front of their faces, and they murdered Him.
There is another kind of author, the Father of lies and the author of sin… This author of lies was present at little Tommy’s bedside, who is now no longer little but is 80 years old and dying.
Speaking to Tommy the Devil said, “Giving up your reason is not only foolish, but I repeat it, it is childish.”
Tommy replied, “It is not childish, it is childlike. I am happy that I am a child of God.”
The Devil was bothered by such a quick reply and sought to get Tommy to doubt the Word of God. “None of this is important if you don’t have true faith. True faith depends upon many important circumstances having to do with yourself:
Do you have the correct attitude toward your faith?
Did you have the right feeling of responsibility toward your faith?
Now do you know that your faith is not a mere knowing about God, a mere historical faith?
If you can answer these questions, then I can help you...”
Breathing a bit more heavily, Tommy replied, “It would be wrong of me to worry about the nature of my faith. All my hope rests upon God, my Father.
Becoming more exasperated with each of Tommy’s answers the Devil replied, “What then has God done for you, as far as your faith is concerned?” Here the Devil thought he had Tommy for sure.
“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him…” The Devil tried to interrupt but was unable to do so until Tommy had finished Luther’s explanation of the Third Article of the Creed.
The Devil thought to himself, ‘If I could only make him look away from God, and look to himself and his faith instead’. So the Devil asked Tommy, “You ought to investigate your attitude, since this is really the matter of the issue. Maybe God has done what you say, but you must do your share and keep your attitude in order.”
Tommy breathed deeply and exhaled as he replied, “As I already, so many times, have said, it was the work of the Holy Ghost that I believe in Christ Jesus, my Lord.”
Growing more and more frustrated the Devil tried to get Tommy to doubt that he had done enough.
“Are you sure that you are doing right in forgetting yourself like this? It is your imagination that tells you that you have given yourself up completely in the grace of God. Perhaps you have given yourself up completely to your own imagination.”
Tommy replied a bit quieter and slower this time,
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15).
The person who looked upon himself and his wound died; the one who looked upon the serpent of brass lived. It is the same way with me,
IF I LOOK UNTO MYSELF AND A SELF-CREATED FAITH, I WILL BE LOST. WHEN FAITH INSTEAD LOOKS UNTO CHRIST ALONE, I WILL BE SAVED
The Devil stormed out of the room and said under his breath, “As Christ overcame me by the power of the Word, so this dying Christian has now overcome me. I cannot make him mine.” Tommy died a blessed death.
V
Tommy didn’t just look at Jesus as a moral example or cheerleader. Tommy saw Jesus as One Who died for him, shed His blood for him, on the cross, for the forgiveness of sins. Tommy saw a sacrificial Jesus, giving Tommy life, by his death and resurrection. When Tommy saw Jesus wounds he didn’t see only a miracle of resurrection, Tommy saw life and salvation in the bloody wounds of Christ.
Tommy also saw a Jesus who came to Him throughout His life. A Jesus who came to him and gave to him as a baby the gift of faith in Baptism, something that Tommy would cling to throughout his life. Tommy had faithful pastors who taught him about the creation of the world, Holy Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. All of these teachings and Sacraments Tommy clung to throughout his life, for in them was certainty. Tommy saw his way through a long life only in the reality of the promises God; the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
There are times when we too are guilty as we go through life without looking at Jesus. Sometimes we look to Jesus for a law here or a principle of living there. We want a Jesus who will give us some kind of moral guidance to straighten out our lives. But this is not the Jesus Who hung on a cross for us. It is not the Jesus who was raised from the dead for us a few weeks ago. The Jesus promised in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms is the one Who died for our sins. He is the same One who comes to be in our midst.
Sure, it is easy to think about Him and maybe even look at Him during Lent and Holy Week. What about coming to see Jesus during that long Pentecost season? After all, it is the same Jesus isn’t it? Or how about looking upon Christ just after the church service when we scream at the kids to settle down in the back seat of the car on the way home. What about looking to Jesus when we start the workweek. Looking to Jesus for the strength to forgive the annoying co-worker who Christ also died for.
