1st Sunday after Easter

Text: John 20:19-31
Vicar Gary Schultz

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

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… “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you… Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”

We identify pretty well with Thomas. “Sure,” he thought, “Jesus came back here and talked with you. I’ll believe it when I see it.” We like to have proof. We want to see things before we make any conclusions. Thomas’ desire to have some proof sounds good to us. Maybe these other disciples are mistaken. How could a dead man come back and speak with us? If I actually seem Him, maybe then it will make sense.

Not so with matters of faith: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Heb 11:1). That’s why Jesus says: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Faith poses a problem for us, who through our human reason and senses like to figure things out on our own, to be in charge, to see first, and then believe.

Then we run into more problems. Our own human experience will not lead us to faith in Our Lord. How could God have created the earth and everything in it in six days? It takes months for a plant to produce fruit, years for a baby to become an adult, centuries for fossil fuels to develop. How could God become a man? If God is the creator, He can’t be a creature. He looks like a man. How is He God? How could Jesus, the Son of God, die? Jesus is the Son of the Eternal God. How could a man rise from the dead? It doesn’t make sense for us to believe Jesus raised people from the dead. It doesn’t make sense that Jesus Himself rose from the dead.

When we rely on our own experience, things don’t look too good. We see problems at school, problems at work, problems at home. We see marriages fall apart, hard-earned money get spent away, loved ones die, sicknesses come, injuries happen, wars and natural disasters occur, distress, heartache, pain, loneliness. What we see in creation honestly considered tells us there is a God, but what we experience in this dying world doesn’t point us to our loving Heavenly Father or to the gifts of His Son. Our human reason, our work at figuring things out, tells us that dead people stay dead. When the heart stops beating, when the lungs stop breathing, when organs stop working, it’s all over. Permanently. Death is the end.

Our experience leads only to doubt. Thomas’ experience lead him to doubt: It doesn’t make sense that a dead man would come back here and visit with the disciples. So Jesus comes back for him. Jesus doesn’t reject Thomas in his doubt, doesn’t push him away, but comforts him. He opens His arms to him, and invites Thomas to see the nail prints in His hands, the mark of the spear in His side, the wounds that brought forgiveness, wholeness, and life.

Thomas’ faith was strengthened by the presence of Our Lord, allowing him to confess: “My Lord and my God!” In the same way, faith is created and strengthened in us by the presence of Christ as He comes to us. That’s why we pray that the continued celebration of Our Lord’s resurrection would lead us by grace to confess in our life and conversation that Jesus is Lord and God (Collect).

When Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, He didn’t just leave us alone on the earth. He isn’t sitting carelessly in heaven watching from a distance disconnectedly. He intercedes for us before the Father in heaven and comes to us here on earth.

Jesus’ resurrection came as a complete surprise to everyone. He had told about it before His death. But Thomas’ doubt sums up how people were thinking until they saw the Risen Christ. The Resurrection changes everything as it begins the new creation and brings life out of death. What great things will Jesus do in this new creation? Will He stop wars, end hunger, and heal bodily diseases and afflictions?

See how Jesus brings peace. See how He comforts sadness and gives hope in the midst of hardship. See what is the substance of the new creation. Jesus’ words “Peace be with you” are connected with the forgiveness of sins – your sins! Absolution, the forgiveness of sins, is the substance of Jesus’ word of peace. Absolution is the life-giving, recreating gift that Christ gives to His Church immediately after His Resurrection. Jesus, in His new creation, is concerned chiefly with your forgiveness.

In Baptism, this forgiveness is first placed upon you in the washing of rebirth. In the Holy Supper, forgiveness is given through Jesus’ body and blood. And in Absolution, we receive forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven. This is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.

Private Absolution is another precious gift where Our Lord pours out His rich grace and mercy to you – individually. When Jesus appears to His disciples, He twice shows them His hands and says, “Peace be with you.” His hands accompany the blessing, demonstrating and showing the loving work He has done. So, too, also in Private Absolution, the pastor lays hands on the penitent and says, “I forgive you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

New life is ours as the keys of the kingdom of heaven open to us the gates of righteousness, a seat in heaven with our heavenly Father. Thomas was comforted by the hands of Christ at his time of doubt. John was in great terror when he saw the voice speaking to him in his vision of heaven and is likewise comforted by the hands of Christ, as he testifies: He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Christ has authority through the keys to open heaven through forgiveness, and authority through the keys over Death and Hades.

We see through Thomas the doubt in faith that is part of our human nature. We, like Thomas, aren’t quick to trust in our Lord’s resurrection on our own. We aren’t quick to believe in its life-changing power. We see in Our Lord the signs of His love – the wounds in his hands and side, a reminder of the cross and the grave that He endured for us. We have in our Lord new life and victory over the grave that was won by His triumph over death. We have these things written so 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.