[Machine transcription]
Christ is risen. He has risen indeed. Alleluia.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Dear Saints of God, we have before us today this most beautiful text from John chapter 20,
which tells us both of the of the first Easter evening and then one week later,
both times Jesus appearing to his disciples as they were locked in the upper room.
And both incidences are particularly important.
and we’re going to have to, in fact, take up both of them in turn
because Jesus is giving two particular gifts in these texts.
First, Jesus gives to his church the gift of the absolution.
I remember, and I think I’ve told you this story before,
but I remember when I was coming into the Lutheran church
and we had been to the Lutheran service just a few times
and one of the things that troubled me most
was the pastor who stood up front, and after we had the confession of our sins,
he turned around and he told us, in the name of Jesus, I forgive you all of your
sins. And I would think to myself, how in the world can a man say that? So I asked
him, the pastor, one day we were leaving the church and I said, how in the world
can you forgive sins? I thought that only God forgave sins. And he was really
brilliant. He said, do you have your Bible there? And so I handed him my Bible. And
that’s one of the genius parts of it because I think if he would
have taken his Bible out and opened it I would have thought, oh this is some sort
of secret Lutheran Bible that has different verses. But he took my Bible
and he opened it up to John chapter 20 and he pointed to the text that we heard
this morning where Jesus says, when he breathed on the disciples and he says to
them, whoever sins you forgive, you forgive, they are forgiven. And
whoever sins you withhold or whoever sins you bind, they are bound. And he
said this is the gift that Jesus gives to us in the church, this gift of the
absolution. And it’s no accident that Jesus breathes on the disciples and gives
them the Holy Spirit after he is raised from the dead, because this gift of the
freedom from the forgiveness of our sins, this unloosing from the chains that bind
us, this is directly resulting from Jesus dying on the cross and being raised from
the dead. The freedom that Jesus has won from the bonds of death is the freedom
that he gives to us in the absolution. He was crucified for our transgressions and
And he was raised, says St. Paul, Romans chapter 4, he was raised for our justification.
Raised so that he would declare us to be innocent.
Raised to forgive us all of our sins.
Now how does this work?
I think the best picture of the absolution is the picture of the jail and the courthouse.
If you can imagine it like this, you’re in jail, over here on one side of the street
in jail, and across the way is the courthouse where your case is being heard.
And in the courthouse, the judge hears, or he in fact receives, someone paying the fine
for your sin, so your fine is paid, and so he pronounces you free, and the bailiff who
has the key to your cell comes across the street to the jail and opens the door and
says, I’m setting you free.
You can go.
This is the picture of the absolution.
Now, how would it be if you’re there in the prison and you say,
Hey, buddy, only the judge can set me free, not you. You’re just a bailiff.
Well, the bailiff has the authority to set you free from the judge.
That’s the glory of the absolution.
If the judge had not declared you to be innocent,
then anything that the bailiff did, he could still come and let you out,
but you would just be loose, you wouldn’t be free,
and they’d come and arrest you and throw you back in prison.
but the judge has declared you free, he’s declared you innocent, he’s declared you righteous and holy,
so that now the bailiff can set you free. God be praised.
So Jesus gives this gift to the church on Easter, the first Easter evening,
so that you and I would hear that word of the absolution,
and we would walk in freedom and joy and peace, knowing that all of our sins are forgiven.
In fact, Aaron can show you this, that the word in ASL for salvation is this.
It’s the bondage, the chains of death being broken, and now you’re set free.
And that happens when we hear the words,
I forgive you all your sins, in the name of Jesus.
That’s the first part.
But then the drama in the text starts to unfold
when we realize that when Jesus came and found his disciples all gathered together
and breathed on them and gave them the gift of the absolution,
that there were two disciples who weren’t there.
Judas, who had already killed himself,
but then another. Thomas. Thomas the bold. Thomas the one who when Jesus said let’s
go visit Lazarus and all the other disciples said Lazarus in Bethany? They
want to kill you over there and Thomas says let’s go with him if we die we die.
Thomas who on this night now think about this we don’t know where Thomas was we
We don’t know why he was out, but we do know why the other ten were gathered together,
were huddled in, were quarantining themselves, because it says they were afraid of the Jews.
In other words, the ten were gathered together because they were afraid.
Now it’s not that much of a stretch to think that Thomas then was the one who wasn’t afraid.
Thomas was the one who was not afraid to leave the room.
Thomas was the one who was not afraid to go out to look for news.
Thomas was the one who was not afraid to lose his life.