Tommy’s life was not easy. For Tommy’s life included the early death of his only son. Tommy’s wife also died twenty years before him. Tommy, according to the world’s standards, had a lot to complain about. He could have rejected God. God never left Tommy and by the grace of God Tommy did not leave God. Even when on occasion Tommy doubted, there Tommy was in church in the sixth row on the aisle. Tommy believed that he could see Jesus in the places the Word of God told Tommy to look for Jesus.
So it is true that when Jesus tells the world to look at His wounds He is telling them to look upon Him with their eyes.
…Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
Listen to your confession in the words of the Nicene Creed each Sunday concerning the visible and invisible. We confess that we believe in both the things we see and the things that are unseen.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
It is with the eyes of faith, the new eyes of faith given in our Baptisms that we too can look upon Jesus and sing with Simeon:
Lord, now you let Your servant go in peace; Your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which You have prepared in the sight of every people: A light to reveal You to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Seminarian Jon Olsen
He is risen. He is risen indeed, alleluia!
I.
You have all heard that ‘seeing is believing’. Many of us don’t believe something unless we can experience it or see it personally. Like when a friend tells us something unbelievable. As when a favorite sports team comes back to win a game in the final seconds after having been down by three touchdowns at the two minute mark; we simply have to see the replays for ourselves.
In our text this morning, Jesus teaches just this, seeing and believing. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. (Luke 24:38-45)
II.
A first grade class was listening to the teacher who was attempting to explain evolution to the children.The teacher asked, “Tommy, do you see the tree outside?”
“Yes,” replied Tommy quizzically.
“Tommy, do you see the grass outside?”, asked the teacher.
“Of course,” said Tommy.
“Go outside and look up and see if you can see the sky,” said the teacher a bit more directly than before.
OK. Said Tommy with a huff. (He returned a few minutes later) “Yes, I saw the sky,” Tommy answered. Right upon the heals of Tommy’s answer the teacher asked him, “Did you see God?”
“No,” replied Tommy with scrunched up eyes.
“That's my point,” blasted the teacher, “We can't see God because he doesn't exist.”
Returning to the text; what about Jesus’ trying to get people to look at His hands and His feet? Why did he want them to look at the wounds? Was the reason so that by looking and seeing with their eyes that some would believe in what Christ did for them on the cross?
Jesus also performed many other visible miracles that people saw with their eyes. Whether it was Jesus turning water into wine, healing people, driving out spirits, cleansing a leper, raising people from the dead, walking on water, feeding 5000 people, healing blind people, reattaching an ear, producing an abundance of fish; nearly all of the miracles Jesus performed were seen by people. They were first hand witnesses to each miraculous event.
For us living 1,973 years after Christ showed His wounds, how do we see Jesus? If there is no Jesus to look upon physically how do we know, how do we believe with no real proof?
The people that did not believe in Christ were the same ones who were so adamant in their unbelief that they, …denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to them, and they killed the Author of life… (Acts 3:14-15)
There He was, the Author of life, God Himself, right in front of their faces, and they murdered Him.
There is another kind of author, the Father of lies and the author of sin… This author of lies was present at little Tommy’s bedside, who is now no longer little but is 80 years old and dying.
Speaking to Tommy the Devil said, “Giving up your reason is not only foolish, but I repeat it, it is childish.”
Tommy replied, “It is not childish, it is childlike. I am happy that I am a child of God.”
The Devil was bothered by such a quick reply and sought to get Tommy to doubt the Word of God. “None of this is important if you don’t have true faith. True faith depends upon many important circumstances having to do with yourself:
Do you have the correct attitude toward your faith?
Did you have the right feeling of responsibility toward your faith?
Now do you know that your faith is not a mere knowing about God, a mere historical faith?
If you can answer these questions, then I can help you...”
Breathing a bit more heavily, Tommy replied, “It would be wrong of me to worry about the nature of my faith. All my hope rests upon God, my Father.
Becoming more exasperated with each of Tommy’s answers the Devil replied, “What then has God done for you, as far as your faith is concerned?” Here the Devil thought he had Tommy for sure.