Thomas was the one who was acting boldly.
So how disappointing would it be to Thomas to come back
and to have the other ten saying,
Thomas, Jesus was just here.
You missed him.
Imagine Thomas thinking, Jesus, how could you do…
couldn’t you just wait for me to get back?
just a few minutes and I could see you too? Jesus, why did you come when I wasn’t?
I was out looking for you. These guys were hiding. And you come and you
appear to them and not to me? And they announce with this, you got to see
the scene in your imagination, they announce with this great kind of
excitement, Thomas, we saw the Lord and Thomas just… No, it can’t be. I don’t
believe you. I won’t believe it believe it until I myself see him. Until I put my
until I put my fingers in his hands and put my hand into his side I will not
believe.” Imagine how the faces of the other ten would have dropped and how
there would have been this now animosity. I think by the way there’s this urgency
both in the angels and in Jesus on Easter to get the disciples to Galilee.
The angels send the women, tell them to meet me in Galilee. Jesus says, I’ll meet
you in Galilee. So there’s this urgency that Jesus has to get the disciples away
from Jerusalem and back up north to Galilee, but we find them still in
Jerusalem even a week later, and why? Why hadn’t they gone to Galilee? Now this
is just my own guess reading the text, but I think it’s Thomas who’s holding
them back. He said to go to Galilee. Thomas says, you’re right. In fact, I have this picture
in my own imagination of the eleven in the upper room all week, and the ten are over
there on one side, and Thomas is over here by themselves. There’s ten believing, and
Thomas doubting. There’s ten trying to contain their excitement, and Thomas trying to contain
his anger. And they would have talked and argued and that would have simmered down and
now there’s nothing they could say. And this is the state that we find the disciples eight
days later, a week later, the Sunday after Easter, when Jesus again comes and appears
to them. The text goes like this. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and
Thomas was with them.
Although the doors were locked,
Jesus came and stood among them and said,
Peace be with you.
Then he said to Thomas,
Put your finger here
and see my hands.
Put out your hand
and place it in my side.
Do not disbelieve,
but believe.
And Thomas answers him,
My Lord and my God.
This is stunning.
In fact, this is one of
the most beautiful confessions
of faith in Jesus
and the divinity of Jesus.
And we see in this text
how much Jesus loved Thomas
to come back and to give him
the gift of seeing his hands
and his side.
But it’s not just the love
of Jesus for Thomas,
it’s the love of Jesus for you.
Because Jesus goes on to say,
Have you believed because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen
and yet have believed.
And this word brings both of these visits of Jesus
to the upper room on Easter and a week later.
It brings them together with this biblical truth
that Jesus, raised from the dead,
desires most of all to get the benefit of his death and his resurrection to you,
to your family, to your neighbor, to the world, but to you. There’s an old and
helpful theological distinction between between how the forgiveness of sins is
won and accomplished, on the one hand, and how the forgiveness of sins is delivered
on the other. Now this is really important for us to get our heads
around and our minds around, and it’s really quite wonderful when we do. Jesus
won the forgiveness on his cross, but he doesn’t deliver forgiveness on the cross.
He delivers forgiveness in his word, in his sacraments, in the forgiveness of
sins in the absolution. You see, the tomb of Jesus is empty. Still, it’s empty today,
but God’s Word never returns empty. And by His Word, He brings to you the victory
that He won over sin and death and the devil. In fact, by His Word, Jesus is
closer to you now, right now, at this moment, Jesus is closer to you than he
ever was to Thomas on the Sunday after the resurrection. His eternal life is
your eternal life, and you, by your baptism, by your faith in God’s Word, have
already been raised with Christ, Saint Paul says, and seated with him at the
right hand of God. Now it’s true that we do not yet see it. Remember how Jesus
says, blessed are those who believe and yet have not seen. We don’t see it yet. We
don’t see all the gifts that Jesus has given to us. We don’t see Jesus in his
glory, the glory of his graciousness. We for a while still walk by faith, not by
sight, but we have this blessing, this extra blessing that Thomas didn’t have.
The blessed are those who believe and yet have not seen. And soon, very soon, dear
saints, your walking by faith and not by sight will come to an end. We will one
day soon, see the glory of the resurrection that Jesus has for us. We
will stand before him, our own bodies raised from the dead, we will stand
before him glorified and radiating with his glory because Jesus has risen and
we will be raised with him. God be praised. Christ is risen. He has risen
indeed. Alleluia. Amen. And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard
your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