“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him…” The Devil tried to interrupt but was unable to do so until Tommy had finished Luther’s explanation of the Third Article of the Creed.
The Devil thought to himself, ‘If I could only make him look away from God, and look to himself and his faith instead’. So the Devil asked Tommy, “You ought to investigate your attitude, since this is really the matter of the issue. Maybe God has done what you say, but you must do your share and keep your attitude in order.”
Tommy breathed deeply and exhaled as he replied, “As I already, so many times, have said, it was the work of the Holy Ghost that I believe in Christ Jesus, my Lord.”
Growing more and more frustrated the Devil tried to get Tommy to doubt that he had done enough.
“Are you sure that you are doing right in forgetting yourself like this? It is your imagination that tells you that you have given yourself up completely in the grace of God. Perhaps you have given yourself up completely to your own imagination.”
Tommy replied a bit quieter and slower this time,
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15).
The person who looked upon himself and his wound died; the one who looked upon the serpent of brass lived. It is the same way with me,
IF I LOOK UNTO MYSELF AND A SELF-CREATED FAITH, I WILL BE LOST. WHEN FAITH INSTEAD LOOKS UNTO CHRIST ALONE, I WILL BE SAVED
The Devil stormed out of the room and said under his breath, “As Christ overcame me by the power of the Word, so this dying Christian has now overcome me. I cannot make him mine.” Tommy died a blessed death.
V
Tommy didn’t just look at Jesus as a moral example or cheerleader. Tommy saw Jesus as One Who died for him, shed His blood for him, on the cross, for the forgiveness of sins. Tommy saw a sacrificial Jesus, giving Tommy life, by his death and resurrection. When Tommy saw Jesus wounds he didn’t see only a miracle of resurrection, Tommy saw life and salvation in the bloody wounds of Christ.
Tommy also saw a Jesus who came to Him throughout His life. A Jesus who came to him and gave to him as a baby the gift of faith in Baptism, something that Tommy would cling to throughout his life. Tommy had faithful pastors who taught him about the creation of the world, Holy Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. All of these teachings and Sacraments Tommy clung to throughout his life, for in them was certainty. Tommy saw his way through a long life only in the reality of the promises God; the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
There are times when we too are guilty as we go through life without looking at Jesus. Sometimes we look to Jesus for a law here or a principle of living there. We want a Jesus who will give us some kind of moral guidance to straighten out our lives. But this is not the Jesus Who hung on a cross for us. It is not the Jesus who was raised from the dead for us a few weeks ago. The Jesus promised in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms is the one Who died for our sins. He is the same One who comes to be in our midst.
Sure, it is easy to think about Him and maybe even look at Him during Lent and Holy Week. What about coming to see Jesus during that long Pentecost season? After all, it is the same Jesus isn’t it? Or how about looking upon Christ just after the church service when we scream at the kids to settle down in the back seat of the car on the way home. What about looking to Jesus when we start the workweek. Looking to Jesus for the strength to forgive the annoying co-worker who Christ also died for.
Tommy’s life was not easy. For Tommy’s life included the early death of his only son. Tommy’s wife also died twenty years before him. Tommy, according to the world’s standards, had a lot to complain about. He could have rejected God. God never left Tommy and by the grace of God Tommy did not leave God. Even when on occasion Tommy doubted, there Tommy was in church in the sixth row on the aisle. Tommy believed that he could see Jesus in the places the Word of God told Tommy to look for Jesus.
So it is true that when Jesus tells the world to look at His wounds He is telling them to look upon Him with their eyes.
…Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
Listen to your confession in the words of the Nicene Creed each Sunday concerning the visible and invisible. We confess that we believe in both the things we see and the things that are unseen.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
It is with the eyes of faith, the new eyes of faith given in our Baptisms that we too can look upon Jesus and sing with Simeon:
Lord, now you let Your servant go in peace; Your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which You have prepared in the sight of every people: A light to reveal You to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
posted by Luther Memorial Chapel at
5/14/2006
